Religions Courses are NOT MANDATORY in Ontario's Catholic Schools

Post type: Short Excerpt

I will make this post short as it exists purely for information that many parents might not be aware of, and of course, my own opinion.

• Ontario's Catholic Schools are funded by public taxpayers money
• In Toronto in particular, publicly funding the singular Catholic faith backed education system and not funding say, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, etc. (forgive me if I missed your religion) does not seem to make sense.
• Irony of ironies, Quebec in 1997 abolished the Catholic and public systems and instead took on the French-speaking and English-speaking school systems
• Parents send their children to Catholic schools mostly for these reasons:  fuller, better educational resources, smaller classes, closer to home, more homogeneous, safe surrounding of peers, and sometimes the spiritual teachings and character lessons.
• The massive hoard of unemployed teachers cannot seek employment in the Catholic School Boards without showing proof of "involvement" (pastor's reference) in Catholic church (i.e. at least you attend masses, or you are somehow related to a Catholic church and knows the pastor well, I suppose), i.e. 2/3 of Ontario's Teachers cannot seek employment in 1/3 of Ontario's Schools - other than being Catholic, they have the same qualification on everything else.
• In a survey done in 1997, 79% of voters were in support of a single public system in Ontario. However, nothing has been done, really, as of today.
• A merging of the two school systems saves $1 billion in Ontario per year, who is only running at a deficit of 10.5 billion dollars in the 2013-2014 year.
• In Ontario, to attend a Catholic school from Kindergarten to Grade 8 will require at least one parent be baptised Catholic (or the children attending be baptised Catholic).
• In the high school level in Ontario, any students can attend Catholic schools

...And here's what I'd like to make clear to parents who are choosing Catholic schools for those aforementioned reason, and happens to have the misunderstanding that religion courses are mandatory as part of attending the school - THEY ARE NOT 

The Education Act of Ontario clearly states the following:

42 (13)  ...no person who...attends a secondary school operated by a
Roman Catholic board shall be required to take part in any program or

course of study in religious education on written application to the

Board of the parent or guardian of the person.

A website is made to inform parents of this: http://www.myexemption.com

In fact, any religious activities are not mandatory either. Now, with that extra course slot a year, maybe your kid can take that food&nutrition course or astronomy or travel&tourism course they've always had their wonderous keen eyes on.

So, parents, please do exploit all resources available to you and ripe the most out of what you can with what is available at your fingertips. You are paying the tax, use it!

Here is a case where a Brampton father has been granted his right to withdraw his children from religious activities while they are enrolled in a Catholic School.

We should all try to make happen an excellent single publicly funded school system in Ontario rather than having elitist, segregationist, regressive, Catholic School System hoarders who imagines themselves levitating in the sky on public taxpayers' money while preaching the "correct" morals of Catholic teaching stand on our heads and wield freedom and human rights in their favour.

Collecting Thoughts - What Happened to My Single-Minded Pursuit of My Dream Career?

Post Type: Short Excerpt

Since this post marks my 50th post, I will write something thorough about myself.

In short - I have been in a quarter life crisis as I began to feel uncertain about my single-minded pursuit of being a high school teacher.

This term probably set a record for the number of introspective, depressive talks I have had with some close friends. Often times, I find many of us struggling to find a career that is fulfilling, their life's calling, uses their strengths, and they can tolerate, pride-wise. If you had met me back in grade 11, you would've thought Tappy was a lucky kid who knew exactly what she wanted that satisfied all of the above, she knew she wanted to be a high school teacher since she was some teenager. So what the hell happened?

Passion, drive, do things for the world, big dreams. All the teenage words that are so naive in front of reality - and no I am not talking about financial reality, I am an only child and I have my parents' financial backing for as long as I need to.

They were hit down somewhat by some reality that I have observed through my past experiences.

Lessons from mentors:
Maybe it was meant to be that life gives youngsters like me, who had a skewed, surreally optimistic view of the world a dose of reality.

My enthusiasm has definitely dampened through my various teaching experiences, with mediocre influences from some of my mentors. The reality that these established professionals give out:

The teaching profession - it's just another job. It's not a ground where dreams flourish and the best teacher can change the world. For many people, it's a job that is somewhat repetitive, requires increasingly less effort, and gives them time to pursue something else they enjoy with a lot of spare time. Want power? climb the darker administrative, political ladder.

Hypocrisy - I think this is prevalent in all of us as human beings. Many people are unhappy with themselves that they are sometimes hypocrites. Certainly this exists in the teaching, teachers say one thing, and outside of the jobs they act another way. They present to student how open-minded and accepting of others they themselves are. Yet their true personalities and actions do not tell the same story.

Arrogance: An exaggerated, unsatisfied ego - As I said in my previous post, I have had some mentors who seem to be in it to show-off, to gain self-gratification about being helpful, and/or think that they hold grander potential that were not exercised in the job, and always needing to find an audience to express how smart they are to fill up some unsatisfied ego.

Happiness + Upbeat = Ignorance - This is sadly the truth of a good amount of the happy people I know. I think they are wonderful people, so nice and kind and it's so much fun being around them. But in-tuneness with the fast-moving industry? Scope of knowledge? Career advice? Emotional empathy? A little harder to get out of them.

Dunning-Kruger Syndrome - I am so terrified of happily trapped in a small bubble that I stop growing - stop challenging myself. I stop researching real-world information, I lose touch with the real world, because I am in a position of authority, security and ultimately, telling things to young people, that I lose the desire to remain connected to the ever-improving reality and stop improving. I start to feel proud, and stop feeling my own diminuitiveness.

You may say that maybe I'm just not meeting the right people.

But there were good things too.

I have definitely met mentors that were like the sun to me. Bright, wise, and lights up my world instantaneously. Their kindness and optimism is enduring in my life, despite sometimes the hopes gets brought down by sequences of less fortunate events to follow almost immediately.

Ultimately, if I were to summarize these great mentors, they all had humility.

Humility - They know their limitations, because they have earned their current lifestyle not through given but through hardwork. Most of the best mentors have endeavoured other things in their life, or are currently in the pursuit of a passion in life. Some of them struggled through multiple facets of life, some of them were academic scholars previously, and knows the limitations of their intelligence, some are actively engaged in a competitive sport, some were previous industry professionals so they've seen the big world and knows its treachery and our limitations as people. In fact, most of these people who have great humility were those who have achieved great heights in their previous professional pursuits. They've seen a bigger world, with huge talents and competition, and had come to terms and found inner peace within themselves. As a result, they've become humble, and accepting, of others' mistakes, because they have had those experiences. These people are perceptive and observant. They see the world with an open-mind and do not let vacuous pride rush over their head.

It is no wonder these people are kinder people and wiser teachers.

How do I become an effective mentor to future students, if I am too ignorant to empathize with their experiences? How can someone not be ignorant if they are not perceptive? How can I tell my students with proper life wisdom if I have not pushed myself to the limit of my intellectual boundary before? How can someone be accepting of all if their world was filled with a small homogeneous collection of desirable things?

My experiences and my world have been so small, almost confined. Therefore I don't think of myself as a qualified teacher, to be giving academic and more importantly, life lessons to young people who are soaking up knowledge like sponge.

Thus I became unsure of my career choice - because I feel unqualified, and have nothing to offer.

So what must I do - don't start until I am completely ready and have experienced sufficient amount of things in my life that I feel I can make a substantial contribution? When is "completely ready"? In fact, should there even be a date of "completely ready" if I follow the philosophy of learning continuum that I so deeply believe?

Just when is "wise enough"? and how wise is wise enough?

I am not sure, and I don't know when I will be sure again. (Yes when I was young and naive I was secure and confident, and that died with knowledge)

But I have not stopped searching for answers.

Teaching Profession - Latent 'God Complex' a Driving Force?

Post type: Short Excerpt

Thought I should do a little bit of writing while in the midst of massive load of homework and midterms to clear my thoughts and regulate my study habits.

Last year in psych 101 I was exposed to the idea of Dunning-Kruger Syndrome, which is essentially, Einstein's famous quote that ego is inversely proportional to knowledge.

Certainly, there are many [materialistic] reasons to choose teaching as a profession - abundant time for family, time to explore one's hobby, job security, summers off, good benefits (at least in Canada), etc. But ultimately, sometimes there are people that give reason for choosing the profession is "passionate about teaching", and "wanting to help people", or at least use these reasons to cast the materialistic benefits that tagged along with the profession - and ironically, it's often these "passionate" teachers that give off a self-obsessed, god-like, show-off-ness.

But come on, who doesn't like power?

As an aside, institutions love power. (See my previous post about my struggle with co-op)

In fact, I think because I was so immature and ignorant at grade 10, I was not aware of my intrinsic god complex obsession. Looking back, I can almost guarantee that the driving force for my single-minded devotion to the profession is my latent god complex.

I am generally a lazy person, yet I daydream of achievements, but often falling short of them, and thus I hate myself. But this anger and dissatisfaction with myself has definitely given me a more sympathetic eye for my surroundings.

The desire to feel like a god, and have a powerful influence and control in some way over other people's lives can be such a strong motivational factor. I have met people who work very hard, excel at school or other aspects of life, but that through their actions, they echo the god-complex so loudly that being around them makes me unable to hear other things.

I love to help people, it feels great to have helped someone. It makes me feel like a god.

But just how entitled are we to help someone, if the motivation behind "helping someone", is to gain personal satisfaction of one's sense of power? 

This has been my core moral dilemma in the last 2 years when I started to question my choice of profession. I began to question whether it's right to be "helpful" from my own point of view.

I began to think that having a self-entitled god-complex is so wrong that it's shameful. So I stopped taking on leadership roles in extracurricular activities, started taking a diminished presence, and sank into a deep identity-moratorium (identity crisis) phrase.

Maybe it's because I have met [too many] teachers that were my mentors but gave off this god-complex feel, and that presence echoed so hard with my own inner demon that I've tried so hard to hide. You know those teachers that give off the feel of "lookit me, I am so smart, and I want all your attention"? It was as if they are in the profession because it's easier to show off their greatness - and certainly they are great in their field of expertise - to a more vulnerable group of people, and that they are obsessed with being god in front of these people.

Also not to mention jadedness - personal opinions after occasions of testing that seemed to be correct (by seemingly empirical evidence) is naturally taken as a fact.

Wouldn't these teacher, given how capable they [want to express themselves] are, be better off and find greater satisfaction in a career that challenged their intellectual capability more than a profession where they gain satisfaction by showing-off-in-front-of-kids-and-colleagues? Don't they feel vacuous in the long rum?

Looking at myself, am I really morally correct to be in the profession in the first place? I don't think that my motivation factor is any better than people who are in the profession because of the pension or holidays or the ability to get-paid-well-to-slack-off.

And going back to the Dunning-Kruger Syndrome, is it because I am too much of an underachiever, that I have been lazily content with what I have, when I have really, seen nothing yet, that I have this god-complex?

But even as I hide and coward it so much because I am so ashamed of my inner god-complex, I still cannot seem to focus to find a way to get rid of this desire, and straighten my vision so that my root motivation for being a leader in the classroom do not include an artificially improved sense of self-ego.

Just exactly how can I become a truly genuine teacher who is there because I love young people, and I want to be part of their lives as they are part of mine, MINUS the intrinisic show-off desire?

How do I kill a part that is a part of me?

If someone has a cure, I would love to buy it off you, and maybe I'll spread the word to my teacher-gods.

My story and suggestions with University of Waterloo's co-op job system

Post type: Short Excerpt

Note that this is a neutral post. It does not contain my opinion, just a state of factual information.

Unfortunately I will be removing the writing on my website off (at least for now), and turn it in to a real personal website. But I will give a non-biased summary of my journey through the last week here, and since I have gone fairly far into testing the elasticity of the system, if anyone needs advice in the future and whatnot, feel free to look here.

My story in point form:

• I applied to jobs on the first round through The System
• I also applied to some university bound computer science based teaching role jobs
• I wasn't sure if I wanted the job and I wasn't sure where I was headed for this co-op term
• I'd made up my mind that I want to go into industry after some reflection and learning about the tech world in the first month and a half of first round of The System
• When rankings came out, I only got ranked
• I ranked all the teaching related jobs a lowest factor of 9, it was not on my mind that I could possibly get matched
• I got matched
• I asked the employer if I could be out and explained my situation. The employer was understanding to let me go
• I told the The System, The System would not let me go
• I first talked to The System Mediator on the phone, nothing would change
• The  Mediator reported up to a Relations Person, and together they gave me 2 options
• Take the job and get the co-op credit
• Renege the job and lose the co-op credit, and no The System access for next round anyway
•  I asked them why are there no other options and claim that it isn't fair given my situation
• They suggested I start policy 70 - petition or grievance, but I must first choose one of the 2 options.
• At first they wrote me an email about policy 70 and questioned if I still think our meeting is necessary
• I asked that we should talk about why these are the only options
• They've agreed to talk with me, the Relations Person and The Mediator
• I wrote them a rationale as to why I ask to be released from the match and put back on The System
• They read the rationale
• At the meeting they refused that I have a special situation that alleviates me anymore consideration
• Their reason was that there's a policy to follow and I must follow policy
• So I took the matched job - the end

 My situation:

• I am a 5th year teaching program student
• I added computer science as a major in 4th year
• I only have a total of 4 co-op terms
• The first co-op term was in year 1
• The middle 2 co-op terms were obligated to be in teaching
• I also went to teacher's college in the middle of my undergrad (more teaching, so I've accumulated a good deal of teaching experience)
• The last co-op term is the only term I am free to do anything
• The last co-op term is my first time looking for a job in the industry, first time using The System
• In another word, a first year student's worth of experience, in a fifth year's timeline
• New to the tech circle (resume, tech interviews, etc.), I had to learn everything in the first month and a half
• I went though 2 years of schooling hoping I could get industry experience from this co-op term
• My employer was understanding and willing to release me from the first surprise match

I was not special. Neither will most of you. So I've definitely learned many lessons this last month and a half,  and of those, the most important ones I've learned are that:

• For big name tech jobs, interviewers generally contact you outside of The System
• To be unreliant on the mercy of external, one themselves must be strong
• Common sense and humanity is worthless compared to power and policy
• There are strategies to everything, including how to make things work, honesty and head-on reasoning doesn't always work in the real world
• When job hunting, don't hang yourself dead on one tree, use all resources available to you
• Think optimistically, but never give up trying, if you don't try, you are always in the same place

How to make things work - my suggestions for future students who use The System:

• Know that regardless of how special you *think* you are, once you are matched, it is *near* impossible to get out of a match (in fact I want to say it is impossible, but if anyone has had extraneous cases you are welcome to refute me)
• The key to get out of a ranked job that you don't want? Don't get matched. How?
• If you are sure you don't want the job, tell your interviewer at the interview that you don't want it, achieve a mutual agreement between yourself and your employer so they would quietly not rank you. If you have a *strong enough* reason you can also try to sign it off at The System Hub, immediately after your interview, this is best.
• Under the table rule: If you are unsure after the interview, as we all have our uncertainties, remember that you can email your recruiter/interviewer anytime before matching, if you know their contact info, and ask them very nicely to remove the ranking for you, bypassing The System
• Under the table rule: Employers can still get rid of offers/rankings anytime before matching even after rankings come out (there might be some catch to this though I think)
• The System is changing to The New System starting next term, I'm not sure that would work (I know that you get 1 free no-rank for the entire term where you can choose not to rank the employer), but the above two statements generally hold, at least for jobs in the tech world
• In some faculties with 6 co-op terms, you can petition to graduate with 4 co-op terms (I don't know if this will always work), so if you have enough background and you think you can get a job externally after a matching that is unfitting for you, you can tell your Mediator that you want to refute the job, have a seriously reason - it's up to you to find a serious reason.
• OR you can just not say anything, quietly accept the match, and look for a job externally, and 'jump the ship' when you find an external job, then you will have reneged on the match.
• If you renege a match, The System can only suggest to your faculty that you lose the co-op credit, but it is up to your faculty to decide if you lose the credit or not, at which point you will deal with your faculty instead of The System (which could be good or bad).
• If you renege a match, you can no longer use The System to look for a job for that term.
• The System is not rational, but your employers are, "employers are generally on the students' side" - The System told me this today, so you know what to do :) 
• The under the table rules, use at your own risk - don't piss off your employer for good karma, and they might also divulge you to The System that you didn't want the job and contacted them outside of it (you'll be fucked), you need to achieve some discreet mutual understanding between yourself and employer.
• The System generally abides by the employer, regardless of what The System might tell you in the name of policy and fairness (If you want proof, ask about people's stories whose employers have gave The System the 'finger', and The System takes a step back)
• If you become a strong duckling, you don't have to rely on The System, and can be in charge of your own life, especially if you are in tech sector. But if you are weak like me, you better go along with it.

I hope my lesson for the first and last time can be helpful and light the way for some people (usually first years run into this problem), so they get the most return out of their experience. After all, time is ours, and choices are also ours. We do pay The System to guide us, but that might not always happen, so don't go head-on, figure out a strategy. Some secrets of the trade, all the best in your job hunt :) and stay strong!