Archives for June 2012

A physics teacher in Edmonton has been removed from his classroom for having the guts to insist that his students’ actions have consequences. A year and a half ago, his school adopted a policy forbidding teachers from giving students a grade of zero on work they don’t turn in. He refused to comply — and he’s been suspended for standing up for academic integrity.

Lynden Dorval comes across as a teacher who simply wants to do what’s right for his students. (See video from Canada’s CBC below.) He couldn’t comply with a policy that gave students credit for things they didn’t even attempt to do. He’s appealing the decision, but says it’s the right thing even if it permanently costs him his job.

A new principal at Ross Sheppard High School brought the new policy last year. It’s the same policy in place at various other local schools. In fact, it’s been the policy at Edmonton junior high schools for decades, but it’s now spreading to high schools.

The idea is that assignments that aren’t turned in and tests that aren’t taken are simply behavioral issues, so they shouldn’t count against a student’s academic evaluation. Teachers are told to ignore any work not turned in and simply give grades based on the work that was completed.

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In 2009, three baby girls were among the victims of a missile attack launched on their village in Pakistan. They were badly burned and someone placed the three into a trash bin to die. A volunteer doctor from House of Charity found them and tried to save the little girls. Two of them died, but one of them, Shakira, lived. Barely.

Later the same year, Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. What will Shakira think when she grows up and discovers that the man who was inexplicably lauded for being a peacemaker was also the man who unleashed terror on her and her village?

How can we live in a world insane enough to give a peace prize to the man who gives orders for missiles to destroy random sections of remote villages just because someone suspects a U.S. enemy might be there?

It was under George W. Bush that the drone program was launched, but it was under Obama that it was greatly expanded. The administration has recently admitted that U.S. policy basically says that if you’re in the vicinity of a terrorist, you must be a terrorist. Can you imagine if police used that standard for criminal cases here? If a criminal suspect is said to be in an office building, they’d just blow up the office building.

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I was in the checkout line at Target last week when I heard someone call my name.

“David? David McElroy?”

I turned and looked at the man calling my name as though he knew me. The voice was slightly familiar, but I’d never seen this man before. He was a stranger.

Or so I thought until he told me his name. It was someone I’d met in business through a mutual friend. We were friendly and had done a little business together, but we hadn’t ever really been close. Still, the man I saw in front of me wasn’t the man I’d known. This was a new man.

It’d been a couple of years since I’d seen Paul. (That’s not his real name, but it’s what I’m going to call him here.) The guy I knew was a lot heavier. The big weight change was the most obvious difference. But there was something more than that. I couldn’t put my finger on it.

We ended up standing there talking for nearly two hours. He told me all about the changes that had taken place in his life. He seemed eager to tell how the “new” Paul had come about.

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