To Play or To Not Play: That is the Issue!
This is truly a topic that never seems to get settled nor does it ever go away: gender in sports. This will be an interesting topic for us especially because we have observed some instances of it in our own class.
What am I talking about? Well a professional, female goalie by the name of Stephanie Labbé wanted to play on the men’s Calgary Foothills FC soccer team. She made it onto the team…BUT the league did not allow her. Why? Because she is a woman. That is all.
Nothing to do with her skill level or her ability: it was her gender which got her barred. To make matters even worse, she anticipated that she would be placed on this men’s team and is now having to scramble to get signed on to play for another team.
Here is a new’s article to provide you with a detailed story.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/top-female-soccer-player-barred-from-mens-league-1.4644837
So what do you think about this? Should sports be segregated – that is, leagues for only men and women or should they be mixed? Do you think that Labbé should be allowed to join this team or is she interfering with the men’s league? Do you think that if she played on this men’s team, she might be treated differently because she is a woman? For example, if she had a tough game and let in 5 goals, would people be more likely to say that she is a woman who is not cut out to play in a man’s league or no? Do you think that news like this discourages women from playing professional level sports or no?
Thank you to Ms. Dunnett for sharing this story when it broke!
Our Digital Footprint
Social Media! I know, I know, you can’t live without it, right? But do we ever think about what happens with what we post about ourselves? Like if I, say, post those pictures of our Ninja gang: Fontay, Lyriam, Ro-Ro, Matthew, Darrel, Broodie, and Jesh, that Jessie and Jhanine swore was fake lol? Where do those pictures go? Could anyone see those pictures? What about our accounts and the information that we post on them?
These thoughts are all in response to a problem that just hit the news: Facebook got busted! And I mean, a bad bust, an $80 BILLION DOLLAR LOSS! So what happened, you ask? Well, a report revealed that a British company called Cambridge Analytica had taken the personal information of 50 MILLION Facebook profiles. (Just FYI: Canada’s population is roughly 36.3 million people). Why did they do it? Apparently the information was used to track voter behaviour for both the Brexit campaign (British exiting from the European Union) and the US presidential election (where your totally…umm… favourite president was elected to power!) Now, you might ask, well how did they steal all of this information? They were super sneaky! A professor by the name of Aleksandr Kogan who also has a company called, Global Science Research, built a personality app called “thisisyourdigitallife.” Before taking this quiz, Facebook users had to input personal information about themselves. Take a guess what he did with the information? His company sold the information to Cambridge Analytica. In total, there were 270,000 Facebook users who signed up for the personality test. But!! The app stole information of each user’s Facebook friends… who could not have provided consent for releasing their personal information. How did we find out? A Canadian who was the Director of Research at Cambridge Analytica by the name of Christopher Wylie. (He is called a whistleblower. A whistleblower is someone who exposes anything that is illegal or unethical).
So, what are your thoughts? Do you think that it is scary that these large corporations, have access to our personal information and can use it in any way that they see fit? Or, is it not that big of a deal? So what if our information is out there, that is the whole point of the internet! Also, please take a guess as to what you think our ‘digital footprint’ might mean and include it in your response. Why are your thoughts on this Facebook scandal? Will this issue cause you to be more cautious in the future when you are using apps or not really? Please write a detailed response of roughly 15-20 sentences!
Birth Tourism
Welcome to yet another controversial topic which asks for the thoughts of you – vocal and opinionated smarties!
There is something that has been happening in our province that has been stirring up a lot of hullabaloo. Did I say stirring, I meant crying! You are probably wondering, what! Ever heard of ‘birth tourism?’ Well birth tourism is when women travel to another country so that they can give birth to their baby.
Why do people do this, you ask? If you are from a country that is perhaps less socio-economically developed (remember, we don’t use words like First World or Third World anymore!), why not have your child born in a country that will give them better living conditions? In fact, this child will get free public schooling, healthcare, other aid and eventually be able to sponsor their parents. Sounds good, right? Well, this is what some people are starting to think and are travelling to countries, especially like: Hong Kong, the United States and Canada (top three for birth tourism).
Why are these countries such hot-spots? Well nations like the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Tanzania and Fiji offer unconditional birthright citizenship. This means that if you are born in one of the above countries, you are now a citizen of that country.
To prevent birth tourism, countries like South Africa, New Zealand, France, Germany and the United Kingdom all have birthright citizenship with restrictions – that is, one parent must be a citizen of that country. Interestingly, India is one of the only nations that does not have birthright citizenship because of its large population.
Now think about it for a second. You know that your child could have a successful life if he/she/they were Canadian, wouldn’t you want to help your child in any way you could? What happens if schooling costs lots of money in your home country and you would not be able to pay for your child’s education? But let’s also think about people who are trying to immigrate to Canada and have to wait so long to be reunited with their family. They have to go through lots of detailed paperwork and scans? How is it fair to them?
Take a read of this article:
https://globalnews.ca/news/4111024/birth-tourism-richmond-petition/
So of course, it is time for you to weigh in. What are your thoughts about this issue? Do you agree or disagree with birth tourism, and why? Do you think that it is a big deal or is the media / government making us feel that it is? Please provide detailed responses of 15-20 sentences.
Air Canada or Air Awful?
When you travel, which airline carrier do you choose? Some of you may say Air Canada, as would I, especially since it’s our national carrier. But there have been allegations that have surfaced which are not so nice to hear. In order to improve their customer service, apparently Air Canada forced their flight attendants to go through personal harassment and discrimination. Employees had to perform a model walk which they could only pass or fail on. (I know many of you would be able to complete a fantastic model walk, especially Paanini and Rohan!) You might be thinking, those aisles in an airplane are so narrow, why would they be needing to do that for? Well it does not end there! Apparently managers lined up flight attendants and critiqued their nails and makeup. In a formal complaint given to the Canadian Human Rights Commission, flight attendants “were subjected to degrading and discriminatory comments,” like “eyes were too small” and skin colour was “too white.”
The complaint also spoke about an updated handbook (a book for employees to reference for help / information) which gave extensive makeup advice for female employees. and advice on how to apply lipstick and how to emphasise their eyebrows. Air Canada has responded by saying that, “we have zero tolerance for discrimination or harassment.”
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So now it’s your time to weigh in. Do you think that if these allegations are true, that Air Canada went too far in assessing its flight attendant’s appearances? Or is it their company and they should be able to give feedback on how they would like their employees to look like? Take a moment to think about a potential job that you would like to have in the future. Is there a dress code for this job? (For example, when I worked at Starbucks, I had to wear black – yes, Jhanine loves that lol. I could not wear nail polish or have my hair out. I also had to wear an apron.) Do you think that this is fair or you should be able to dress and wear whatever you would like? Or, perhaps you support something in-between? Be sure to respond to all of these questions in your detailed response of 15-20 sentences!
“We Missed the Mark”
Remember this ad? 
Better yet, do you remember what Dove said about this advertisement? They apologised and said, “Dove is committed to representing the beauty of diversity. In an image we posted this week, we missed the mark in thoughtfully representing women of colour and we deeply regret the offense that it has caused.”
THEY MISSED THE MARK!!! WHO SAYS THAT? Well, maybe me in golf…lol. But let’s look at another company that also messed up… pay attention to what their excuse is.
In your response below, be sure to interpret this ad: what is it saying and what is its’ hidden message? It’s your turn to weigh in- do you think that these are just honest mistakes or do you think that there are other reasons why companies make such mistakes? Is an apology or a short statement enough or should these huge companies face some sort of consequence? Your response should be roughly 15-20 detailed sentences.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/28/business/media/heineken-racist-ad.html
Pink Day!
Once again, we were reminded about the impact that our words and actions have on our peers and those close to us. Though it was based off of some accurate depictions of bullying, the film, Wonder, was deeply inspiring and moving. You may have even been able to relate to little Auggie Pullman. This film demonstrated quite clearly that bullying impacts not only the victim, but his/her/their family as well.
Please write your thoughts on the film below with as much detail as possible. Then, explain which moments of the film struck you the most. What were some forms of bullying that you saw which made your heart sink for Auggie? Lastly, any final thoughts as to why you think that it is beneficial to have a Pink Day in school.
Length: 14-18 sentences. Remember to italicise the film’s name which is the ‘capital I’ above and use the notes that you took during the film.
freedom quilts
my quilt is the north star. I chose it because it leads the slaves to beautiful and amazing Canada. It also represents the Drinking gourd (the big Dipper). The North Star was the guiding light because it always points to the north. It was an important navigational tool for the ship owners who took the slaves from Cleveland or Detroit to Canada. The North Star is the last block in the Underground Railroad Sampler quilt. The quilt top was finished into a light-weight quilt, raffled off for the benefit of the Edwards Historical Association and won by an appreciative teacher at Edwards-Knox Central School, Chris Backus, who plans to use it in her classroom. i got that data from a website
freedom quilts
Freedom quilts
Hello today I’m going to be talking about my quilt witch is the Cabin House so yeah let’s get started. So the meaning of my quilt, the meaning of my quilt is in my own words this: a symbol that is a quilt or that can be drawn on the floor indicating that it was necessary to find shelter or that a person is okay to talk. So that was the meaning of the quilt and why I choose this design is because I think that you can put so much detail in this and add like special effects so you can make the wood stand out more and also I think that this cabin log looks really good in the images so that’s why I choose this this quilt inspired me because It really has a lot of detail in the meaning and also because the quilt really is inspirational. And yeeee thanks for listening geet
Black History Month
February is the month of Valentines, right? Um, not quite! It is also: Black History Month! This month, we all made fantastic presentations regarding someone who inspired us. We learned more about compassion and empathy while also understanding the importance of diversity and social justice. We learned the importance of allies and remembering that being a bystander to any form of discrimination is not okay!
Along with our presentations, we designed some quilt art. As we learned, these quilts all had messages. Below we will explain a bit about the quilt chosen, why it inspired us and why it was picked!
