Thx 4 tuning in.
Q: Has the world has changed because of the Net?
A: Yes.
How?
Right now, people have "equal access" 2 information. This means they can make better decisions not only in the purchases they make, but also in regard to thequality of their input in the decision making process that shapes their society. They can better ensure a "just" society today where individuals are treated both "fairly" and "respectfully".
I can remember being unjustifiably given my pink slip along with two of my work mates after working nine years at the Senate of Canada. Though "permanent" employees - so we thought, we were told that our contracts would not be renewed. (What contracts?)
What did I do?
I single-handedly got the Public Service Alliance of Canada Union onto Parliament Hill before I left. Six months later when unemployed, I was invited by the Union to do the union steward course on a weekend in March 1985. I informed them that I was unemployed. They said that they would give me $50 to do the course just the same. So I completed the course and pocketed $50 and have the course certificate to prove it.
Oh, the Senate, how I miss the place.<g>
That was over 15 years ago. Today, with the use of the Net it has become much easier to accomplish the same thing in so many ways in very little time due to speedy online communication.
A New Approach 2 Language
Just like the Net introduced a "new way" to doing business, so I'm also a proponent of a "new way" to language learning. I first introduced it in a graduate ESL (English as a Second Language) curriculum design linguistic course. In fact, it constituted my theoretical underpinnings for my oral M.A. presentation.
After having had passed around the class room a handful of various foreign language learning CDs and my theoretical paper on which my M.A. presentation was based, I was asked by my professor, the retired head of the Linguistic Department and former dean of the Faculty of Arts to stop and return to my seat mid way through my presentation.
Surprise! Surprise! She asked me if I realized that I was "openly" contradicting the last 40 years of linguistic belief in the area of ESL. (Duh! I guess not. <-g-> ) In fact, not only was I intentionally in opposition to the stardard accepted ESL notions and the fact that this opposition was based on the latest research, I had set it up so that she had no alternative, but to intervene. In was a very sophisticated "meta"- linguistic experiment. It worked. My personal research was vindicated. Remarkably, all my Asian classroom mates were highly embarrassed for me. I sat down with great satisfaction and listened intently to what followed and that confirmed my vindication and gave me even greater satisfaction.
The prof not only failed to understand what I was trying to demonstrate, but more importantly could not as she was in "an arrested state of linguistic development" and I suspect had no understanding of language at an artistic level.
I speculate it was Prime Minister Trudeau's artistic use of language that made him "heard" and consequently made him great. President Clinton strikes me as another person who has an artistic ability (the delivery of the what of language: the how of language) with the language he uses that is "unique" and more importantly "effective" in getting his message across being well founded on his personality adding to its ring of authenticy. Sir Winston Churchill is yet another.
Anybody can speak, but not everyone can get heard. This has given rise to the expression, "I hear you." A "good" artist gets heard. His message comes across through the medium he has chosen to express himself.
Did I do anything wrong? Well, for one thing, I did dare to express a non-conventional point of view and try to substantiate it. Having a set of university credentials (a magna cum laude graduate with five university degrees) and being already an accomplished multilingual person with a fairly decent background in linguistics, I thought I could dare to defy the pantheon of linguistic deities that had been created in the past 40 years.
Basically, the problem for me is the fact that there has evolved four independent schools of linguistic thought regarding foreign language acquisition: each one strangely enough does not build on the previous one. 
Basing my argumentation on the most recent linguistic research available, I felt that I had very good grounds and substantial evidence to advocate the integration of these varied and disparate approaches to optimize the whole foreign language learning process by making the acquistion easier and faster.
I also pointed out that the most current research was indicating that we should relook the linguistic landscape in a new light given a whole new critically sensitive belief system. Myself, I was proposing a gestaltist framework to counter the constricting de facto deterministic behavioristic one that construed the linguistic experience along very limited/delimited lines . It leaves no room for the exercize of intelligence that can reprocess and reprocess (edit and re-edit) material prior to its delivery so that it can be better perceived and perceived quicker -- hopefully just at a glance.
The behavioristic view of hamanity is that the human species like any other evolutionary species is not all the bright and consequently postulates that learning by design will be inherently difficult to accomplish be it language learning or any other kind of learning.
Contrary to the behaviorist deterministic straight-jacket framework, a gestaltist framework allows for a "warp zone" approach to learning by reworking the material for intelligibility and for quick absorption so that the message gets through fast. Speed is key. That speed is based on "clarity" in the delivery of the material and "technique" in how it is to be applied: here timing and conviction are key factors.
With gestaltist framework we can operate at a more efficious level deploying less mental resources making learning a lot less arduous experience. I postulate that with this kind of approach students in school can readily learn hands down three times the material they are currently learning and having a lot more fun doing do. As a trained teacher I know this to be true given my experience teaching students. They are a lot more intelligent and capable than we give them credit. They are only limited by the teacher they have and the curriculum imposed by the Ministry of Education.
So I knew very well I was walking on "thin" ice, but I should have worn a Prussian helmet to have prepared me for the the surrealistic scenario in which I was to find myself. I thought university was where ideas are to be debated. I guess not if the ideas contradict the sensibilities of what I consider to be an illigetimate, crooked, all-controlling establishment that is out of date and out of step with the times. Such a facist response by the Prof is typical of the modernistic period going from the 1500's to the fall of the Berlin wall. However, we are now in a post-modernistic period where freedom of expression is valued as an inherent property of truth and justice. The Prof confirmed herself to be an idiologist, a facist in thought, a product of a facist system that imposed kou-touing. Such and educational system is not only decrempit and out of touch with reality, it is not legitimate and consequently not credible. It is muted, impotent.
Thank goodness (Or as my Muslem friends would say: ill hamm do ill lahh.) I had the intelligence and understanding to foresee this pessimistic scenario which allowed me to measure on a metalinguistic level both the prof and the institution in whose name she was acting. Admittedly, I did not foresee the extremely high level of discomfort that everyone would experience in the aftermath. Happily, my M.A. presentation, the part I was allowed to deliver, reportedly helped some to refocus or better focus their topic.
Clearly, such an incident puts into doubt the legitimacy of the University to foster dialogue in order to have a better understanding of reality. It would appear that university programs more often than not exist to serve the interests of the establishment, the egos of the administrators and the teaching staff rather than to develop and promote good highly qualified students. This is sadly also true of the school system in general.
Sadly enough, the teaching material and even general method of operating in Canadain universities, I feel, date back a good 20 years as the same profs continue down the same path year after year repeatedly demonstrating an outdated fixed, inflexible point of view contrary to current thinking and research findings. In other words many of them have fossilized by not keeping step with the times by adopting a more flexible attitude in line with today's slogan of "bend or break". Consequently, I have become an advocate of the pink slip revolution. If the profs don't make an effort to impart an education that is both "current" and more importantly, "relevant", then it is time for them to leave: "Take a hike Jack and don't come back." :-)
Fortuitously, I had attended an orientation session at Berlitz where it was confirmed that language acquisition under ideal circumstances can take only six months. This finding obviously contradicts the conventionally held belief in linguistics that foreign language acquisition is a long, arduous process involving repetitive work almost irrespective of the techniques and materials used. On the contrary, I believe language learning can be easy, fast, fun and exciting when the right technique is used and to the extent that the technique is varied and the materials are both relevant and stimulating. To find out more on the subject click here.
A novel approach to second language learning is to have students studing subjects in their second language. I did a project whereby I interviewed three French university girls in Canada who were making progress in learning English while completing their university studies in business. To find out more on the subject click here.
Want to know the difference between a compound and a complex sentence? Then click here.
Does this foreign language learning metaphor work for you? Find out, click here.
How about a foreign teaching language metaphor? Click here.
Heard of lingua culture? Nope? Click here.
University Students
and the Pink Slip Revolution
I think the time has come said the walrus to the carpenter for university students to give abusive Profs. the dreaded pink slip :-)
How does the Pink Slip Revolution work?
At the onset of disrespectful behavior from a Prof., the students wave their pink slips in the air to remind the Prof. "respect" is in order if s/he wants to keep his job.
If the behavior persists, the students at the end of class just leave their plain no-name pink slips on the desk as a visible reminder that acceptable behavior is expected from someone who teaches and that there are limits. They "give him the slip" so to speak.
Obviously, students pay good money and are entitled to good service possibly with a friendly smile. And obviously, they are entitled to be taught material that is current and useful, not dated. Today's university students can have and do deserve the best. The students are the clients and consequently, are entitled to "respect" and "fair play".
The sometimes almost secretive inner workings of a University Administration makes it seem more of a masonic lodge than a public, accountable institution that exists for the sole benefit of serving the needs of their students. Ironically, it is the size of the student body that determines the viability of the University itself, so the Administration must ensure quality of service by delivering value for their money.
Unfortunately, in my opinion the Administration can create a world onto itself and for itself with all the trappings of a mafia like culture typical of many public institutions like hospitals, school boards, municipal, provincial, and federal agencies and departments. In my view this is made possible by the fact that they are not accountable to the degree that bank branches that have periodic spot audits.The good news is that we can monitor spending and hiring practices of these institutions to ensure good stewardship. We don't. But we can. Because we don't the Canadian dollar reflects the lack of credibility of our public institutions to deliver services for a "fair price" as opposed to an "inflated price". Canadian sovereignty is thus being undermined and comprimised from within. The Crown is perceived as being "crooked" just like the time prior to the American Revolution in the 13 colonies which invited Quebec to join them. That remains I understand an open invitation. And separatists concur that the Crown is "crooked" as the provinces that make up Canada are not bilingual.Their "justified" refrain is "égalité ou indépendance" (equality for French Canada from coast to coast or Quebec independance.)
One of the most basic problems faced by university students today is how the system is set up: profs' main concern seems to be only in getting a wide spread of marks with very few A's. Nothing else appears to count. This is clearly outrageous as the spread of marks is designed to appease the Administration while undoubtedly harming many of the students "unnecessarily". It reflects the dilemma of the whole school system whereby the teacher only has to teach to a few students who learn the material readily and ignore the rest in order to get a good spread of marks for to give everyone good marks would her appear incompetent suggesting that the material she uses does not challenge the students enough intimating that she is a lazy teacher and if all the students have low marks she is considered as being too demanding. So what is a teach to do? Find a few top students and work especially close with them while not really bothering all that much with the rest. I can testify first hand this is what is happening in the classroom.I saw it. One teacher, I was with, put "four" Grade Two students on retilin in order to get help so she could have someone helping her in the classroom full time.The bottom line is that we have a fradulent educational system built to make the administrators look credible. Why in a city a several colleges and universities that each of those institutions have their own administration? The answer I believe has to do with "crooked" politics and a morally bankrupted bureaucracy.
This kind of marking practice is outrageous for the simple reason that, according to criterion validity testing, a prof who has taught well can expect that the majority of his students to get A's as the exams are based entirely on what has been taught. The marking starts at 100% and works down. Criterion validity testing has been around for over 20 years and it is not being applied. Why?
I think it is a logical argument that if a student is not treated fairly, he is entitled to having at the very least his money back or to take the University to Court as a legitimate recourse, if need be, to get satisfaction. In this manner, many unnecessary, unjustified obstacles faced by students will more than likely disappear.
Intrigue
On December 19, 1997 I served notice on my Alma Mater that I was taking it to Small Claims Court in order to get my B.Ed. degree and my teaching certificate which the University has refused to give me in 1996. The matter dragged on until that final day in September1998 as it turnedd out one of my heros was visiting Ottawa, Nelson Mandela.The judge who said that he was going to give a written sentence didn't. I had to go back "again" to be told that the judge had decided that the matter should be deferred to a higher court. I was the last case to be heard. He refused to remit my money that I had spent and the case. What left me with a bitter taste is that I felt this francophone judge was a member of the Club Richelieu, the francophone equivalent of the Free Masonic Lodge, and as such was acting at the behest of the University behind the scenes and that his refusal to pass judgement had been condoned by the local judiciary. All of that in all fairness had to be expected given the autrocratic makeup of the the kou-touing judiciary. If judges did not belong to Free Masonic Lodges as most do -- I believe -- or the Club Richelieu than I would agree that the Canadian population could expect fair treatment. Unfortunately, historically speaking the Canadian bureaucracy being British has been run by people behind the scenes that Princess Diana so aptly calls the "grey men". In Canada these people tended to be, I understand Free Masons or members of the Club Richeleu. The presiding judge had acted in a fishy manner in my eyes, but not unexpected given the crooked system we have in place in my view. It just takes a suitable outcry on behalf of the Public and the system and be readily purged by offering early retirement... or whatever to those who have been "double-dealing" the system for personal advantage and profit for themselves and their organization. Today, it's quite easy to do. Nobody is fooling anybody these day especially given the sophication of surveillance operations and our understanding of corrupted systems which glaringly shows through at a metalinguistic and socio-psychological level. To not do anything means further devaluation of the dollar and a resounding rejection of the Crown in the end once Quebec goes its own way as it surely will given the fact that there is only one bilingual province. All of this can be blamed on an inherently crooked British bureaucratic apparatus that disenfranchised Canadians who did not belong to the Free Masons nor the Club Richelieu and, I submit, sexually exploited women in the process.
Anyways getting back on track ... as repeatedly requested by the Secretary of the University knowing that the appeal process was historically speaking a cul-de-sac, I did as I was advised to do and used the University appeal process twice, once in each semester for the same problem -- only to receive (after several months each time) the "same" 3-line bureaucratic response informing that my appeal had been studied, but that the decision was not a favorable one. Both times when the teachers I were with put an end to my teaching practicum for no reason the University did nothing when I asked it to intervene on my behalf. I was even asked to leave and refused to abandon my studies. In a course involving group work where my partner passed I did not. Though my marks in general were good I was not to by design pass through the program as I had contested the Administration.
You can almost get the incorrect impression and that being that perhaps the purpose of the program is for student is to learn to imitate the behavior of others already in the System in order to stay in the System. It is as if you are not to disagree with "the powers that be" nor contest them nor suggest that they might be incompetent. You are there to learn to play along"go with the flow" and by doing so, everything and everyone appears to be legitimate/competent though they might not be and given the inherent mechanics of the System probably are not. But you are expected to defer to the those running the System out of respect for authority as hilarious as that might be. The assumption here seems to be here that if everyone is incompetent and foolish then no one is -- I guess. LOL (laughing out loud).
Ironically, I'm a 5-time university graduate who graduated with magna cum laude distinction. I also almost have a degree in linguistics, almost another in classical studies, and almost another in German not to mention that I have a college diploma. In addition, I had worked for some nine years on campus at various part-time jobs and had been appointed to the Council of Undergraduate Studies for a 2-year term during which time I virulently opposed bell-curve marking and the giving of unnecessarily low marks to university students. So, I knew the System well being somewhat familiar with its secretive autocratic inner workings for quite a while already.
Needless to say, that when I hear the University on the radio promising prospective high school students a quality education I really have to wonder. Does a quality institution treat one of its most successful student such as yours truly in such a repugnant, arbitrary fashion as the University of Ottawa did me? I think not. Maybe, it's just plain rotten to the core. LOL
There are many ambiguities associated with that University the most basic is that it supposedly exists for the benefit of Franco-Ontarians, but yets has hired over the years very, very few and quite often only on a part-time basis. As a Franco-Ontarian I find this utterly shameful and unforgiveable.
In my opinion students become hostages when any post-secondary institution abuses its power. A kangaroo-court appeal process undermines public confidence in the governance of the said university.
The major public deception is that everyone expects them to be open, accountable public institution, but they are not. Evidently, it behooves the Minister of Education to intervene in such an ineffective, self-serving educational bureaucracy with its closed-shop environment to ensure the security and integrity of the student population from any possible risk of abuse and arbitrariness at the hands of university administrators. Currently, they can have their way with students and arbitrarily send them packing as the student there at the invitation of the university creating a "if you don't like it here, leave" scenario for the students who have been treated unjustly. What students need is a Charter of Post-secondary Student Rights.
When it comes to education what is particularly loopy is the fact that while teachers are losing their jobs, the 11 faculties of education in the Province of Ontario are cranking out teachers full steam flooding that market with teachers, some of whom will most likely be unable to pay back their student loans and will therefore be obliged to declare personal bankruptcy.
In my view, the Government is being grossly negligent by having all these faculties operating at nearly full capacity while there are so few jobs for so many graduates. Yet, the Government has been talking about rationalizing universities and colleges since the early '80s. Why does the Government not amalgamate post-secondary institutions on a city per city basis reducing needless duplication of administrative services?
Should it not do third party hiring to ensuring that post-secondary institutions not become corrupt administrative fiefdoms that I believe they are? Does this look like like good government? Perhaps, more like bad third world government, eh?
So how well is our Canadian dollar doing today, eh? Let me guess. <g> Not too good: I don't need to wonder why. LOL. It's clear what the problem is: the System. Legitimate? Credible? At one time we could "impute" it with such qualities. However, when the provincial and federal Auditor General comes out year after year with his incredibly thick reports, you know institutional financial mismanagement (read: fraud) is rampant "again" for another year and no attempt has been made to bring it under control: no one wants to tame the beast, the system. But that seems to be OK, normal even. Is Canda living in some sort of Alice in Wonderland? Our dollar, which way is it going, can someone remind me again? Down? What are the chances? When are we going to have good government and an effective judiciary? The next time I have to go to Court I'll convince myself that in fact I'm going to see a funny movie and I'll buy my popcorn, pop, and bubble gum ahead of time. Is the System legitimate or bogus? As this is a rhetorical question, let me fill in the blank with "my" answer: bogus, bogus, bogus... -- I suspect. Hey, I just might be incorrect in my assessment. What do you think?
Updated: October 5, 2000
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