This was supposed to be the year classrooms broke up with screens. What went wrong?
Back in early September, school boards across the country informed parents that kids would no longer be allowed to use their smartphones in class. Now, a few months later, not much has changed. In many schools—including my daughter’s middle-school classes—kids still sneak their phones onto their desks, hide them behind books and look down at them in their laps. Every teacher enforces the no-phone policy differently. How did the lofty smartphone ban fall apart? Maclean’s contributing editor Luc Rinaldi decided to find out. His story, “Schools vs. Screens,” from the December issue of Maclean’s, is based on months of interviews with educators, parents and students. Rinaldi concludes that smartphone bans can’t be done in half measures. For the ban to work, phones have to be confiscated. But many school administrators are uncomfortable taking possession of student property, even briefly. Rinaldi also points to the underfunding of public schools as a factor in the phone wars: many boards don’t have the money to buy textbooks or laptops. Some schools ration paper and notebooks. Students depend on their phones as learning devices. Tellingly, the places where phone bans work are often deep-pocketed private schools. Rinaldi’s story provides a vivid portrait of the state of education in Canada and the challenge of trying to go tech-free. —Sarah Fulford, editor-in-chief |
When it comes to wealth, some things never change: the bulk of Canada’s money is still held by a few at the top. What has changed is where that affluence lives. Now, mixed among the evergreen hedge fund managers and real estate moguls are e-commerce giants, crypto cowboys and tech wizards. From our December issue, read Maclean’s extensively researched ranking of the country’s wealthiest grocers, tech giants, developers, investors and other mega moguls. Compared to eras past, it’s a whole new world of wealth. |
When Maïté Snauwaert’s estranged mother died suddenly in 2023, she felt lost. The separation was cruel and unexpected, and she had no idea how to process it. Soon after, she learned of a unique grief retreat in California; it’s part of a growing end-of-life industry that intends to transform how society deals with death. In her essay for Maclean’s, she writes about how her experience there changed her own outlook on death and grieving—and what it showed her about how an aging society like Canada can prepare for an oncoming wave of mortality. |
For months, news headlines and economic pundits have been wringing their hands over Canada’s supposed productivity problem. A recent report by the University of Calgary showed that Canada’s productivity level, measured by real GDP per capita, was 12 per cent lower than the U.K.’s, 20 per cent lower than France’s and a whopping 32 per cent lower than the U.S.A.’s. Brian Lewis, a public policy economist at U of T’s Munk School, rejects the premise outright. He argues that GDP is merely one aspect of a country’s productivity and that we must also factor in things like Canada’s public-sector output and income, health, fairness and happiness. “While GDP measures output, it misses many factors that contribute to quality of life. It turns out that when we look at other measures, Canadians are doing pretty well compared to other countries,” he writes. |
|
|
Copyright © 2024 All rights reserved SJC Media, 15 Benton Road, Toronto, ON M6M 3G2 You are receiving this message from St. Joseph Communications because you have given us permission to send you editorial features Unsubscribe |
|
|
|
