Delegating the Thinking Part As the school season begins, teachers are developing assignments to assess the learning of students in their classrooms. The arrival of AI threatens some of the more traditional assessment techniques. Are AI tools such as ChatGPT simply another addition to the toolkit, much like calculators and… Continue reading
There was a time when our actions were guided by a principle of doing what was right, and there was a general consensus about what that looked like. Clearly the five hockey players who were acquitted of rape last week did not follow that principle, nor did the accuser. As… Continue reading
Keeping Perspective As he lay fading away at PRHC, our late friend and neighbour Allan Bigelow wished for one last walk along the road facing his property on Larmer Line. It’s the simple things that resonate so deeply as the end of a life approaches, and so I understand that… Continue reading
We haven’t seen snow like this for a very long time so we may have forgotten the danger it poses. Our homeowner taking snow off his roof is not paranoid, he’s clairvoyant. On Monday friends of ours learned that a section of the roof on their home in Oakville had… Continue reading
It’s been a tough few months for community newspapers. In November the postal strike created a logistical delivery challenge. Some small papers opted to publish only on their website, while others like this one, opted to deliver a printed product. I owe a debt of gratitude to the energetic and… Continue reading
Hold onto your hats, it looks like we’re in for a bumpy ride in 2025. Just when we thought that the economy might be improving and inflation was coming under control, there a new threats within our borders and beyond, and not just economic ones. Is it a shock tactic… Continue reading
It’s getting uglier out there. These days people are circling the wagons to protect themselves against ominous threats. Across the globe we see tightening immigration, new tariffs, widening gaps between rich and poor and inconceivable suffering over arguments about whether nations can even exist. Stand offs of “us” against “them”… Continue reading
At what point did name-calling and insulting become attractive activities in our leaders? I remember when they sought to inspire: think Martin Luther King’s “I had a dream…” or JFK’s “Think not what your country can do for you…” These days we are more likely to hear condescending quips from… Continue reading
Speeches at last week’s Democratic National Convention were focused on hope and unity. They included many inspiring quotes, but the one that most struck me was attributed to the late John Lewis. A civil rights activist and Democratic Congressman from Georgia, he was an active supporter of Dr. Martin Luther… Continue reading
