00:34:23.940I don't know if those are necessarily the options that were best for me or not,
00:34:27.900but I should know that was coming out.
00:34:29.400And I don't believe they're teaching much more of that today, if I can recall.
00:34:33.300No. And again, I think this is an area where this government in Alberta has tried
00:34:38.380to remedy that. They've tried to say that, you know, I think they recognize that
00:34:41.800university actually isn't for everyone and that for those who are not interested
00:34:47.720in pursuing pure academic streams, there needs to be some viable path there.
00:34:52.420And so I think the government has tried to sort of revalorize the trades as legitimate, desirable professions that have real value and meaning and create more pathways for people, I think, beginning in high school to start that kind of vocational training and pursue careers in the trades.
00:35:10.380So that's, I mean, that's a wonderful development as well.
00:40:31.840Well, yeah, we have to see how we evolved.
00:40:34.000I was in Florida, I hadn't heard actually of a pushback against Homer.
00:40:37.720And I mean, you know, to look at that for an example and so many levels where it applies is that you start something and you can look forward.
00:40:44.200I mean, the Odyssey, you know, is one of the first actually classic books that I read that is enjoyable.
00:41:24.520It's I think you probably you must have seen this, too.
00:41:29.100In Alberta, the second grade curriculum as proposed includes a teaching of, it teaches about Genghis
00:41:36.620Khan and the Mongol Empire and the great Eurasian trade and migratory routes, as well as about Rome.
00:41:43.500And there was a huge amount of pushback from teachers and from the UOLs, from unions really,
00:41:50.300and from some others saying, why are students learning about Rome? This isn't relevant. And
00:41:55.580And I'm transitioning from Greece to Rome here with this example.
00:41:59.640But if you want to be able to understand the references and the illusions contained in the last 2000 years of Western literature,
00:42:09.440I mean, you're basically left sort of illiterate if you don't understand what those references are.
00:42:14.440And you have to understand the history of Rome if you want to get that.
00:42:17.120If you want to be able to walk through the Louvre and understand what's being depicted, you need to know this history.
00:42:22.040And so these people who stress like relevance, again, it's a really, I think, impoverished view of what an education is, that they're viewing it solely in utilitarian terms.
00:42:33.720You know, you don't need to know this if you want to work as an engineer.
00:42:37.560Well, but you need to know it if you want to be a literate human being.
00:42:41.620Well, and again, the applications you might not think of initially, but they come into play in other areas.
00:42:47.780I mean, again, the Divine Trilogy, I mean, with where that applies to, again, so many modern things and interpretations of, you know, there should be a basis.
00:43:00.380But if we're moving away from that, it's concerning.
00:43:02.940And you've got to work your way up to that.
00:49:57.180I would rather everybody else waited a longer time than accept that somebody could reach into
00:50:03.100their wallet and get to the front of the line, but they're actually paying for you to get through
00:50:06.700there faster too. Yeah. So this is one thing that I think a lot of people don't understand about
00:50:12.860even existing provisions for independent schools, what some people call private schools in Alberta is
00:50:21.260they say, well, everyone should belong to the public system. Well, that actually
00:50:23.980us taxpayers more because taxpayers pay less for a student in an independent school than
00:50:29.020they do in a public school and that person potentially gets access to an education that
00:50:34.220will suit their needs better um but i you know i i do understand the kind of reflexive sense
00:50:39.180that some people may feel that that's still somehow unfair um but uh yeah you know and
00:50:49.500then in that sense maybe that actually is an argument for vouchers i'm sort of thinking
00:50:52.700this through as we talk yeah yeah well and then you know i believe it's somewhat limited i mean
00:50:58.140there's some truth to it what would happen is it surely some exclusive schools would set up and
00:51:03.820and uh yeah a person pays takes their whatever it might be you know six thousand dollar voucher
00:51:08.380to that school and uh then they have to pay another 20 000 on top of that exactly yeah uh
00:51:16.540and that there that school is going to be able to afford to draw some very high caliber uh teachers
00:51:21.580perhaps have more facilities that are you know of a higher degree in the level than other
00:51:27.260institutions have yeah that'll happen but it kind of gets me back to that well get over it
00:51:34.460it's that's a smaller realm i mean the majority of people aren't going to pull another 20 000
00:51:39.980out of their pocket to join that they already are those schools the one i went to on vancouver
00:51:44.060island i mean it was uh uh where did you go shanagan lake okay so yeah it was an old boys
00:51:50.620school back then boarding school it was a very life-changing thing but you really got top of the
00:51:57.020line uh teachers and instruction and attention in a facility like that no not everybody could
00:52:02.940necessarily i would guess that none of your teachers had education degrees
00:52:07.980i wouldn't know i never asked but i could guess that i mean most of them were from england and
00:52:13.100most of them uh again were familiar areas such as you know with you with oxford and cambridge and
00:52:19.260such. And yes, not everybody can necessarily go to a place like that. But I mean, nothing
00:52:27.680is better. I think, you know, I think we're of similar mindsets of just that basic philosophy
00:52:31.440of some degree of honest competition will make everything rise. If we've got these different
00:52:36.140schools all around that are trying to draw in these students, they're seeing them as
00:52:38.980an asset. They need those parents to choose their place. Then they need to find that specialty.
00:52:44.600I remember talking to someone about this and I used that that same language I said I said that having the the options of charter and independent schools introduces more competition and he was a teacher and he responded viscerally to the idea of education as a marketplace you know to him this meant to your sort of commodifying children and commodifying education and and that's not the idea but the kind of the principle holds still to
00:53:14.480some degree that if you have a monopoly where there are no real incentives to produce excellent
00:53:21.820teachers to make sure that that they receive the kind of training they need to offer good programs
00:53:27.760then it won't happen and this is one of the things that charters are intended to do is
00:53:32.160they help create innovation within the system and they provide sort of guideposts for some of the
00:53:41.180different ways that you can do things. And ideally, you come
00:53:45.140out of this with measurable improved results that maybe
00:53:49.880hopefully can then be adopted by the public system where they're
00:53:52.800transferable. So it's kind of a, it's in that sense, it's, again,
00:53:59.020I don't want to use the term experimental in terms of implying
00:54:01.560that you're experimenting on with children with kids
00:54:03.660education. But it's introducing innovation, innovation into the
00:54:07.020system and being able to show these techniques, these
00:54:09.500pedagogical approaches produce better results for,
00:54:14.000and can produce better results for any child.
00:54:16.940And that's part of the goal here as well.
00:54:19.280Yeah. Well, and to be honest, you know, again, for, I guess,
00:54:21.860it depends on the ambition and motivation of some individual teachers and so on,
00:54:25.520but it would make a competitive market to draw teachers, which in a sense, I mean,
00:54:30.680I can believe could make it for better for all of them. Again,
00:54:32.600the union environment doesn't like that attitude,
00:54:34.540but if you've got charter schools that are actually starting to pull out and draw
00:54:38.520some of the more talented or specialized teachers and pulling them from the other
00:54:42.480public schools. Well, then the public school should respond by saying, well,
00:54:45.720what can we do to maintain you here? What can we do better to keep you in our
00:54:49.580institution? Cause you're important to us.
00:54:52.320That would make for a better teaching environment in general. I mean,
00:58:17.280You can follow me on Twitter at Kaelin Ford.
00:58:19.840Okay. Great. Well, thanks for joining me. I really hope that gets off the ground. It sounds like a really exciting school that perhaps we could develop some young minds into some great philosophers and keep that whole chain going all the way down the road. So keep fighting the good fight and then pushing the good case.
00:59:10.340It's among them, you know, whether you're coveting somebody else's girlfriend or you're coveting their home or their job, you know, to admire and aspire to other things is fine.
01:02:26.380It's not going to pay your bills initially.
01:02:28.040and might never pay your bills. So get a solid line to work first, then you can do those side
01:02:33.020things. But we're getting this me, me, me attitude from a lot of people saying, well, I want to be a
01:02:37.460musician. So the world's got to pay for me to be one. Well, no, too damn bad. I want to be a poet.
01:02:42.260You know, I want to be a world traveler. I want to be a career student. At some point, you got to
01:02:47.240work or you got to produce something that enough people want to pay voluntarily for what you're
01:02:54.640doing. Either way, it's a bit of a digression, you know, but it comes down to those attitudes,
01:02:59.580the issues we've got in our educational system. I really appreciate it. It's great to see Kaelin
01:03:05.240out there pushing, you know, this charter school. It sounds like a very interesting one. It sounds
01:03:09.960very specialized. Obviously, there's only certain students who are going to, you know, be interested
01:03:14.860in and who'll be able to embrace and blossom with that specific curriculum. But isn't it a great one?
01:03:21.040You know, and same sort of thing. Why don't we have so many others of these charter schools? What if some student is clearly very much into carpentry, plumbing, the trades, or into mathematics? You know, you do see that in kids. A lot of it starts coming out early or art and things like that. But let's get those specialized schools then. Let's get them the best teachers for what their thing is.
01:04:42.480The union's there for the teachers and nobody else.
01:04:44.280That's fine. That's what a union's for. The association points out that these kids all need different types of learning and more creative ways to do it. But the union says, but we have to keep it all under this standardized thing. You need to separate those institutions. You need to. We have to. We're losing.
01:05:01.820Yeah. So I want to get on a little bit more. We haven't talked too much about the pandemic. It's a nice break. But I want to be nice to Kenny for a change. We've been beating on him and so on. He's getting it from all directions as usual.
01:05:17.940A lot of us think there never should have been a lockdown or it should have been less
01:05:45.960No, they aren't. And, you know, Kenny rightly points out, Texas opened right up. They only had 14% of their population had their first shot. This was months ago. And the same voices sounded just like Notley and every other bloody socialist from Stephen King to Gavin Newsom, yowling on how irresponsible Texas was and how everybody's going to die. It didn't happen. And it won't here. But you got to push back.
01:06:13.120Kenny only gets nothing but that push from Notley, that push from Unions, that push from Nenshi.
01:10:24.780You think we're having a hard time getting anything done in Canada right now with the environment, you know, as far as infrastructure, getting through any indigenous lands or traditional lands?
01:10:34.840You know, the definition just keeps spreading out.
01:10:36.860When we entrenched the principles of that UN document, we're screwed.
01:10:41.400And there was a native leader who spoke to it, and he said the best words, and unfortunately, I don't have his name on the top of my head here.
01:10:47.880But he said, what that plan will give First Nations, this is a First Nations leader who was saying it was far bigger capability to cancel all sorts of stuff, but practically no ability to approve anything.
01:11:12.600But there's some other stuff that gets dismissed as conspiracy theories and it's real.
01:11:15.840And that crap coming out of the UN is real. It's there for all to read. It's not some bizarre offshoot website with some theorist. It's not some guy in a Nevada desert typing stuff up. It's right there on the UN sites. Have a look. It's real.
01:11:30.800and uh yeah we've got a lot of concerns with things you know about control and government
01:11:36.880attitudes and and it's worthy of reading and seeing what does motivate some of our politicians
01:11:41.260whether from Trudeau to Nenshi I I don't think uh Kenny is so sold on those things he's got his
01:11:46.820challenges and issues but uh then again I mean Kenny's got a complete abject terror of standing
01:11:52.600up to Ottawa on things you know there was the big thing with that nation motion in Quebec talking
01:11:57.660about um you know declaring themselves a nation and then putting it forth in the constitution
01:12:02.940O'Toole so yeah yeah that's fine you know because he'll do it is clear O'Toole will say or do
01:12:07.980anything if he thinks he'll get him votes it's not working Trudeau said yeah Quebec can go ahead and
01:12:12.300do that Kenny said oh well Alberta can too and you know we should be under those rights okay
01:12:18.060well do it what are you waiting for why don't you do something Kenny let's let's do it let's
01:31:17.240Jail isn't where you're going to get off it.
01:31:19.180That's just where you're going to get more dysfunctional at great cost and perhaps learn better means of committing crimes once you get out.
01:31:25.580So from a pure, shallow policy sense, though, we would save money by treating these people,
01:31:31.480getting them off this crap, getting them working, getting them paying taxes.
01:31:35.020And from a human standpoint, I hate seeing it.
01:31:38.520I hate driving out there and seeing more and more of these people shambling along,
01:32:21.940we aren't and you know remember the old term compassionate conservatives we want to take care
01:32:26.560of those who can't take care of themselves not those who won't take care of themselves those
01:32:30.060who can't addicts can't take care of themselves they need help and safe consumption sites are one
01:32:37.860just one small little phase of it and they're not a be-all and end-all and uh let's not let
01:32:43.720the harpies the idiots the shallow you know scream it down when kenny is re-examining and he's done
01:32:51.200it carefully. There was a lot of study on that Sheldon Chumer Center spot on whether it's working
01:32:55.860or whether it's not. It wasn't an arbitrary decision and they're going to make up for it
01:32:59.620with a couple of other locations. So let's not let the shrill partisan voices give Kenny crap on that
01:33:06.140one. Let's give him credit when he gets something right and he's going the right way. You know,
01:33:09.540listen to the people who are saying he's doing something stupid. Rachel Notley, the mayor of
01:33:13.540Edmonton, the mayor of Calgary. How often do those people go into those parts of town? How often do
01:33:18.220they walk around on there or how often do they drive around on a night shift like I do just to
01:33:22.080see how just how bad it is to see them passing out see the ambulances the fire trucks the constant
01:33:27.100overdoses we've got a big problem and to tie it into your partisan ambitions is just sick
01:33:33.880and again I guess that blind opposition out of Notley that I think everybody's getting tired of
01:33:39.700be supportive of some things sometimes he's right okay sometimes Jason Kenney is right
01:33:44.160and getting more treatment beds for these guys and moving away from this,
01:33:49.640this looking as if a safe consumption sites or some sort of panacea.
01:33:56.020You know, we can hopefully address this because this issue is getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
01:34:02.120Either way, that's enough ranting out of me for today.
01:34:04.420That was a great chat with Kayla and Ford.
01:34:06.820I thank you for the questions and suggestions and other guests.
01:34:10.060And by the way, I always welcome guest suggestions, you know.
01:34:12.320So it's a part of the fun of doing this live show, you know, is getting these comments and feedback and interaction with viewers.
01:34:19.960But part of the hard part is scheduling people in and getting them on as guests, you know, because they have limited schedules and you're live and you only have so many windows.
01:34:26.800So if there's people you want to hear from or you think it'd be interesting, you know, send me an email, cmorgan at westernstandardonline.com.