Today's Comment

Here is a link to the editorial that this comment was submitted to.

So what you are saying, oh nameless one, is that a chemical addiction is the only real addiction? And that people who resort to other non-substance based highs, such as gambling, adultery, binge eating and the like are not addicts but ordinary "self-indulgent" people who make excuses for themselves based on the diagnosis of overly liberal psychologists?

I understand your point that the meaning of the word "addiction" has been stretched, but you take it way too far. Unfortunately the English language has a way of adapting a lot of words whose definitions some might wish were more succinct, but you have lost your way in trying to rein this one in.

Give your head a shake sir (or madam). It doesn't matter how we get there, if we are endangering ourselves and our families because of addiction, habituation or whatever you want to call it, we have a mental health issue. Calling sick people self-indulgent and diminishing their disease does nothing but create a world where sick people refuse to seek help, or worse still, are not offered it. Do you want to tell a 14 year old girl that her anorexia is self-indulgent and that she should just get over herself?

Wake-up bub.

Subsidizing dual-flushers is wasteful and pointless

RE: City may credit toilet replacement (Sept. 18).

Offering people rebates to people to junk perfectly good toilets in favour of dual-flushers is wasteful and unnecessary. There are already effective strategies that can greatly reduce water consumption at no cost to consumers and taxpayers.

Two obvious tactics come to mind: 1) place a brick or two in your tank so you are flushing with less water; 2) flush your urine less often.

A public education campaign would be a better way for the city to promote conservation without putting a greater burden on landfills and the pocket-book.

Rebuttal to an Editorial

Re: Do the Math

To argue that all one needs from school is the three "Rs" is disingenuous to the max, and I can only hope that it was meant ironically. People who have "mastered" the three "Rs" are then placed in a world where agendas (ex. marketing) underlie every bit of literature they read and every bit of math that they are presented with (ex. subprime loans). They need to write intelligently, not just to score the job at the local Payless that will feed and clothe them until retirement, but to be capable of organizing and expressing their thoughts.

Although it is certainly true that we don't all need university educations it is equally true that we do need to have an ability to understand context, as well as content, and that this is something that most people cannot grasp without some form of advanced education.

The point of education, at least in Canada, is not just to produce smart shoe salesmen but to nurture citizens so they are capable of participating in our robust democracy. Our national life is full choices and challenges that only an educated body politic is adequately equipped to address.

Another comment to the Freep: Education must address the roots of failure

A new comment, and a link to the article it refers to:

The problem is not "social promotion," but a one-size-fits-all solution to education. We assume that children of a certain age should be able to perform at a certain academic level without taking into account the vast differences children experience in development and environment.

Social promotion is an attempt to rectify this by hoping that children will eventually catch-up developmentally to their peers. It is a deeply flawed ideolgy, but so is the one that states that failing kids and making them do the same coursework over again will be beneficial (because it punishes children for something they often have very little control over.)

A better strategy would be to intervene in a "failing" child's schooling before s/he is so far behind that failure is inevitable. Counselling, one-on-one time with educators and redesign of course material so it better reflects the learning styles of children are what is required, not a complete "do-over" of teaching the material in the same ineffective fashion.