The Parallel Parliament

Glen Pearson

Posts tagged “education”

Canada’s Kind of World

Posted on August 17, 2016

PERHAPS THE GREATEST TEMPTATION IN THE WORLD of government is the politics of the urgent, and in a world of bad news the pressure to “do something” becomes endless. The recent incident in Strathroy, Ontario, of a man suspected of plotting a terrorist attack only provides further fodder for those concerned over the presently precarious state of the world. Turkey, Syria, France, mass shootings, individual acts of madness – all of these occurrences are pressing on the Canadian government at once, with pundits endlessly reminding us that something has to be done before our planet blows up. But there is another world out there – a global place of collaboration and effectiveness that continues to get glossed over in favour of front page headlines.…

Categories: Citizenship, Media, Politics, progressive centre, The New Internationalism

Tagged: , , , , , ,

The Radicalization of Education

Posted on July 9, 2015

IT WAS A WORD TOO FREQUENTLY co-opted for use in the War on Terror, yet for some reason it came to mind as I keenly watched the faces of over 300 students at Fanshawe College’s graduation. Jane and I were deeply appreciative to be given an honourary diploma that day (the first shared diploma in the college’s history), and we talked about the message we would give to the graduates. Jane, as always, was awesome, yet when my turn came that word “radicalization” popped into my head again. “This isn’t the end of your formal education,” I said, “but the start of the radicalization of it.” I used the word purposely because it means more than how some terrorist groups seek to recruit young…

Categories: Citizenship, Personal, Politics, progressive centre, The New Internationalism

Tagged: , , , , ,

Hibernating Bigotry

Posted on June 18, 2015

WITH A FEDERAL ELECTION HEATING UP, the political establishment will come after citizens once more, asking them what they want and promising to give it to them if they would but vote. You’d think that after a time, especially following years of political dysfunction, that this being catered to every four years or so would begin to grate on us somewhat. And perhaps it has and that is part of the reason voter turnout continues to decline. But politicians know something about us that they would never say and we would never admit: we aren’t just a people of myriad opinions, but of latent prejudices that we quietly live out each day but which we never let fully out into the open. Thus the…

Categories: Citizenship, Media, Personal, Politics, progressive centre, The New Internationalism

Tagged: , , , , , , ,

More Than Buildings

Posted on May 5, 2015

“A UNIVERSITY IS JUST A GROUP OF BUILDINGS gathered around a library,” wrote American historian Shelby Foote years ago. It’s just the kind of minimalist view that Socrates would have disagreed with forcefully. “Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel,” the old philosopher wrote not too many years prior to his death. It’s likely that Shelby never took into account just what such an institution of higher learning would mean to billions around the world. To them it would be the highest of all attainments, a grand destination for all those seeking enlightenment. In the regions of South Sudan where we have volunteered for years, there is no greater ambition, no desire higher for a family, than to…

Categories: Citizenship, Liberalism, Personal, progressive centre, The New Internationalism

Tagged: , , , ,

It All Starts With Words

Posted on March 4, 2015

FORMER SLAVE AND ACTIVIST DURING the Civil War era, Frederick Douglass, spent much of his childhood in very difficult circumstances.  But he wanted to learn, and when he got the chance he jumped at it.  Learning to read introduced him, not only to Abraham Lincoln, but to a whole new world of freedom for himself and others.  He affirmed that very truth when he wrote, “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” I was honoured to be asked to write a guest blog for this This IS Literacy – a terrific London, Ontario organization that promotes and supports literacy for not just children, but entire families.  I wrote about my own children whom we adopted from Sudan and the challenge we faced…

Categories: Citizenship, Media, Personal, progressive centre

Tagged: , , , , ,

%d bloggers like this: