Extremism in the schools

By Cameron Ainsworth-Vincze - Thursday, December 9, 2010 at 2:40 PM - 20 Comments

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An investigation into more than 40 part-time Muslim schools and clubs in the U.K. has uncovered some startling revelations about the radical nature of the curriculum being taught. Materials obtained by the BBC include textbooks that detail the application of sharia law, such as how to chop off a person’s hands and feet if they are caught stealing, along with whether the best punishment for homosexuals who engage in sexual activities is for them to be stoned, burned or thrown off a cliff. Other materials ask children to list the “reprehensible” traits of Jewish people and note that non-believers will end up in “hellfire” when they die.

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Going, Going…

By Brian Bethune - Thursday, December 9, 2010 at 9:40 AM - 0 Comments

Simon Cowell; Lloyd Robertson; Jaroslav Halák | Byron Purvis/Keystone Press Agency; Adrien Veczan/CP; Len Redkoles/NHL/Getty Images

Quit: Steven Slater
In 2010, no one cheered the hearts of disgruntled workers everywhere more than Jet Blue flight attendant Slater, who left his job—and his aircraft—in spectacular fashion. In August, he told off an annoying passenger, grabbed two bottles of beer, released the emergency exit on his landed plane, and slid away to freedom. And into a world of trouble: in October, he pleaded guilty to criminal mischief and was fined US$10,000. For the rest of us, though, it was worth it.

Evicted: the Niqab
After a pharmacist in a niqab—a face veil that reveals only the wearer’s eyes—refused to remove it during French-language class, the Quebec government announced plans to ban government agencies and public institutions from offering services to veiled women. Bill 94, when it becomes law, will effectively eject the niqab from Quebec’s public square in the name of gender equality and maintaining secular values in public services. Meanwhile, the imposing crucifix in the national assembly remains in place.

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"What others can aspire to"

By Paul Wells - Wednesday, December 8, 2010 at 12:42 PM - 47 Comments

Good news can be important too. “There are many success stories,” OECD Secretary-General Angel Guerra said upon the release of the international PISA school-achievement tests this week. “Shanghai, Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Finland, Canada: In very different cultural and economic contexts, their education systems have all been able to achieve strong and equitable education outcomes.”

So out of six countries singled out for the kind of achievement “others can aspire to,” Canada gets a mention. The separate video presentation on schools in Ontario, one of four jurisdictions selected by the OECD for a drill-down, is so flattering to that province’s current government that I’m just going to let you see it for yourself.

Obviously there’s still plenty of room for politics. You can argue that other parties, or a given reform, would produce better results. But one specific feature of Canada’s education systems is worth noting, preserving and working to reinforce: the low correlation between socio-economic background and education outcomes. In Canada more than in almost any country, relative poverty doesn’t lock a student into poor school performance, which means it needn’t lock a young person out of a rewarding career. It’s a huge asset.

Swearing as a second language

By Emma Teitel - Thursday, December 2, 2010 at 2:20 PM - 5 Comments

Teaching adults English grammar as well as its naughty parts, says an ELL coordinator, is a lesson in survival skills | Joe Raedle/Howard Lipin/Getty Images

English as a Second Language (ESL) now goes by the new, politically correct name of English Language Learning (ELL), in official recognition of the fact that immigrants new to Canada may know more than one language already. That doesn’t, however, make the average ELL student a champion of political correctness. At least it’s doubtful that Amira Azad, an Iranian Muslim woman in her mid-40s, had cultural sensitivity on the brain when she interrupted our ELL tutorial on the prepositional phrase. “May I ask a question?” she said, and then leaned closer to whisper: “Tell me please, what is the difference between a slut and whore?”

“The first sleeps with a lot of men,” I answered when I recovered, “and the second gets paid to do the same.” “Oh,” she said, “same in Iran.” Amira (who, like the other students interviewed, requested that her name be changed) asked roughly 30 similar questions that day, compiling a mini lexicon of English curse words and expressions that she covered with her hands every time the program supervisor walked by. Writing down the definition of “bitch,” she noted: “Thank you. My sons will be punished.”

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Kitchen crusade

By Peter C. Newman - Thursday, November 25, 2010 at 2:00 PM - 0 Comments

Toronto has more great restaurants than great chefs, but of the many places where the empire city’s first-rank power brokers hang out, none is more socially significant and brazenly chic than Canoe, which occupies most of the TD Bank Tower’s 54th floor. Toronto Life originally dismissed its look as “understated butch elegance,” but decor is not what keeps this particular canoe afloat.

Regulars occasionally glance across Lake Ontario to enjoy a horizon view of Niagara-on-the-Lake, but mainly they come to gaze at one another or, more specifically, at each other’s dining companions, to see what mergers or acquisitions might be coming down the pike. Peter Oliver, who along with his partner, über-chef Michael Bonacini, owns the venue, credits Canoe’s popularity to the creation of a club-like atmosphere. “The new-style executives,” Oliver contends, “want restaurants, like everything else in their world, to be direct extensions of themselves. That means slightly ‘hip’ and fashionable, yet unpretentious and understated.” (That lack of pretension has not been translated into Canoe’s à la carte offerings, which include a starter plate comprised of screech-marinated foie gras, B.C. honey mussels and chilled Yarmouth lobster.)

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Merit: the best and only way to decide who gets into university

By macleans.ca - Thursday, November 25, 2010 at 10:30 AM - 624 Comments

Photograph by Colin O'Connor

Maclean’s annual University Rankings issue is our most popular and most discussed magazine of the year. The 2010 edition, released two weeks ago, was no exception. Alongside our comprehensive rankings of Canadian schools, we also tackled the biggest issues facing today’s university students. There were stories dealing with school stress, problem roommates, difficult school choices and sex. And when students told us race is becoming a conversation on Canadian campuses, we took a closer look at that as well.

Our reporters Stephanie Findlay and Nicholas Köhler spoke to university students, professors and administrators about campus racial balance and its implications. The resulting story was titled: ”‘Too Asian?’: a term used in the U.S. to talk about racial imbalance at Ivy League schools is now being whispered on Canadian campuses—by everyone but the students themselves, who speak out loud and clear.”

The article has generated a great deal of response, a representative sample of which is included in this week’s Letters (page six). Some of the comments we have seen on the Internet and in other media have suggested that by publishing this article, Maclean’s views Canadian universities as “Too Asian,” or that we hold a negative view of Asian students.

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The new uniform

By macleans.ca - Thursday, November 18, 2010 at 1:20 PM - 0 Comments

Big school, small city: University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon

By Josh Dehaas, Cameron Ainsworth-Vincze - Thursday, November 18, 2010 at 12:20 PM - 1 Comment

Ishmael Napoleon Daro, University of Saskatchewan | Photography Liam Richards

Ishmael Napoleon Daro is a fourth-year political science student. Originally from Afghanistan, he grew up in Saskatoon.

Why did you choose Saskatchewan?
“Basically, geography. I have a safety net with family around and friends.”

What’s campus like?
“The U of S is one of the better-looking campuses we have in Canada,” says Daro. “The buildings all have a stone finish that gives them the same sort of look. Even when they build a new building, they’ll still have the stonework done to make the whole campus look consistent. It’s beautiful.”

How are the people?
“It’s mostly local people. You do get a lot of Albertans from Calgary, Edmonton or some of the smaller towns, but it does feel like a very Saskatchewan university.” However, he doesn’t mind being surrounded by prairie folk. “I don’t imagine that people in other cities are so freakish or terribly interesting that I’m missing out.”

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Small school, small town: St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, N.S.

By Josh Dehaas, Cameron Ainsworth-Vincze - Thursday, November 18, 2010 at 12:20 PM - 5 Comments

Sean McEvoy, St. Francis Xavier University | Photograph Roger Lemoyne

Sean McEvoy is a first-year business administration student from Quispamsis, N.B. He plans to be a lawyer.

Why did you choose a school in a small town?
“I grew up in a town about the same size as Antigonish,” says McEvoy. “I like the familiarity of knowing where everything is. When I first visited here, I noticed everybody smiles at you. I’ve heard stories about Halifax and the crime rate, but there have never been any major issues with crime in Antigonish, so I feel really safe here.”

What’s the small campus like?
“I can get anywhere in 10 minutes or less. You can walk everywhere. I’ve woken up 10 minutes before class and I still managed to get there in time.”

Is there anything to do after class?
“We’ve got two bars, one on campus and one downtown. We’ve got a lot of clubs and societies within St. FX. There’s also a movie theatre and restaurants.”

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A song in their hearts

By Jaime Weinman - Thursday, November 18, 2010 at 12:20 PM - 0 Comments

UWO students belt one out. Suddenly, perfoming seems like a viable career choice. | Photograph by Andrew Tolson

Thank the Gleeks. First, the fans of the hit TV show Glee made singing and dancing programs cool in high schools everywhere. Now, just as the high-schoolers on Glee will wind up going to the same college, Glee-mania is migrating to real-life universities.

According to Jazz Times magazine, American universities have “noted a sharp rise in student interest and enrolment” in choral and music programs, and some have created new groups to meet the Glee-fuelled demand. Ditto in Canada. Earlier this year, after two students at Carleton University started the school’s first glee club, one of the founders, Emile Scheffel, told the school paper the Charlatan that, “I got, like, 47 comments from people wanting to join in the first two hours.” It could be only a matter of time before Glee mania becomes as ubiquitous in school as it is on TV.

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Big school, big city: University of Toronto

By Josh Dehaas, Cameron Ainsworth-Vincze - Thursday, November 18, 2010 at 12:00 PM - 0 Comments

PHOTOGRAPHY ANDREW TOLSON

Emily Kellogg is in her last year of a book and media arts and philosophy double degree. She’s from Pebble Beach, Calif.

Why did you choose U of T?
“I’m one of those people who always dreamt of living in New York,” says Kellogg, explaining that she enjoys the fact that eastern cities have four seasons, unlike California. “I chose U of T because I wanted to be at a big school in a major city in the East and I couldn’t afford to go to NYU.”

Was it the right choice?
“I knew I’d made the right decision at my first Nuit Blanche,” says the arts editor of U of T’s student newspaper, the Varsity. “Seeing art everywhere and having the city vibrating at 4 a.m. was so exciting.” Kellogg also loves being able to walk to literary, music and art events right after class. “I can walk to Queen Street and go art-gallery hopping or I can go to the Horseshoe and see an amazing band for $8. Plus, all the big bands come here. I really enjoyed the Arcade Fire concert on the island this summer.”

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Hire education

By Julia Belluz - Thursday, November 18, 2010 at 12:00 PM - 0 Comments

Schools like George Brown Chef School are attracting university grads who can't find jobs without technical skills | Aaron Lynett/Toronto Star

Ian Collins was almost a cliché. He finished a degree in visual arts at the University of Western Ontario and then spent four years waiting tables. “I was going in for job interviews, but I wouldn’t get the job,” explains the Toronto resident. The deal breaker? “It was always because someone else had real-world experience.” So Collins decided to enrol in a one-year diploma in sport and event marketing at George Brown College because, he says, it had a built-in internship. That led to a job after graduation, and now he’s an account executive at the marketing firm Zoom Media. At 31, Collins has his career on track. “College helped me by getting my foot in the door,” he says.

It’s no wonder students like Collins are looking to college for a different path. Despite the fact that Canada has the second-highest rate of education spending in proportion to our GDP, we’re nearly the worst of the 32 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries when it comes to placing grads in jobs they are qualified for. That’s especially hard to swallow considering the price of education today. With student debt load reaching a record high—nearly $27,000 for university students last year and about half that for college grads—more Canadians than ever before are considering college as a less expensive, more job-oriented alternative to the ivory towers.

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Small school, small city: University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, B.C.

By Josh Dehaas, Cameron Ainsworth-Vincze - Thursday, November 18, 2010 at 12:00 PM - 1 Comment

Shelby Petersen, University of Northern British Columbia | Photograph Simon Hayter

Shelby Petersen is a fourth-year political science student from Prince George, B.C. She edits the school paper.

What’s Prince George like?
“A lot of people coming to UNBC are from smaller towns of, like, 1,000. You get some of that city feeling, but also the community feel.”

Is there stuff to do?
“It’s small, but Prince George has got lots of local venues and independent bands,” says the music fan. “Dan Mangan was here recently. We also have Coldsnap, a winter music festival. I saw Joel Plaskett last year. It was awesome.”

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A separate peace

By Leah McLaren - Thursday, November 18, 2010 at 11:40 AM - 0 Comments

Maggie Giles (centre) says she and her roomates watch Grey's Anatomy together | Photograph by Cole Garside

When Logan Nash decided to move in with three other male students in second-year university, he imagined it would be like Joey Tribbiani’s apartment on Friends—everybody hanging around, sharing pizza and beer, playing air hockey and being, well, friendly.

It didn’t turn out that way.

Instead, the 22-year-old graphic design student found himself living in a quiet two-bedroom with only one roommate (the other two students having opted at the last minute to live at home with their parents for financial reasons). Instead of hanging around shooting the breeze and cooking spaghetti with meatballs, he and his roommate opted to live separate lives. His roommate had a severe nut allergy so food was strictly divided. The same went for toiletries. They split up the cleaning duties, conducted separate social lives and even organized their class schedules so they wouldn’t have to be in the apartment at the same time. “We were in the same program so it seemed better if we didn’t hang out together too much,” he says. “So most of the time we just did our own thing. The purpose of living together wasn’t for company, it was for each one to pay our half of the rent.”

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High anxiety

By Julia Belluz - Thursday, November 18, 2010 at 11:40 AM - 0 Comments

Ting Hoo/Getty Images

By the time Victoria Ciciretto left her family’s home in Kleinburg, Ont., to live and study at the University of Toronto, the 18-year-old was already a seasoned world traveller. “I’d gone away for a month in Europe for summer school in Grade 10,” she says. “I took a Grade 12 course in Greece,” she adds. “And the year before last, I studied English in England.”

Presumably, moving 40 km away from home would be easy, but instead the arts and science student was filled with anxiety. “For my first week, I was like, ‘Oh my god, why would people say this is the most amazing time of your life?’ ”

She was nervous about living in a dorm, about classes and homework, about what major to choose and if she would make friends. There was a reason she could handle summers overseas, but was scared of university. “I had really good friends with me when I went travelling,” she says. “When I went to university, I didn’t know anybody.”

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Just calm down . . .

By Julia Belluz - Thursday, November 18, 2010 at 11:40 AM - 0 Comments

PHOTOGRAPHY ANDREW TOLSON, SIMON HAYTER

Dr. Michael Van Ameringen, professor in psychiatry at McMaster University, shares his top four tips for coping with university-related anxiety:

HIT THE GYM: “It’s been proven repeatedly that physical activity helps people manage anxiety and elevate mood. Make sure you incorporate that as part of your week.”

MANAGE EXPECTATIONS: “It’s important to learn to have reasonable expectations of yourself when you go to a new place. You’re not going to figure out the way to learn and instantly get 90s in all classes.”

TAKE A BREAK: “There’s no doubt that people are more efficient when they work for fixed periods of time, followed by planned breaks.”

PHONE A FRIEND: “It’s important not to allow yourself to become isolated. Staying in touch with people by phone and visiting them regularly is key. So is getting involved with campus activities because they provide vehicles for meeting new people.”

You Got Prank'd

By Erin Millar - Thursday, November 18, 2010 at 11:20 AM - 1 Comment

UBC engineering students suspended a Volkswagen off the Lions Gate Bridge | Jason Payne/The Province

The quintessential university prank comprises two elements: first, the feat should be technically ambitious. In the words of the legendary pranksters at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), exemplary stunts require “making possible the improbable.” Since MIT students coaxed a live cow onto the roof of a dorm in 1928, engineering students across the continent have made cars, telephone booths and even full-sized sailboats appear in the most unlikely places.

Second, a good dose of competitiveness—sometimes bordering on vindictiveness—is the hallmark of a quality hoax. A famous example: at the annual Yale-Harvard football game in 2004, Yale students, disguised as the fictional “Harvard pep squad,” distributed white-and-red placards to 1,800 unsuspecting Harvard fans. The fans were told that when they lifted the placards, they would read, “Go Harvard.” They actually spelled, “We suck.”

While the foundation of the pranking tradition can be fairly claimed by American students, Canadian students have begun to challenge their pre-eminence as tricksters.

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Who am I?

By Julia Belluz - Thursday, November 18, 2010 at 11:20 AM - 0 Comments

PHOTOGRAPH BY KC ARMSTRONG

You’re not like your parents, but you confide in them. You’ve been stamped the iPod generation, but you believe in the power of print and that some technologies are evil. Recent polls provide a portrait of the class of 2011.

OPTIMISTIC
Seventy-nine per cent believe it’s possible to create your destiny, and 52 per cent feel you will fulfill every one of your dreams. Almost all of you feel you will make it to graduation, and nearly two-thirds say you’re engaged and enthusiastic about school.

GODLESS
Is there a god? Not likely. You live in the moment, and probably do not participate in religion. In fact, your belief in science may trump your belief in god.

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Odds are picking up

By Stephanie Findlay - Thursday, November 18, 2010 at 11:20 AM - 0 Comments

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“If you strike out everywhere else, just come to the Mount,” says Cody Brown, a congenial second-year student at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax. The reason is simple: the Mount’s student body is 79 per cent women. “It’s a great ratio,” says the 19-year-old enthusiastically. “A phenomenal ratio.”

Though the Mount is an extreme example, female-dominated campuses are an increasing reality at universities across the country. According to Statistics Canada, 57 per cent of the student body in universities is female. Of the 69 schools Maclean’s surveyed in its 2010 university guide, 24 institutions have a student body that’s over 60 per cent female. And it’s not just Mount Saint Vincent where the females make up more than 70 per cent of the population. It’s the same at NSCAD University and Université Sainte-Anne.

The trend is welcome news for women who want to focus on homework instead of being incessantly courted, and men who like all the attention. But as the female-to-male ratio skews, dating must adapt.

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'You are the Weird Mom'

By Johanna Schneller - Thursday, November 18, 2010 at 11:00 AM - 0 Comments

Photograph by Daniel Ehrenworth, Illustration by Taylor Shute

The first stop on the university road trip that my 17-year-old daughter Hayley and I took in August probably shouldn’t have been my alma mater, the University of Virginia. Her uni tour wasn’t about me. At least, that’s what I kept telling myself.

I’m an American who has spent the last 16 years living in Toronto, raising two Canadian children. I’ve grappled with the politics (you don’t vote directly for the prime minister?), the history (you won the War of 1812?) and the baffling modesty (hey, the pursuit of happiness is my inalienable right). So I’ve long imagined that when Hayley applied to universities, some would be in the States. She spent her first year in Los Angeles, and I thought she should experience what it’s like to live in her birth country rather than next to it. But because even I have figured out that Canadian universities deliver an equal education at a much lower cost, I posited that the only schools worth heading south for were the Dream Team, the super-high-end institutions that offer the moon—and, not incidentally, generous financial aid.

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They spent it on what?!

By Sarah Boesveld - Thursday, November 18, 2010 at 10:40 AM - 2 Comments

Christinne Muschi/Reuters

The story made headlines everywhere: it was Feb. 11, 2009, and Daniel Ferman was a member of Drop YFS, a group dedicated to overthrowing the York Federation of Students. Drop YFS was presenting a petition with 5,000 signatures—enough to stage a coup of sorts. They were protesting the student union’s support for a teachers’ strike, which would potentially leave students on the hook for missed class time. They were also against the union backing the Israeli Apartheid Week, which many pro-Israel students despised. As the press conference began, Ferman and his fellow Drop YFS members were faced with a crush of student union members who came in to denounce the petition rally. After a volley of shouting, the crowd moved to the Hillel student lounge where some of the Drop YFS members took refuge. “Students were barricaded in the lounge,” says Ferman, who was Hillel @ York’s president at the time and helped organize the Drop YFS effort. “It got very nasty. Police were called. There were racist slurs.”

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Mission Canadian

By Josh Dehaas - Thursday, November 18, 2010 at 10:40 AM - 0 Comments

These engineering students will come to Canada to finish their degrees | University of Waterloo

The new campus of the University of Waterloo has lots of Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Iranian students, but none from Ontario. You’ll see more hijabs than Flames jerseys at the University of Calgary’s new nursing school. That’s because both schools are in the Middle East—and they aren’t meant for Canadians.

Waterloo’s new campus in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Calgary’s three-year-old nursing school in Doha, Qatar, reflect a new strategy by Canadian universities to recruit bright students, train professors, and build connections throughout the world. These new campuses aren’t just small universities either. They’re mini diplomatic missions. If you ask Amit Chakma, president of the University of Western Ontario, they’re also the key to Canada’s future place in the world.

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Ms. President

By Josh Dehaas - Thursday, November 18, 2010 at 10:40 AM - 1 Comment

Chris Bolin Photography, Photograph by Andrew Tolson

When Elizabeth Cannon showed up for her first day of engineering school in 1979, women made up five per cent of the program. Now, as she takes the reins of the University of Calgary, women make up 23 per cent of the school’s future engineers and more than half of the university’s student population, a trend reflected in schools across Canada.

But as Canadians fret over the feminization of lecture halls and ponder affirmative action for males, they seem to have missed the fact that the number of women sitting in the president’s chairs remains stubbornly low. In the fall of 2000, 12 of the 68 leaders of Canadian universities—18 per cent—were female. A decade later, just 13 of 70—19 per cent—are women. The U.S. saw a similar rise and plateau: in 1986, women made up nine per cent of university and college heads; the number grew to 19 per cent in 1998 before growth stalled again, settling at just 23 per cent today. Female professors are being hired in almost equal numbers to men—45 per cent of new full-time teaching positions were awarded to women in 2008—but the upper ranks are still overwhelmingly male. Just 22 per cent of full-time professors are women, although they make up a majority of education departments and nearly half of arts teachers.

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Introducing . . . our Student panel

By macleans.ca - Thursday, November 18, 2010 at 10:20 AM - 1 Comment

PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDREW TOLSON

Ever wonder how we find out what students are thinking? We ask them. This year, these 20 students will post weekly video commentary at OnCampus.Macleans.ca.

ST. PATRICK SECONDARY (Vancouver) Erika Kinach, 17, has her sights set high—all the way to Mars. After touring a replica of the International Space Station at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Kinach decided she wants to be an astronaut. If she doesn’t make the cut, being a neuroscientist will do.	UBC (Vancouver) Jeremy McElroy, 22, noticed that there weren’t enough fun events for the under-18 crowd when he arrived at UBC, so he learned how to DJ and started promoting campus parties. “We’d always sell out of tickets,” says the vice-president of the student union. His next goal: getting rapid transit built out to UBC.	THOMPSON RIVERS (Kamloops, B.C.) Brian Payne, 21, says he’s not a homework person. Brian plays intramural basketball, plenty of video games, and is enjoying residence life (sometimes too much). “I’m in a quad so we end up being the hosts of the parties—even on nights when we don’t want to be.”
CALGARY (Calgary) Jennifer Abbott, 21, a B.C. native, wants to be a politician. The political science student recently spent two months working on a city council candidate’s campaign. “I learned that city politics is a lot like student politics,” says Abbott. “And the importance of door-knocking.” To get away, Abbott snowboards in the Rockies.	ALBERTA (Edmonton) Nick Dehod, 24, is focusing on mental health issues during his term as president of U of A’s student union. (He convinced the school to hire five new counsellors.) He’s also a bass guitar player. “That’s my venue to get my creative energy out and just relax,” says the sociology and economics student.	SASKATCHEWAN (Saskatoon) Ishmael Napoleon Daro, 21, legally registered his own middle name at the age of 18. Why Napoleon? “Through pure charisma, this ‘nobody’ changed the world,” says the fourth-year Afghani immigrant. Daro transferred to political science from English, “because English has a lot of reading.”
MANITOBA (Winnipeg) Shelley Halchuk, 30, was running a nail business when she took a friend for some dental surgery and the dentist showed her how his job was like working with nails. Now, she’s in year one of dentistry and heads the Aboriginal student association. She’s looking forward to her first sweat lodge.	WINNIPEG (Winnipeg) Chris Hunter, 21, almost took a music degree instead of communications and rhetoric. Luckily, he met musicians outside of class and was able to get his creative fix on the side, as a member of the band Amuse. Hunter is now focused on writing for local publication the Uniter, and his degree.	WESTERN (London, Ont.) Pascale Gordon, 21, spent 40 straight days this summer doing yoga, journalling, dieting and meditating. “It taught me that exams and stress are never as big a deal as we think they are.” Gordon, a third-year media student, reads style blogs and freelances in graphic design.