Elections are dangerous times. Don’t sit on your front yard or you may get skewered by a campaign sign. Don’t let your family pets near the street, lest they be spray-painted or asphalted over by zealous provincial road workers.  Fortunately for you, you are not alone during this perilous period: Dr. StrangeJobRead More

I’m back and ready to officially kickstart my campaign for Premier of Cape Breton.  Let’s talk education. Before I became a satirical blogger, I was a sardonic educator. In fact, I would still be employed in the field of education if not for losing a philosophical debate on the roleRead More

Dear Editor, It seems less and less frequent that we receive knocks on the door with people on the other side who want to have face-to-face conversations. Rare is the opportunity to look someone in the eye rather than through a screen and talk about things that matter. It’s electionRead More

It definitely wasn’t yesterday, but I vividly remember my mother guiding me through the door at the back of Holy Angels Convent and down the stairs to the gymnasium (a room larger than my six-year-old self had ever seen). Grade two was just across from the gym, and down theRead More

Librarians, in my experience, are often bearers of good news. For example, last year, while spending a day in the country, I dropped into the local library just to have a look around. The librarian was friendly and helpful, and not only informed me that I could borrow items thereRead More

Bernie in coal country McDowell County, West Virginia is coal country. Although they got into the game a little later than we did here in Cape Breton — their first large-scale mines were developed in the mid-1800s — they made up for lost time and by the 1950s were regularlyRead More

Doing Well By Doing Good “Activist and fundraiser” Dan Pallotta will speak during the Community Impact Summit, an anti-poverty gathering to be held in Sydney next Wednesday and Thursday. The summit will bring together “business, government and non-profit sector leaders [emphasis theirs]” to “commit to specific, positive actions to helpRead More

Okay everyone, take your seats — we have a lot of material to get through today. What’s that? When’s recess? Where do you think you are, Finland? Today, as promised in the headline, we’re going to look at the promise and perils of  Big Data in the education sector.  Read More

Old King Coal I was so puzzled today when I reached into my mailbox and pulled out a 1720 edition of The Cape Breton Post.  “King coal” screamed the headline on the front page. Hallelujah, a coal mine has opened on the island! I searched excitedly to see what otherRead...

What is this PowerSchool of which Nova Scotian teachers speak? The datafication (a word I thought I’d made up but which turns out to be real) of P-12 education happened after my time in the Nova Scotia public system, so I had to do some reading (a little skill I pickedRead More