Recently the Vancouver School Board mandated that a brand-new string of pronouns in Vancouver public schools: “xe, xem, and xyr" be used instead of “he/she, him/her, and his/hers” aimed at better accommodating transgender students in schools
Do ‘the baby’ and ‘the child’ stay grammatically an ‘it’? (I haven’t visited the site yet, so my question may well be answered there!)
Of course this is ridiculous. The terms can’t even be pronounced.
Some of the comments to the article convey the flavour of the debate. See below.
I once participated on email forum of English language teachers. The discussion focused far more on how to change society, “higher order thinking” and “critical thinking” (largely code terms for agreeing with the common social activist agenda) , than on how to teach English. I see a decline in the quality of education in our public school system from generation to generation (my sons and grandchildren) . Now, at exam time, here in Vancouver, the teachers are on strike.
The government should fund public education, and private education entrepreneurs should be allowed to provide the teaching services in competition with each other. We should get rid of the teaching bureaucracy and related entrenched interests including the teachers union. The people who suffer are the vast majority of kids, who get a mediocre education and are largely bored at school, when they should be inspired to learn and discover.
from comments section
"Jet Gorgon
Sheer stupidity. Focus on ABCs, teaching kids skills to help them get jobs. I am sick of the focus on social justice. No wonder parents are yanking their kids out of public schools and into private or home schooling.
Reply · Like · 4 · Follow Post · 21 hours ago
Kent Paul Dolan · Old Dominion University
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“I am sick of the focus on social justice.”
Then you must just love the mess in Iraq to death, since a failure of the national government to focus on social justice among the Kurds and the two branches of Islam there led in 30 short months from the time the US was forced to withdraw by a refusal of the Iraqi government to put a Status of Forces Agreement in place, to the current bloodbath.
Lots of luck surviving in the kind of world you perceive as ideal for you."
@Steve: There can’t be any case of a real and prolific school system in a country like Iraq which is being ruled by a group of Shia that only came in power to steal and make the gap between the Muslims and the Shia even greater.
Since with the American bombings and all the destruction they did , there has been barely any attempt at rebuilding the country’s infrastructure . Can anyone imagine living in a country like Iraq with only 2 hours of electricity per day?
And also how can any normal child continue or start their studies with the current status quo ?
We should also bare in mind the latest developments which are taking place now. Though Iran said that the United States should be seen as their enemy it would seem that they teamed up to fight against Daash .
MADARA, let me assure you that I have no interest in the differences between Shia and Sunni.
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