> CP wrote --
>> True enough; our SBs are more just administrators of the funds given to them
> by the provincial Ministry of Education.
> Those who pay the piper call the tune, as the old saying goes.

Well, we taxpayers do the paying.

> If one is in control of the purse they have a lot a say in a matter.

There you go -- the cxrux of the matter.  We fill the purse, but certain much- unloved bureaucrat weinies control where it goes, & how quickly or not ('fiscal bandwidth' as a new buzz phrase?)

>>So happy my mom and dad taught me to think for myself - it's so critical now,
>but it's sad to know how rare this is. Being as I have to live with the idiots
> these people elect. Frustrating.
> When I was in school critical thinking was taught.  Not formally as a
> class, but within classes.

I had yhe odd teacher who taught beyond the rigidity of the corporation-centred curreiculum -- they stand out as most of my favourites.

Ytou & were fortunate to be in school when ceertain books & authors wetre still required reading (1984, Animal Farm, Robert A Heinlein(a fellow Navy man--his  memories of his time in the Navy were among his favourite & most passed on into his writings; he taught me a lot about righteous tebellion -- that a man(or  woman) must be wiling, & able, to stabnd up for themselves, their country, &  their family/friends--he strongly believed in everyone should serve 2 years  minimum in their country's military, but preferably without legal coercion-- only societal peer pressure, when necessary.) & Orwell, of course, was giving  us a clear warning, that certain powerfeeders have chosen to read as an  instruction manual.

> If one had an idea popular or unpopular, they had to explain why they
> thought that way.

Nice! I had one teacher who had the balls to introduce Creation as just being a choice among others (I was in Canada's Bible Belt); he brought up the topic in  Socials, to preface our World History segment. & asked who believed in  Evolution, or Creation, or "Other"; then he asked for reps of each side to  explain their posit8on -- it reallyboileddown to home environment & even 10- year-olds figured that one out; he gave us a task over lunch hour -- to  research & come back and prove which is rightr & why, over the others. No  opinions, only proveable facts.

Naturally, duruing the afternoon debrief, nobody was able to stand up & prove,  using objective facts.  I was the onewho poted out that science rerquires  observation & reproducibility, so Evolution as a complete theory isstill  lacking, but I said it had the most for it, as built into science was the  concept of keep searcyhing for more facts, & ways to prove (which they believe  they've done by reproducing/observing pieces of the entire evolutionary  timeline chain of actions & reactions.--I personally believe(& have observatins for) that they've omitted some clear evidences that widens the category into  one that's rightfully inclusive of Creation. I'm working on this Super-Unified  Theory.  Could be a lifetime job that only results in my passing on my work to  others after I'm dusted. . .

> Anymore that isn't taught.  Its all too much group think.

True; today's teachers have graduated the new ultra-Lie-beral college  grouptrthink 'thinking' & no longer think for themselves nor allow such in  theirclassroomsd -- I cab't list how many times I got penalized for being more  correct than the curriculum wanted. I got my As & A+s, but eventually they  dropped those, as they left too much room for kids to surpass the caps(in  either direction)

I'm stil mad, 45 years later that I got marked wrong in Pphonics for spelling  wordsacorrecly, the weya they sounded(to me, who was taught at age 3 or 4 that  wordfs like neighbour & weigh are properly pronounced as the "ei"  vowel/dipthong, so when asked to spell these phonetically, I somehow spelled  them correctly & was marked wrong because I didn't write nabor & wa; I still  won't dumb down my knowledge of proper English, but I keep it to myself when  it's in conflict with my paycheque signer's position. (practicality, plus it's  not nice to mock the disabled)

I refuse to allow aritrary self-interest to alter my beloved mother tongue.

I can't type worth crap, one-handed, but I know how the words I use are spelt.

I try to use proper conversational rules, to translate words when necesary for  my auduience, spo when wqriting in the USA to Americans, I'm happy to use  Americxan spel;linlgs on occasion, when I think to, as I'm bilingual that way.  (quite multilingual, in fact; I'll list the languages I'm fluent in at the  bottom here); hmm, darn, lost that text file of 80+ languages I speak fluently  (spoiler: all were English, per the fact that the countries I list have English as an official language.)

>> I still love learning & am as happy reading dictionaries & encyclpedias as
> novels.  My son prefers encyclopedias to novels.
> I enjoy reading phone books.  Not much of a plot but a lot of
> characters...  

I've hear hat -- never got into them myself.

Did you know you can reuse old phone books as personal address books by simply  blacking out the names of the people you don't know (this joke worked better in a public forum when everyone knew what a phone book was & got a new one every  year or two)

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-6