On Track to Graduate
If you come on this side,” says Keyshaun Mountain Horse, “one of our students drew a design to intimidate our opponents.” The profile of a skull wearing a feather headdress is drawn in black felt [...]
By Doug Horner
K-12
K-12
Artist in the Classroom
Most jobs ask you to do practically the same thing every day, but do it more efficiently, make it prettier, survive the mundane. Most jobs do not ask you: If you could change the world, what [...]
Private Schools
Should Alberta—or any other province—provide funding for private schools? A discussion of this question can quickly become heated. Some people frame the issue as being about parental rights or [...]
By David King
Chilling Effect
I was in my classroom marking essays in October 2010 when the phone rang. The guidance counsellor told me she had two very upset parents in her office. Apparently, their daughters had seen a film [...]
By Dale Wallace
Going Public
The Morinville revolt began on March 1, 2010, at Donna Hunter’s kitchen table. The mother of three was looking through school registration materials for her oldest daughter, Scarlett, who would [...]
Testing, Testing
In March, a delegation of 13 Finnish high school principals and ministry officials visited high schools in the Crowsnest Pass, Calgary, Edmonton and Grande Prairie. While in Alberta, they joined [...]
School Principles
These days, I enjoy being a citizen. But for 29 years I was a citizen politician, managing campaigns, working as the research assistant to the leader of the opposition, serving as a government [...]
By David King
On the Block
The stands in the gym at Sherwood Park’s Salisbury Composite High School are packed. Parents, students and fans wave signs urging their teams to give their all for that one last victory. This [...]
Books or Band?
Bart Heine, a Grade 8 and 9 English, drama and art teacher at F.P. Walshe school in Fort Macleod, is feeling the pinch. His Grade 9 drama class has an unworkable 35 students, while the senior [...]
By Karen Virag
MOST READ
MOST READ
Listening to Stones
It is a brilliant way to learn. Students of Socrates used to gather around the great man and exchange heady ideas that arose out of provocative questions—what we know now as the Socratic dialogue method of education. You might think the Greek philosopher and his followers hung out in academic ...
The Plans to Strip-Mine Coal in the Mountains
It looks like spectacular wild country, but some see it more as a big money sandwich.
The top layer of that sandwich is comprised of alpine grasses, forget-me-nots and stonecrop, glacier lilies and ancient, brave pines whose branches have been gnarled and weathered by centuries of wind. In summer, solitaires and ...
Who’s Keeping Watch?
As a journalist, covering Alberta's United Conservative Party government is a bit like trying to jump aboard a speeding locomotive. So much weight is moving at such great velocity that it’s difficult, if not impossible, to keep up.
Once upon a time, Alberta governments weren’t so purposeful or so quick—or, if ...