Readers offer their opinions on the education system in Saskatchewan and an article about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s travel by plane.
I used to have this black pair of pants and the label on them proudly announced “one size fits all” — but they don’t fit me anymore.
This seems to be the same problem with the nature of education and education funding in Saskatchewan. The rhetoric from all sides has made education a battleground in the coming election.
From the Saskatchewan Teachers Federation to local school divisions, to popular influencers like Mr. Tank and Mr. Mandryk, there seems to be concern over funding/administrative differences and in political outlooks.
Education in our province seems to have become similar to the very debatable issues of phonics versus a whole language approach raised in Mr. Zwaagstra’s excellent article, in that a lot of people have strong opinions and these opinions relate to their politics.
Interestingly, many people require both phonics and whole language to learn to read — I did.
But choices in education and developing a flexible system that allows for an expression of the needs and wants of students, parents and taxpayers and adequate and fair funding models will produce better results.
Mike Sluchinski, Saskatoon
Piece bashing PM travel lacked vital info
Already the first paragraph shows the author’s obvious wish to bash the prime minister — “travelling by private jet over the course of the summer.” Private jet? Could he not take a commercial flight?
Only in the final paragraph do we read that, for a Canadian prime minister of any political stripe, “commercial travel is prohibited for security reasons.” For the Conservative Party, too.
This “private” opinion piece also implies that the prime minister just jetted around for some private (selfish) reason. An objective opinion piece would have included a vital piece of information: Why was Trudeau travelling, and where?
One trip was to a meeting of the United Nations at which the prime minister was scheduled to speak. Does the StarPhoenix truly consider that trip just jetting around the country over the summer? I expect more from the editorial office of this newspaper.
Marian Noll, Saskatoon
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