Hot Takes: 2 April 2024

What did I say on the radio today?

I joined John Moore’s Tuesday morning roundtable discussion on Newstalk 1010 at 7:45am, along with Deb Hutton and Scott Reid.

1.     Federal government unveils school food program. $1 billion over five years to feed 400,000 kids is $2.50 per school day. What kind of “well-balanced meal” will that buy? Will it make a difference? It depends entirely on how much of that money goes to administration and bureaucracy. I spent $2 on an apple from the grocery store the other day. I grew up on welfare and there were days I was hungry when I went to bed at night, so I get it. I never ate breakfast. Later, I became wealthier and still didn’t eat breakfast. Neither do my kids. I’d rather sleep another five or ten minutes than get up and make breakfast.

I’m not sure breakfast is the problem. And I don’t think wealth is the issue. I think anecdotes of kids eating chips from a vending machine instead of a well-balanced lunch doesn’t tell me they’re poor. Vending machine snacks are expensive. Trust me, I know!

I think kids go to school without eating breakfast, or without packing a healthy lunch, from all walks of life: rich or poor. If we want to introduce a nutrition program, I’d look at offering cheap lunches, not just apples in the morning for everyone. And, I’d look at teaching all kids how to cook simple, cheap meals like pasta and sauce. Our emphasis on breakfast is, I suspect, an artifact of generations of brilliant breakfast cereal and dairy industry marketing telling us “breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” It’s not. It never was. They’re all important.

2.     Teachers without credentials will be allowed to teach tech. Teaching is a competency. If you know how to teach, you can teach anything you understand. You don’t need a degree in every subject area. You do need expert knowledge to create the curriculum and develop effective lesson plans and find resources. So, an expert should develop those teaching materials that teachers without the same depth of expertise can follow. Practical skills need to be learned hands-on, so teachers with those skills will be better at imparting them to students. I understand this is a stopgap measure owing to a lack of tech teachers. It may not be ideal, but it can work

If principals are smart and teachers are capable, I don’t have an issue with this process. We need leaders in our schools with good judgment and discretion and we need to let them use their initiative to solve problems. Give them the flexibility to do so. If they lack judgment, we have a much bigger problem.

3.     Minor hockey player suspended after calling out racism on the ice. In cases like this, there is almost always more to the story than what gets reported. I’d love to know the rest of the story. I’d also like to know how the provincial minor hockey association learned about this incident. Who reported it? What were they told? They seem to have backed down on their initial punishment decree quite quickly, so how did this process unfold?

I’m not concerned both players were disciplined, because a racist act needs to be addressed. The victim’s response to the alleged racist slur may also have been unacceptable under the player conduct rule. However, I balk at suspending a player for using foul language. A racist act is one thing. Swearing is entirely different. I ascribe to my mother’s wisdom that “words will never hurt me” and wish more people did.

4.     Gen Z choosing trade school and “toolbelt” jobs. We’ve been talking about this for years. We need tradespeople to make our world work. We need them so much we pay them extremely well. My richest cousin is a plumber. Not a lawyer. Nothing new here except the stigma of pursuing a career in the trades is starting to rub off.

5.     Should I cut ties with a conspiracy theorist family member?. Oh, my God. If you can’t live in a world with people who disagree with you, then you should go live in a cave on the dark side of a distant mountain. Old aunts are people you put up with. Maybe you also love them. You can sit, listen and smile at everything they say. That’s what they’ve done with you your entire life. If you want to engage and disagree, go for it. But, if you don’t convince them, know that means you’re just not very convincing.

6.     Pet care costs have skyrocketed. Aahhh… pets. I have a long and sordid history with pets. In the interest of disclosure, I should tell you I myself am a registered emotional support dog. I should also admit the only place I believe animals should be on a passenger airliner plane are in the cargo hold or on my dinner plate. But, I understand why people have pets. And, I understand why people love them. However, much we love them though, pets are not people. And they are not supposed to live as long as we do.

One of the lessons we, and our kids, are supposed to learn from caring for pets is mortality. All living things eventually die. That’s how the universe works. It’s sad and we grieve, but grief passes, and we go on living. The world continues. Death is natural. Better to learn that with a dog, before you have to learn it with grandma. It boggles my mind anyone would pay tens of thousands of dollars for a pet, no matter how beloved, for intricate medical care to briefly extend their lives. This is a unique affliction of wealth. Rich western societies like to pretend we can stay young and healthy forever and no one, and no pet, should ever die.