Re; the Olympics

[Lion Guy]

KIA....don't let 'em drag you down. Hold your ground man and fight the good fight!!

And, then, at the end of the day, since I work for the City and very closely with VANOC I will make sure you get a couple of beauty seats for the opening ceremonies.

Cheers.

LG

[CB123]

I will make sure you get a couple of beauty seats for the opening ceremonies.

lol what about all of us that are glad the olympics are coming

[Toppy Vann]

You never answered my question: How do YOU propose to get those still in high school to fill the staffing shortages in healthcare, education and social services?

Tax increases?

For the record, I'm fully aware any thoughts that I express may be supporting your cause, whatever it is.

My point is: You need to give these high schoolers a reason to choose healthcare, education and social services. To some, 16 yrs of school, the last 4 of which they, or their parents have to fund, is enough.

Having come from a family of teachers (mother, aunts, cousins and so on), I've seen and heard about the stresses a teacher goes through. I can tell you that those programs (special needs assistants, ESL, LAC and so on) that some may consider to be not necessary, is a load of crap. My mother, in her final years of teaching, had a special needs student in her class each year. There were times when she had no other help in the room, and that SN student was disruptive. Tell me, how does that constant disruption in the classroom help the other 25-30 students in the room read at grade level, when half of them got pushed through the previous grade with marginal reading skills because of a different special needs student the previous year doing the same thing?

I'm all for equal opportunties, both within and independent of the classroom, but there has to be a line.

How do you promote the speaking of English, when they're all speaking Cantonese, Mandarin, or Tagalog at home and in class as well, because their parents weren't born here?

If you're the only caucasian in your classroom/workplace/social group, and every other individual speaks a foreign language first, learning only enough English to get them through the day, how the hell are you supposed to become friends with them, if they don't understand what the hell you're trying to say to them?

You can't force anyone to do anything they don't want to do.

Without knowing what the debate here is about or wanting to stir the pot, I just can't resist commenting on the above post.

This guy is spot on with his comments on the numbers of special needs kids in classrooms, not to mention kids really messed up behaviorially due to home situations. This is in many ways a much more complex world in schools than it was when I was a kid.

School is where school age kids go despite a host of special needs and issues and this is a huge challenge to resource and fund these things.

I am only surprised by the comment that his mom had only ONE special needs kid. I have teacher friends and am shocked by how deep the nature of the social issues that many of their students have and of course these become classroom problems.

This is a whole new world.

[Shi Zi Mi]

IMHO, these issues existed 40 years ago.........they just weren't recognized/acknowledged.

Case in point, one kid in my grade 3 class used to make regular visits out to the hall and the strap from our teacher......why?.....because he never did his homework......why?.........because he was mostly deaf and didn't hear the assignments.

All these conditions existed back then.......they just didn't have fancy names and weren't treated as medical conditions.......just bad behaviour and the resulting punishment.

[KnowItAll]

You never answered my question: How do YOU propose to get those still in high school to fill the staffing shortages in healthcare, education and social services?

Tax increases?

I didnt answer your question because it really is a side issue. I have said as part of my rant, that education along with health and social services is where the money that is currently going to Olympics related projects should be going to. Not to mention other money already spent that was taken away and\or kept away from the 3 more important areas. For any more answer than that, you should start a new topic.

For the record, I'm fully aware any thoughts that I express may be supporting your cause, whatever it is.

For the record, I didnt use the word "cause".

My point is: You need to give these high schoolers a reason to choose healthcare, education and social services. To some, 16 yrs of school, the last 4 of which they, or their parents have to fund, is enough.

I agree

Having come from a family of teachers (mother, aunts, cousins and so on), I've seen and heard about the stresses a teacher goes through. I can tell you that those programs (special needs assistants, ESL, LAC and so on) that some may consider to be not necessary, is a load of crap. My mother, in her final years of teaching, had a special needs student in her class each year. There were times when she had no other help in the room, and that SN student was disruptive. Tell me, how does that constant disruption in the classroom help the other 25-30 students in the room read at grade level, when half of them got pushed through the previous grade with marginal reading skills because of a different special needs student the previous year doing the same thing?

I'm all for equal opportunties, both within and independent of the classroom, but there has to be a line.

How do you promote the speaking of English, when they're all speaking Cantonese, Mandarin, or Tagalog at home and in class as well, because their parents weren't born here?

If you're the only caucasian in your classroom/workplace/social group, and every other individual speaks a foreign language first, learning only enough English to get them through the day, how the hell are you supposed to become friends with them, if they don't understand what the hell you're trying to say to them?

You can't force anyone to do anything they don't want to do.

I don't disagree with any of this, but I also dont understand what it has to do with anything I have said in this thread??

[KnowItAll]

KIA....don't let 'em drag you down. Hold your ground man and fight the good fight!!

And, then, at the end of the day, since I work for the City and very closely with VANOC I will make sure you get a couple of beauty seats for the opening ceremonies.

Cheers.

LG

Its enough for me to get out to the occasional football game, but if you giving tickets away, I would rather they be for the Lions

Work closely with VANOC you say...my sympathies to you

[TheZeppo]

IMHO, these issues existed 40 years ago.........they just weren't recognized/acknowledged.


All these conditions existed back then.......they just didn't have fancy names and weren't treated as medical conditions.......just bad behaviour and the resulting punishment.

You are wrong.

Up until very recently, most children with identified special needs ( intellectual disabilities, autism, physical disabilities, severe behavior
issues) were not integrated into regular classrooms. Instead they
were placed in special programs with other children like them.
Your point holds true for learning disabled children, who were often
not identified as such, but instead were often viewed by teachers
as being lazy or stupid. Hence the punishment that you speak of.
I'm not sure whether you think punishing special needs children
who learn differently was a good thing or a bad thing. But I can assure
you as an educator with 20 years experience working with special needs
students, that the way such children were often treated in "the good
old days" was truly appalling. Nowadays, every student, even those
with special educational, behavioral, or medical/physcal needs, are
entitled by law to an appropriate education in their neighborhood public
school. It is the responsiblity of each school district to provide appropriate educational programs and support for such children. If this is not happening, it is the fault of the adults, not the children.

[Canuck_4_Life]

Excessive pissing and moaning about whatever your problem is, will not change the main fact:
The Olympics are coming and there's not a danged thing you can do about it.

[KnowItAll]

Excessive pissing and moaning about whatever your problem is, will not change the main fact:
The Olympics are coming and there's not a danged thing you can do about it.

actually, there is a lot one can do about it, but, since I have kids, I am not willing to go that far

[Tighthead]

Am I the only nutbar who thinks that the money, if not required for general government expenditures education/health/emergency services etc, should be returned to its rightful owners to spend as they see fit?

[TheLionKing]

Governments regardless of their political stripes are all thieves. They'll fatten the wallets of big corporation, friends and unions at taxpayers expense.

[Lion Guy]

Governments regardless of their political stripes are all thieves. They'll fatten the wallets of big corporation, friends and unions at taxpayers expense.

They always have, and they always will.....

[Shi Zi Mi]

IMHO, these issues existed 40 years ago.........they just weren't recognized/acknowledged.


All these conditions existed back then.......they just didn't have fancy names and weren't treated as medical conditions.......just bad behaviour and the resulting punishment.

You are wrong.

Up until very recently, most children with identified special needs ( intellectual disabilities, autism, physical disabilities, severe behavior
issues) were not integrated into regular classrooms. Instead they
were placed in special programs with other children like them.
Your point holds true for learning disabled children, who were often
not identified as such, but instead were often viewed by teachers
as being lazy or stupid. Hence the punishment that you speak of.
I'm not sure whether you think punishing special needs children
who learn differently was a good thing or a bad thing. But I can assure
you as an educator with 20 years experience working with special needs
students, that the way such children were often treated in "the good
old days" was truly appalling. Nowadays, every student, even those
with special educational, behavioral, or medical/physcal needs, are
entitled by law to an appropriate education in their neighborhood public
school. It is the responsiblity of each school district to provide appropriate educational programs and support for such children. If this is not happening, it is the fault of the adults, not the children.

Well.....you seem to agree with what I'm saying, so, what part of what I said was wrong?

The point I was trying to make was that all the "fancy named" conditions of today existed 40 years ago.

They just weren't recognized as medical issues but rather behavioural issues or "retarded". If deemed "behavioural".....it evoked punishment (usually physical).......if deemed "retarded" it evoked removing the individual from society and placing in "homes".

[Sir Purrcival]

Am I the only nutbar who thinks that the money, if not required for general government expenditures education/health/emergency services etc, should be returned to its rightful owners to spend as they see fit?

Yep! (tongue firmly in cheek).

By the time you factor in the budgets for the Ministries above and others you don't mention, do you really think there is a lot left to give back?

The Olympics, love em or hate em have been the catalyst for a lot of over due projects. Squamish Highway, transit. etc. They will also leave behind a lot of facilities that will be used by the public and by training athletes. Those will provide some of the long term benefits that some doubt will really occur. Tourism may increase short term, it has worked better for some cities than others. BC has the potential to reap greater rewards from this (IMO) because it will introduce some visitors to the vast recreational potential this region has to offer. That is something that other cities in the past haven't necessarily had to draw on post Olympics. The tourism industry here seems to think that Expo 86 provided the foundation for several good years of tourism post the event and I see no reason why that shouldn't happen again. The most important is the infrastructure however. The highway getting done is probably the most tangible. They have been working on it piecemeal for years and now it is being forced to be done in a timely fashion. It wouldn't have gotten cheaper with the passage of time. There are always other things to spend money on but this event will come once in our lifetimes (most likely) and I hope that it comes off well. Not much point in locking the door after the horse has bolted.

[TheLionKing]

I concur with both Soundy and Sir Purrcival.