If we want to make the world a better and more peaceful place we need to care about each other. We need to understand the feelings of other people, and why such things as cruelty and bullying are bad. In this News in Review story we’ll look at a program called the Roots of Empathy. It teaches children in some Canadian schools how to be kinder and less aggressive. It also makes lessons very personal by bringing babies into the classroom. (Length: 11:43)
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Category Archives: Education
Punjab School: Giving a Gift of Hope
Millions of children in India never have a chance to get proper schooling. Many of them must work to support their impoverished families. In rural areas many public schools aren’t equipped to provide students with a real education. But thanks to a Canadian, children in a village in Punjab now have new hope for a better future. In this News in Review story we’ll show you how an Edmonton man turned a dream for a new school into a successful reality.
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Fighting Illiteracy: The Swedish Way
Illiteracy is a big problem in Canada. Many Canadians can’t read well enough to understand even the simplest labels or signs. Some experts say our education system is to blame. In this News in Review story we’ll look at how one former illiterate individual had to struggle against that system to turn her life around. We’ll also travel to Sweden to examine why that country has been far more successful than Canada in reducing its illiteracy rate.
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The Gender Gap in Our Schools
In schools across Canada girls are outperforming boys. This has led to shifting enrollment patterns at universities: women now make up more than 50 per cent of students in overall enrollment and in professional programs such as law and medicine. Women are also making huge gains in engineering and the sciences, once almost exclusively male domains. Experts say the reason for this comes down mainly to reading. Girls today read more and with better comprehension than boys. The challenge for educators is to engage boys in reading. One way is to provide more male role models in schools by convincing more men to become teachers. Another method that has had some success is single-sex classrooms that provide reading materials particularly suited to the interests of boys.
Digging History
High school history class for many people was a place where textbooks were sure to be found. History was a subject that we all knew we should learn, but some students had a tough time making it stick. These days, history lessons are certainly sticking with high school students in Tillsonburg, Ontario, thanks to Robin Barker James. He’s a history teacher of a different kind and a finalist for the Governor General’s Award of Excellence for Teaching Canadian History. Tom Alderman explains how he captures his students’ imaginations with re-creations of historic events.
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Back to School in Afganistan
Following the defeat of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, schools were re-opened throughout the country, but with a difference. For the first time in five years women were allowed to teach in schools and girls of all ages were allowed to be pupils. A documentary piece by Carol Off on the revitalization of the Afghan educational system.
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Peter Gzowski: A Canadian Everyman
Peter Gzowski was many things to many people. In addition to his distinguished career as a journalist and long-time radio host, he represented something very Canadian. People in this country identified with him on a personal level; he spoke to and for them. His contributions and legacy to Canadian culture are unique — his support of literacy programs was just one important example. Educators know that children learn fundamentally through role modelling and Peter Gzowski was an important Canadian role model.
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Afghanistan: Telling the Story
Foreign correspondents, like all journalists, are storytellers. They are our eyes and ears to world events. In the age of television, their jobs, especially in dangerous and violent conflicts, have taken on many new dimensions. Understanding how they do their work, what issues and challenges they face as journalists, and how their reports affect our awareness of events is fundamental to this special report. In it CBC television correspondents and film crews explain how they cover events in Afghanistan and get their stories back to Canada.
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Bullies in Schools
Bullying has physical and psychological effects. In this News in Review report, we examine why children become bullies, the impact that this anti-social behaviour has on their victims, and the ways in which families, schools, and communities attempt to deal with the problem.
Marketing to Teens: A Captive Audience?
This special report integrates footage from the CBC program Undercurrents and profiles student activism in an Ontario high school, the pilot school for Youth News Network (YNN). Focusing on advertising to a “captive” and lucrative market, the story investigates what critics call the commercialization of public education and raises the universal issue of the ethics of marketing certain products and services to youth. The rights of students, the decision-making process in public educational institutions, and consumer awareness and advocacy are key issues. The print material also examines numerous case studies of contentious products and marketing methods that are directed to young consumers.
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