Raising 'em up -- in jail.

Unless I hadn't read it myself, I am pretty sure I wouldn't have believed that any police, anywhere would take a six year old child out of school in handcuffs and let her sit in jail because of a tantrum.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/04/17/georgia-kindergarten-handcuffed.html?cmp=rss

My gut reaction to sending a child to jail is negative.  The response is heavy handed and inappropriate.  We have gone a long way toward criminalizing youth in society.  Are we going to criminalize childhood, too?  If so, we will actually need all those jails the conservatives plan to build.  I posted the article on facebook.

Well to my surprise, the responses were not as negative as I would have thought.  Only one person hated the thought. Others, thoughtful and caring folk, had witnessed children behave this way.  Seen other students and teachers hurt by tantrum behaviour.  They felt that this measure made sense to them and, definitely, the generally folks felt the parents had failed the child.  Made me think....

1. The child has behavioural problems.
2. The parents have not or cannot address these problems.
3. The child is in mainstream public school.   
4. There is no teacher's assistant or caregiver applied to the child.
5. The teachers were simply unable to calm the child.
6. The teachers probably cannot touch or restrain the child for fear of reprisal or suit.
7. The only public servants we have who are empowered enough to physically restrain anyone are the police.

Okay, looking at these seven points, I am pretty sure an out-of-control child who is slinging furniture and otherwise behaving dangerously would almost always end up in jail.  Okay.  But if my basic premise is that children are not criminals but, in fact, our smallest souls -- the ones we should be taking care of, does it make sense that we will soon need a nursery section in our local jails?   No.

Right.  And there are a ton of questions.

Should teachers have the right to physically restrain a child?  Would they want to, if they did?  Could they have sought help?  A social worker or other professional might have been consulted.  Teachers can be key in children's development.  Many troubled kids cite a teacher along the way who mentored and guided them on a clearer path.  But, do teachers really have the time or energy with schools being turned into factories with severely reduced bottom-lined resources, demanding curriculums, and standardized testing?

The child would have, certainly, been an ongoing problem.  Why was the child in a mainstream class and not in special ed?  Where were the resources to support that teacher in class?  Where was a TA or Caregiver for the child?  These measures would come down to resources which, we all know, no longer exist in many school systems.  There are no provisions for TA or special ed classes because the board in question simply cannot afford them.

And, then, we get back to the parents.  One assumes they've noticed their child is a handful.  These behaviours don't all of a sudden express at school.  Why did they not diagnose, get help?  Why have they not done the work to adjust her behaviour?  Perhaps they, too, do not have the resources either in ability or the time or money to seek help.

It's pretty clear that the child is living in a system that cannot accommodate her or help her. Though I don't think that she should be allowed to run roughshod over every other person in school, there were many steps along the way in which the child, maybe, could have been helped to adjust her behaviour - well before she was dumped in a cell.

At the end of the day, I am pretty sure that the child carted off in handcuffs is actually just another victim, the smallest and saddest one.

Jacqui Burke is a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  She is currently directing Wrong for Each Other for Encore Productions opening in April, Kidsplay 2012:  The Mayan Prediction opening in June, and The Last Five Years for TOKL Productions opening in July.  She is, also, serializing The Pretender, her first novel, online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/.  She is preparing for two Shakespeare is Boffo! summer camp sessions for 2012.

Want to contact me?

Jacqui Burke
Artistic Director
Jaybird Productions
talk/text:  647-292-0210
twitter:  @jaybird01
skype:   Jacquiburkecell, jacqui.burke
www.wordsnimages.com
www.jaybirdproductions.ca
www.shakespeareisboffo.ca
http://jacquiburke.blogspot.ca
http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/
http://jaybirdproductions.blogspot.ca/

Ask me about Shakespeare is Boffo! Premium Summer Camps for Kids.  Two installments in 2012:  The Homeschoolers` Version:  11:00 am – 3:30 pm, August 13-17, 2012 for only $125.  Premium Full Day Summer Camp:  9:00 am – 4:00 pm, July 16-20, 2012 for only $155.  Both prices hold until May 15th, 2012.  Spots are going fast.  Register, now at www.shakespeareisboffo.ca

Like what you read?
Encourage me by clicking on one of these ads in this blog. 

I worry. I surely do.

I worry.  I surely do.  But that's just me.  I worry about everything.  My husband calls me The Worry Girl.  Now, I need to sleep nights so I try to behave accordingly (i.e. reduce my worry factor) -- which is why my sweet daughter is experiencing a relatively structured approach to education as opposed to an unschooling approach.

Just to clarify, we homeschool our now twelve year old and have done from the word 'go'.  For those of you who aren't intimate with homeschooling jargon, unschooling is a non-process approach to teaching a child.  One just lives one's life as normal and the child learns, naturally, the skills he or she needs to live well.  No books, no classrooms, no testing - unless the child asks for them.  Consider it the opposite to the current approach being used in group schooling, today.

And, for the article that inspired me to write this post, today, take a look at:  http://www.alternet.org/education/154849/Chomsky%3A_How_the_Young_Are_Indoctrinated_to_Obey/?page=1.  You gotta love Noam Chomsky.  This guy is my hero.

Chomsky is suggesting, here, that the current changes in education as predicted by many (we have long known that getting our children a university degree would be very expensive, compared to what the boomers enjoyed) are driven more by the desire to control the population than to allow the population to fulfill its fullest potential because its fullest potential is a dangerous thing.  So the prices are going up and the curriculum getting more restricted and the institutions more bottom-line driven.  Fewer and fewer folk will be able to afford a university degree...and those people will be rich.  The rest will be cowed and controlled, weeded out by frustration and apathy or lack of funds.

And, as the power of unions is systematically garrotted and political voices for the common man drift ever toward the centre (to get access to more political donation money), we know that honest labour will no longer be valued as it has been.  It will be harder and harder to live well on a factory job, for example, if no one will pay a reasonable wage -- and if some guy in Nebraska is willing to work for eight bucks an hour, one loses the job entirely.  Really makes me wonder who the rich think will buy anything at all, not to mention all the computers and trinkets and such.  Henry Ford would have asked the same question.

So, getting a university education may be critical in the coming decades if one wants to make a good living.  Even now, I understand folks are struggling to win jobs over others -- even after the proven competency of working in the industry for over thirty years -- because they didn't get a degree way back when.  Yikes.  But with the system becoming prohibitively expensive, how the heck are the average and poor kids going to aspire to even our slipping standard of living?

Now, I am not saying that a child has to go to university to live a fulfilling life.  Our current lifestyle seems to be producing folks who can't cut their own grass, clean their own house, cook their own meals, or change a light bulb.  So, anyone with a bit moxy and an entrepreneurial spirit who is willing to service these basic needs will probably be successful.  Again, another trend predicted decades ago.

Current group schooling approaches produce many things but moxy surely isn't one of them.   This is one of the reasons I homeschool.  However, if my sweet daughter ever hopes to go to university, she is going to have to be able ot prove that she can get grades.  I am currently researching the best methods to get homeschoolers into university - most involve taking online courses and tests.  Bleck.

Huh.  So how do you school a child so that she is an independent thinker AND capable of conforming in order to ensure that no doors are shut against her choice of lifestyle?  Well, everyday, we do a bit of book learning.  Everyday, we get a bit more under our belt.  I can only hope (as I am sure all parents are hoping in these uncertain times) that I am doing enough.

But I try not to worry.  :)


Jacqui Burke is a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  She is currently directing Wrong for Each Other for Encore Productions opening in April, Kidsplay 2012:  The Mayan Prediction opening in June, and The Last Five Years for TOKL Productions opening in July.  She is, also, serializing The Pretender, her first novel, online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/.  She is preparing for two Shakespeare is Boffo! summer camp sessions for 2012.

Want to contact me?

Jacqui Burke
Artistic Director
Jaybird Productions
talk/text:  647-292-0210
twitter:  @jaybird01
skype:   Jacquiburkecell, jacqui.burke
www.wordsnimages.com
www.jaybirdproductions.ca
www.shakespeareisboffo.ca
http://jacquiburke.blogspot.ca
http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/
http://jaybirdproductions.blogspot.ca/

Ask me about Shakespeare is Boffo! Premium Summer Camps for Kids.  Two installments in 2012:  The Homeschoolers` Version:  11:00 am – 3:30 pm, August 13-17, 2012 for only $125.  Premium Full Day Summer Camp:  9:00 am – 4:00 pm, July 16-20, 2012 for only $155.  Both prices hold until May 15th, 2012.  Spots are going fast.  Register, now at www.shakespeareisboffo.ca

Like what you read?
Encourage me by clicking on one of these ads in this blog. 

Some potatoes and a root cellar.

I used to joke with my husband a lot about how Canada has a summer that's about two weeks long.  He's from Australia, a country in which the summer never ends.  The warm Canadian months, though, come and go.  From the first blush of green to the erupting forsythia, to waves of flowers, back to the flat green of summer, and then the chill.  The inevitable chill.  It all seems to pass so quickly.

Just like the flower of civilization.  In my lifetime, I have witnessed the flower burst forth in blazing colour and, then, slowly die on the vine.  We went from marching for civil rights, to wallowing in them, and, then, wondering why those civil rights are disappearing.  We went from investing heavily in education and science to, now, veiling ourselves in superstition.  We built amazing institutions and, then, ignored them, only to 'question their viablility'.

No, now it's about ferris wheels and casinos - more and more spots to play, to squander our hard won free time, and squander our hard-earned money.  And it's more and more hard-earned.  We have emerged from talk of a four-day work week only a few decades ago to most people working at least part of the weekend and being tied to work 24/7 with Blackberry's -- so much electronic leash, it's a wonder we're not, like Marley, weighed down and moaning.

But!  Wait!  Marley chose his chains.  We didn't choose this!  We love our life!

It was a beautiful flower, though.  So amazing to be a part of it.  And, I am not done yet.  I will fight against the coming winter.  Fight against the concentration of wealth in the hands of the few, fight against the homogenization of - well - everything.   Fight against the loss of civil rights.  Fight against the control and demonization of the young.  Fight against the criminalization of the poor.  Steward as well as I can the environment, those institutions, that education.

But, sadly, I think that too much of my personal resource is starting to go to knitting metaphorical sweaters against the coming cold.  And preparing my young one to be able to jump, to change gear quickly and as necessary.  Survival in winter.  That takes a bit of moxy, a bit of creative thinking. Good thing it's not that cold, yet.  I don't think I could function without the Internet, for example.  (Ah, the Internet.  I think I am doing absolutely everything else in order to save that one darn, beautiful, incredibly dangerous thing and leave the world a better place for our daughter, of course).

I wonder.  Can we stop the season changing?  I don't think so.  Times of high civilization are so fleeting.  They come and go -- and I am wondering if, in the past, it was the same lack of attention that lost us what we won.  Because, most of the time in history, the bulk of the population fights against yawning oppression.  And, even as we enjoyed (and continue to enjoy) our privilege in the western world, even the most uncaring among us must be aware of how lucky we are.  The rest of the world is not so lucky.

And I also I keep wondering if the fighting is better?  I truly don't wish for tougher times, of course, but I wonder.  It makes us leaner, a bit meaner, but more creative and clever.  And right now, we are bloated, slow, docile.  Not at our best.

In a perfect world, I would give my child a flower - an armful of flowers picked gaily in the sunlight - but, instead, I am working toward giving her some potatoes and a root cellar.  Best have something in for the winter.


Jacqui Burke is a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  She is currently directing Wrong for Each Other for Encore Productions opening in April, Kidsplay 2012:  The Mayan Prediction opening in June, and The Last Five Years for TOKL Productions opening in July.  She is, also, serializing The Pretender, her first novel, online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/.  She is preparing for two Shakespeare is Boffo! summer camp sessions for 2012.

Want to contact me?

Jacqui Burke
Artistic Director
Jaybird Productions
talk/text:  647-292-0210
twitter:  @jaybird01
skype:   Jacquiburkecell, jacqui.burke
www.wordsnimages.com
www.jaybirdproductions.ca
www.shakespeareisboffo.ca
http://jacquiburke.blogspot.ca
http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/
http://jaybirdproductions.blogspot.ca/

Ask me about Shakespeare is Boffo! Premium Summer Camps for Kids.  Two installments in 2012:  The Homeschoolers` Version:  11:00 am – 3:30 pm, August 13-17, 2012 for only $125.  Premium Full Day Summer Camp:  9:00 am – 4:00 pm, July 16-20, 2012 for only $160.  Both prices hold until April 15th, 2012.  Spots are going fast.  Register, now at www.shakespeareisboffo.ca

Like what you read?
Encourage me by clicking on one of these ads in this blog. 

I don't wanna. Increasing the retirement age.

As some of you know, I play bridge competitively at bridge clubs; so, I know a lot of retired people.  Strange because I don't think I am ever going to retire.  The community out there might stop coming to see my shows and leave me with no choice, I suppose, but other than that I don't think I'm ever going to stop.  I really love what I do even though I make very little money doing it.

Some people I know are looking forward to an early retirement because they have plans to involve themselves in some other kind of career, even in a volunteer or semi-professional way.  One friend calls it 'getting paid to breath'.  He can't wait.

But, in talking to most of my friends who are about seven or eight years older than me, all they want to do is retire so they can stop working.  They hate their jobs.  Been doing them now for about thirty some odd years and hate them.  They are computer programmers, bank middle managers, insurance agents.  Nice folks.  Hard working folks.  But absolutely, abysmally bored in their professional lives.  And they're not really going to change their skills much in their late fifties unless they take the initiative to start their own businesses.  This is a risky venture and most of these people, like most people, took the careful, safer road.  It's not really in their nature to strike out on their own.  And come on, they have mortgages, and kids going to uni, growing medical challenges, and credit card debt....

So, I am worried for how these folks might feel finding out that they now have to wait until age 67 to get their pensions.  So, I wondered, is retirement good for you?  Is an earlier retirement better?

Anecdotally, the folks I know who are retired (and, like I say, I know quite a few) seem to be having a great time.  They play bridge, golf, tennis, take long walks or jog.  They really get out there and seem healthy and vibrant.  Most of them tell me they don't know how they used to have the time to work.  But, interestingly, my anecdotal evidence is deeply skewed to folks who are engaged in the world.  I don't have much anectodal on folks who don't thrive in retirement.  So it's no help.

So what do the studies tell us?  An Australian study, many years ago, suggested that people only live for about thirteen years following retirement, regardless of what age they retire.  A recent, possibly more comprehensive study suggests that men (not women) suffer from retirement but it's not the retirement, necessarily, that's the problem.  It's the involuntary cessation of work that kills.  Women tend to continued the caregiving role as they age, a role that men of that generation have eschewed.  So, regardless of what age of retirement or whether they were forced or not, women have a reason to get out of bed and men don't.  If the man in question doesn't plan for retirement, then he may find himself with little meaningful work to do -- a gaping hole that gardening and jogging just doesn't fill.  On the basis of this study, some governments are considering raising their retirement rates.

However, getting back to my friends:  Most of them WANT to retire.  They WANT OUT. And, in fact, one suggested that this generation should GET OUT.  Get out of the way, he meant.  That they should retire as early as they can to open up the way for the next generation to come forward.  However, the economic view is that we want to keep labour force participation as high as possible to keep the economy going.  As always, though, it won't be the middle managers who suffer (most of them will have work pensions built up over decades), it will be folks in heavy labour jobs -- jobs that have little, if any, pension; jobs that punish the body.  For those folks, another two years may be too much.

So, who knows whether this new measure is good for Canada?  But one thing I do wonder is this:  If involuntary cessation of work is bad, is involuntary forced labour good?


Jacqui Burke is a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She is currently directing Wrong for Each Other for Encore Productions opening in April, Kidsplay 2012: The Mayan Prediction opening in June, and The Last Five Years for TOKL Productions opening in July. She is, also, serializing The Pretender, her first novel, online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/. Like what you read? Encourage me by clicking on one of these ads in the blog....

At Least We Would Know

It's been an odd six or eight months, watching those crazy kids to the south start to propose, debate, and pass laws that limit women's lives by limiting their reproductive choices.  It's been surreal watching the GOP candidates skittering on the edge of insanity over this topic.

Margaret Sanger stated that a woman's primary responsibility was to herself, not the state - this after watching her mother endure 18 pregnancies in 22 years.  Thing is, she said this almost a hundred years ago and US attitudes toward women are backward, still.  Sometimes I am just so thankful that I live in Canada except, well.... 

Here we go:  Mitt Romney says he supports birth control but doesn't seem to know how it works because he believes that human life begins at conception.  Newt Gingrich also says human life begins at conception which would outlaw many forms of birth control.  And not only does Rick Santorum want to limit access to birth control, he also thinks it's a "license to bring things into the sexual realm that are counter to the way things are supposed to be."  I wonder what me means by that.

Despite the figures that state that women overwhelmingly approve of birth control (97% of women have used it at one time or other), these candidates are against it. Women are, also, healthier for having birth control and so are babies.  Stripped of the exhaustion, health risks, and responsibility of non-stop pregnancy, women can become more effective and productive members of society.  All this is so well documented, I am not even going to bother citing it.  And it follows that if women and children are healthier and happier, men are healthier and happier.  Birth control makes life better for all of us.

So.  So what?  What?  What could these GOP hopefuls possibly be thinking?  That the dominant force in politics in the looney-tune right?  It's absolutely nuts, disappointingly backward, and downright evil.

And the best thing that could ever have happened to the moderate left. 

These GOP hopefuls are counting on women doing as they are told.  They are counting on women voting down party lines and accepting their attitudes.  They are counting on women being cowed by male centred intimidation and male dominated religious views.  They are counting on wives doing what they're told.

But I wonder how many women will slip into that voter's booth, slide the curtain across while winking at their pseudo-dominant husbands, and go ahead and vote for birth control, for human rights, and for a better world for all.  How many of them will vote for Obama?

I wonder.  Only time will tell.  But, in the interim, the more these GOP hopefuls jump around declaring the evil in birth control, the better.  Better than them hiding their real views and then trying to inflict them on the world like our prime minister did.  At least, women in the States know what they are voting for.

Fighting over what's left.

I tend not to publicly proclaim my voting choice prior to election.  Most folks who read this blog would be able to guess that I'll be somewhat left of centre.  However, despite the fact that I voted Liberal for most of my adult life, I'm not voting Liberal today.

The Liberals came into town about ten days ago with their stars and their hotshots campaigning in the streets and going door to door.  Even Liberal royalty graced us.  Well, why, for goodness sake?  Under the late Jack Layton, Toronto-Danforth has flourished.  And the general opinion of the populace seems to reflect awareness of this.  The Liberals have about 19% of the vote, currently.  Craig Scott, taking over for the late Jack Layton is expected to win with about 61% of the vote.

I think the Liberals should know how to choose their battles.  At a time when the conservative stronghold on the country seems insurmountable and the very defiition of what it means to be Canadian is changing as a result, the Liberals need to show some of that old savvy that made them a political powerhouse in the past.  I would have definitely have fronted a candidate in this race but no one needed the push.

Push instead in ridings in which the outcome is uncertain or in which you're not fighting a good man who passed away.  Fight in ridings in which Mr. Harper might perceive a stronghold for the Conservatives.  Push instead where the current government might notice a change.  In taking a stand in Toronto-Danforth, we must seem, to Mr. Harper, like so many children fighting over what's left.  Pun intended.

I urge you, instead, to indentify those ridings in which you have a real chance to sway voters, ridings that will hurt the Conservatives if they lose them.  Instead of urging me to vote strategically, do your own strategizing first. 

Unless You're Stephen Harper

I have something to confess.  I honestly had a bit of grudging respect for the way that the Tories have been handling themselves in the last few years. I had come to the conclusion that this Tory government is effective and being guided by deep seated convictions and ideals, that they are inspired by core values.  Even the proroguing.  The government's actions were well within the governments rights and bounds.  For me, a clear understanding of parliamentary process implies a deep respect for the way this country works and that respect might inspire a wish to do what's best for Canada.

But let me also be clear:  I do not agree with many Tory policies, nor am I willing to allow them to change Canada so absolutely that we are all little hyper-capitalists in flash cars. However, I honestly thought that they believed in what they were doing.

Then along came robocall.

Any Canadian who believes in the great gift of democracy must have, as I did, felt a bit sick at the news that somebody (I am not saying who) went ahead and so blatantly tried to interfere with an election.  All of us should be wanting answers.  If we let this slide, what could happen in the next election?  Any kind of misinformation cannot be allowed.

But not  the current government.  Yes, yes.  I'm splitting hairs.  Elections Canada is a government agency and they are, in fact, investigating.  But what is sad here, is that Mr. Stephen Harper couldn't give a shit.  I had this guy totally misread.  I honestly thought that he cared about this country and, clearly, he only cares that his party comes out on top.  Instead of being the one to wants to know what happened, he calls the robocall accusations a smear campaign.

Robocall is not about rhetoric or party politics.  It's about democracy and making sure that everyone has free, unhindered, uncocerced access to their right to vote.

Unless you're Stephen Harper.