Education

When the lunch bell rings at Citadel High, there’s more traffic bustling through the halls than at some universities. The congestion of bodies filtering down the stairs, between doorways and through halls is normal for these students—after a year at Halifax’s super-high school they’re starting to get used to it. This past fall, Citadel High […]

Oh. Now I get it. This is what it’s like to be the parent of a school-aged child. Which is to say, worn to the nub by the blind machinations of the Department of Education and the Halifax Regional School Board. This morning I could be hanging out with my daughter. It’s a PD day […]

Ultimate decision-making at Saint Mary’s University—including final say on university budgets, tuition rates and hiring—relies in part on the approval of the Catholic Church. It’s a state of affairs that doesn’t sit right with Mark Mercer, a professor of philosophy at the school. “This should be a secular institution,” he says.SMU was founded by Catholics […]

Holly Taylor has to feel happy. Students at Saint Mary’s University have voted to stabilize and more than double funding to the Saint Mary’s University Women’s Centre, which Taylor heads up as coordinator. But that levy vote isn’t all good. With it has come the news that the SMU Women’s Centre is losing the financial […]

Let’s role-play: it’s September and you’re a second-year education student specializing in English at Mount Saint Vincent University. You’ve got to find a practice teaching placement in a few months. But by the time you start your practicum, students from Presque Isle and Fort Kent in Maine have snatched up the positions you wanted—they grabbed […]

New students flock to the East Coast every September with shiny shoes and rosy outlooks—and then congregate every February with blue placards and empty pockets to demand tuition reductions. Despite increased corporate sponsorship in universities, tuition fees have continued to climb, and student debt is up 126 percent from 10 years ago. Tuition fees are […]

In last Saturday’s Globe and Mail, Barbara Ehrenreich makes the point that people teaching sexual abstinence should be abstinent themselves. Which is a good idea. Coast columnist Dan Savage gave a talk in Halifax several years ago; he pointed out that those who teach sex education in schools seem never to show any passion or […]

If you want to know how prevalent cocaine is in Halifax, just ask a friend. Chances are they’ve heard about where to get it or someone who’s used it. Cocaine, once known as the champagne of drugs, has become a $100 can of Red Bull. “It’s become, by far, way more prevalent,” says JP Crowell, […]

Bryan Maycock, chair of NSCAD University’s foundation program, strides down the wide, open corridor on the second floor of the university’s new port campus. He goes right into tour mode—his enthusiasm and anticipation for kicking off the inaugural year in the south end waterfront location is evident. The 200 to 240 foundation students will bypass […]