SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT

Money-Making Opportunity

The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) is offering to pay $1000 for “proposals for practical, stand-alone, progressive, classroom-ready lessons/unit plans of 4 to 5 lessons in length on social issues such as (but not limited to) globalization, world peace, anti-discrimination, environmental issues, universal child care, sexual harassment, aboriginal issues, poverty, etc.” Since SQE operates on a shoestring, receiving no government funding, and relying solely on the generosity of its individual supporters, we have decided to try to augment our budget by submitting some lesson plans. Here are some of our ideas:

• Climategate (the stolen e-mails and other evidence that global warming is not a threat after all)
• Sexual Abstinence (a discussion of why teenagers would be better off waiting to become sexually active)
• Free Markets (the power of Adam Smith’s invisible hand and the baleful effects of unions and other pro-monopoly forces)
• Universal Child Care (an honest look at the real costs of existing initiatives and their disappointing results)
• Perpetuation of Class Differences (an analysis of schools’ role in preventing disadvantaged children from rising above the circumstances of their birth)

These are only a few ideas, and we invite our readers to vote for their favourite or perhaps suggest a lesson plan of their own - the more the merrier. The OSSTF is bound to be impressed by our submissions!