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See our file on Gun Control

Monday 27 March 2000 Teachers are key element: science kids EBBIE PARKES ..Enthusiastic science teachers can make all the difference to whether a child ends up loving science, students exhibiting at the Montreal Regional Science Fair said.

Social programs need to be less costly, more effective: John Ralston Saul Speech at ROM: Societies are destroyed by 'their self-inflicted wounds,' philosopher says plus a lot more on our new page. Rex

Monday, March 27, 2000 Strike shuts down B.C. schools

THE INVITATION

Wednesday Night Salon # 942

The cost of school

Greetings and Happy Spring!

Saturday 4 March 2000The cola wars are just a taste of what'll be learned at school JOSH FREED [please send the brats home.. they can't aford school so let some who can pay DTN]

Wednesday, March 22, 2000
Hi David & Diana,

Only 3 more weeks of school and I can come back to Wednesday night!

About the education topic, it's just typical that this would come up when I can't come over there to chip in my 2 cents. Well it's longer than 2 cents worth, but at least this way I can rattle on uninterrupted. :)

June Riley

In theory, a university student should consider him or herself as a scholar, willing to read for a degree program fairly independently, and troubling a professor with questions on original and interesting points of theory or paper supervision. Competence in literacy and a willingness to do the difficult should be a foregone conclusion. There should be an intellectual atmosphere, adequate books and computers, and some respect for the process of learning.

In reality, a university education has become a consumer product which we are selling at bargain basement prices to the masses. This has not been helped by the funding cuts, the tuition freeze and the low Canadian dollar which limits our ability to attract quality professors to the classroom. In my opinion, the tuition freeze has been the most destructive by far.

Under these circumstances, academic standards can be maintained in programs leading to a definable career and where entrance requirements can be raised a slight notch because the students are more goal oriented. In other areas there is a serious "free rider" problem - where large numbers of entering students take their educational opportunities very much for granted and behave accordingly - often failing any course that requires more serious effort.

John Ciaccia click to play

The failure rate compounds the funding problem because Universities are rewarded by the Ministry of Education for getting students through their degrees in a timely manner. A larger number of students increases tuition revenues, but cost more if larger numbers fail. So grade inflation and lower academic standads are starting to set in. It was just a question of time.

There are only a couple of options for universities whOWN to maintain a breadth of programs.

First, larger class sizes, including the very cheap option of offering "internet" courses. This is alright in principle in light weight elective courses, but very destructive in core theory courses. If I was a student today and I was offered the choice between a cheap internet degree or going to trade school - I would have more confidence in the trade school. At least there I would get hands-on training. But this hasn't arrived yet.

At Concordia, the only internet course I know of is "Personal Finance" in the Commerce Faculty. It is unlikely that Concordia's Commerce Faculty would put a whole degree program on the web since they have their "accreditation" which is an internationally recognized adherence to standards on class size, teaching quality, etc.

However, other Faculties, especially Arts and Science, may very well contemplate more internet and "video" courses. A saving grace, which is not broadly known even by teachers, is that professors do not have to submit to it. A lecture is technically covered under copyright protection as a performance. Unless teachers give away their rights by allowing themselves to be video taped, it may be a long time before degrees will be gotten this way at a major univeristy.

The ideal class size is 20 students, but I would settle for 40. It's not just that I'm there to illuminate the void and answer questions, there is a crucial dynamic of the students interacting with each other.

The second route to getting some funds is to increase the enrollment of foreign students who pay large tuitions. Such students used to be given TAs (teaching assistant jobs) while they did their thesis work. But now they are now broadly subsidized by teaching contracts while they are still taking courses. What's worse, the courses they get to teach are often the core undergraduate theory courses with the class sizes of 100 or 200 students (nobody else wants the correcting or the harder work). But these students have less time, less experience and some of them can barely speak English. It's a mess.

We throw students to the wind in North America. We tell them they can do whatever they feel like and somehow they will come out of university with jobs and a future. It's a lie. Right now we are recycling a lot of students in and out of social sciences at great cost not just to the Universities but to the lives of the students.

In the absence of logic at the Ministry of Education (don't get me started), a lot could be accomplished just by allowing tuitions to rise to something like a reasonable level - say 3 or 4 times what they are now. Students would be more serious at all levels of their studies (right back to high school) and I believe they would choose what skills they need and what studies they want to pursue a lot more carefully. Just doing that would be a big improvement. I believe the savings from this effect alone would be impressive.

As for McGill, specifically, yes I believe it is deteriorating at least in my field. McGill has plunged their standards on introductory economics courses to little more than what most Montreal students cover in high school. It's far worse than Concordia's actions which were similar last year, and to my personal knowledge a number of Commerce students have left McGill for Concordia over the class size issue alone.

As for the research/teaching debate I agree with today's article in the Gazette. University professors have to do research and sometimes teaching suffers a bit, but that's part of it. Students don't have much to complain about, believe me. They expect so much spoon feeding, right up to the MBA level, it would shock you.

Cheers and see you soon! June

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A guest We Would Welcome is John Ralston Saul on any subject especialy schools But instead do see our new page

Social programs need to be less costly, more effective: John Ralston Saul Speech at ROM: Societies are destroyed by 'their self-inflicted wounds,' philosopher says plus a lot more on our new page. Rex

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Wednesday, March 22, 2000
Dear D&D,

Any reactions to the Lafferty libel ruling?....

Sort of sends chills up my spine ... if we cannot abuse and offend our politicians (at least verbally), where is democracy? They can abuse us with taxes, abuse us with lies, scandals and theft of public assets and I suppose worst of all they can abuse us with force if necessary.

Under the old common law, in order to prove libel you must prove you were damaged. ...I see no great suffering onMr. Bouchard or Herr Parizeau's part?...

A slow slippery slide here...one more step towards a dictatorship. Every journalist is on notice now to shut up or face suit...My God if they read what I've written about them, I face ruin.

Another wonderous Quebec judicial judgment. Another nail in freedom of speech and expression.

Lafferty must win on appeal. If the courts decide against him, it is time to leave...

I had a great time in Guatemala...must tell you about it.

Chris.

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Thursday 23 March 2000 Fast-track clinic probed Ottawa and Quebec open separate investigations into a private medical facility that offers patients no-wait surgery - in return for an illegal $400-an-hour operating-room fee. SEAN GORDON AND DAVID GAMBLE

Try a small test also try

A movie of the Cirque du Soleil you select; all 6 clips are fun.

See our file on Gun Control David and Diana Nicholson
Harry Mayerovitch (90 in April) will have an exhibition in our new Vic Hall Gallery April 12 to May 24. Described by Mayor Peter F. Trent as a true Renaissance man, Harry is an accomplished arvhitect, town planner, author, painter, photo expert, book illustrator, poster creator (WW II), Sculptor and cartoonist

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THE SALON

Wednesday Night Salon # 942

22 March 2000

New guest, Stefan Borenstein was a welcome addition - a dental technologist and a sculptor (in ceramic,of course), Stefan has lectured and taught around the world and brings to the table a highly international viewpoint, combined with an artist's sensitivity.

Note to the legions of Harry Mayerovitch Artist fans - not only does Harry turn 90 on the 16th of April, but a restrospective exhibition of Harry's work will be held at Victoria Hall starting April 12th and a second one opens at the Maison de la culture on Côte des Neiges on May 4th.

Editor's Note: We are happy to have our dear friend and Wednesday Night Scribe, Herb Bercovitz, back from Florida, looking fit and handsome after three weeks in the sun. We would also like to thank Gerald Ratzer for his excellent efforts during Herb's absence.

THE DISCUSSION

As so often happens on Wednesday Nights, the agenda was revised because an expert appeared unexpectedly. With the arrival of Marika Pruska Carroll, the principle subject immediately became the Russian presidential election.

RUSSIA

Enjoying forty-eight percent popular support, there is little doubt that Vladimir Putin will win the presidency, probably in the first round. Only the future of Russia, both in domestic policies and in its relationship to the West seems vague to most, but not to the Wednesday night experts, who have always enjoyed an excellent record in the area of prognostication.

Neither a communist, a democrat nor a reformer, Putin is a pragmatist and a good administrator. Is he a modern Stalin? He may well be very good for Russia, especially because of his strong anti-corruption stand. The consummate politician, Putin is very similar to the Gorbachev of the late eighties, and offers something for everyone including Parliament, the army and the population with his promise of law and order, a stronger central government and the successful completion of the Chechen war. The sole unknown is whether he will control or be controlled by the oligarchs. As for the future, Putin has strong organizational abilities and will be able to exploit and continue to develop the improving Russian economy which is basically very powerful, largely oil and metal based. (including, we learned, 90% of the world's supply of Palladium, a highly conductive alloy used in catalytic converters). With rising world commodity prices, a declining inflation rate and the recovery of the Asian economy, Russia is continuing to enjoy a trade surplus (leading the IMF to suspend credit to aid Russia). There is continuing corruption, especially in the housing market, but this will not change a brightening economic future.

The new President will face challenges, however, not the least of which are the absence of work ethic, the extremely low salaries and the pervasive presence of the Russian mafia (possibly ex-KGB).

CHECHNYA

The Chechens are Russian neither in terms of language nor religion or culture. Chechnya is important to Russia because of its strategic location in the transportation of oil. After the completion of the Caspian Sea pipeline, the scenario will change; after the presidential election, Chechnya will become irrelevant as a popular rallying point, and Russia may even decide to let it go its own way at that point. Whatever the eventual outcome, we must understand that there will always be hatred on both sides and unless the Russians decide to let Chechnya go, there will always be war.

EDUCATION AND THE INTERNET

Marilyn Cox song

There are concerns even among those working in the fields of Computer Science and Education, about the apparent attempt to supplant traditional teaching methods by having the "best and finest" teachers of the world educate via the Internet. The consensus among Wednesday Nighters is that although there is a place for this method of teaching, in most instances it cannot be a substitute for human contact and interaction. Humans too, use multiple senses to learn.

Our future demands that we invest more in our students, but the cost is already high. Ten billion of the forty-five billion dollar Québec budget is spent on education. The Québec government is beginning to monitor performance, but there is a need for involvement at the level of Parent Committees to ensure that the very best quality of education is delivered at a price that Quebeckers can afford.
(Editor's note: On this topic, please see the articulate commentary from Professor/Dr. June Riley who was unable to be present as she is teaching on Wednesday nights.)

THE QUEBEC LIBERALS AND JEAN CHAREST

Jacques Clément

It has been widely accepted recently, that the Parti Québecois would defeat themselves at the next provincial election. Today it doesn't seem that certain. Jean Charest has failed to capture the imagination of the press. He appears to be viewed by many Quebeckers, by the Québec press and even by some members of his own party as having never really left Ottawa. Although he has worked hard, making many personal appearances across the province and concentrating on swing ridings, he has made little impact on the press either on the road or in the National Assembly. If the Liberals hope to win the next election, they must not compete with The P.Q. and A.D.Q, for the soft nationalist vote and they must either seduce the fifth estate or find a new leader.

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QUOTES OF THE EVENING

• On Vladimir Putin: "I have a feeling we are dealing with a pragmatist and not an idealogue."
• "Some things are better done by the Internet alone, repeated, other things are better learned by interaction."
• "We have to reconstruct our pedagogical system, but the net is not the answer."
• "The (Québec Liberal Party) has the federalists, but is also trying to get the soft nationalists. Perhaps it is time to change the approach, because the world has changed, Canada has changed and it's time for the Liberal Party to change. As long as they are competing with the ADQ and PQ for the soft nationalist (vote), they have a tough time."
• "I am tired of Jean Charest acting like a second class citizen. He is not looking like the leader of the opposition."

Note: from Herb Bercovitz
Wednesday night market guru, Ron Meisels, has scored again. In 1994, he was the first to state the now familiar "10,000 in 2000". Asked if this applied to both the Dow and the TSE, he replied in the affirmative. Throughout the past several years amid dire predictions of burst bubbles, our guru remained confident. Recent events have proven his long-term prediction accurate. This of course, is not unusual. [Note in Ron's Birth Day card ". I have just published a follow-up to my "10,000 in 2000". The report is called "What comes after 10,000 in 2000?" We will get when he returns from Toronto? DTN]

David presented Rex Murphy on "Who wants to be a millionaire". It was vintage Rex Murphy, clever, articulate and funny. For many, the weekly Rex Murphy clip is as good as "Yes, Minister".

Notes by Herb Bercovitz
Edited by Diana Thébaud Nicholson

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Tuesday, March 28, 2000
Hi David & Diana,

Read how the internet will be the agent of tectonic shifts in the global economy.

Just came across the massive (343-page) e-volve report put out by Bear Stearns (www.bearstearns.com) and recommend it highly for examples of how the e-conomy is transforming everything else. If you're an info junkie like me, here's a prime lode of your drug of choice.

Cheers, Guy Stanley

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