Assignment:
Editorial option links to current articles. The Niqab as political distraction Citizenship as right not privilege Electronic tipping Gender Wage Gap Uber Sex Ed Curriculum Music Copywrite law America's Gun Madness Choose one of the articles from above or find and editorial or opinion piece of your own to respond to for the Letter to the Editor Assignment. The Outline and Rubric for the article response can be found below
Exemplar of effective responses to Opinion Editorials / Editorials
Ending report card bafflegab Published on Mon Mar 02 2015 Re: Report cards and edu-speak, Feb. 23 The issue of report card comments was one I was able to raise in August, 2009, thanks to Joe Fiorito and the Star. At the time, both the Ministry of Education and individual school boards made commitments to issue student reports in plain English. There was some feeble effort to do this but the system has reverted to its “safe” mode of communication. The word “safe” is appropriate because reporting in a manner that relatively few will understand results in the fewest challenges to what has been said. Combine this with the fact that most parents don’t read these reports provided that the child is doing at least fairly well. I’m guilty of this. Unless we start to ask for explanations of report material we don’t understand, this process will continue. Tom Sullivan, Toronto By criticizing the impenetrable educational jargon found on most TDSB report cards, Catherine Porter has identified a real problem. However, teachers are not responsible for the current state of affairs. In fact teachers who use clear or blunt language are frequently called into administrators’ offices and told they must link their comments with “specific curriculum expectations.” Often this process is repeated until the teacher accepts defeat and simply regurgitates the Orwellian nonsense favoured by educational bureaucrats. Joe Killoran, Toronto We can’t seem to stop hearing about the Toronto District School Board. Whether it is their governance structure, resource availability and now report card language, the multitude of issues highlight a major problem. These issues will harm the children in the school system. I cannot agree more with Ms Porter’s concerns. As a developmental pediatrician reviewing these documents for children who are struggling in school it is always difficult for me to really know how they are doing, particularly when so much jargon is used. Dr. Mohammad Zubairi, Toronto Published on Sat Oct 18 2014
Re: WHO pegs Ebola death rate at 70%, Oct. 15 WHO pegs Ebola death rate at 70%, Oct. 15 1. The recent tragic death of Thomas Eric Duncan in Texas should provide lessons to the U.S. and Canadian health authorities and to the governments of all nations in dealing with the Ebola virus and other possible future epidemics. Mr. Duncan apparently lacked health insurance. This likely played a role in the fact that he was sent home initially. The delay in treatment probably contributed to his fatal outcome, and may have needlessly infected a number of other persons. Prompt diagnosis and initiation of supportive treatment is vital, and should not be compromised by concerns of whether the patient has insurance (which may even be an issue for visitors to Canada). I propose that the federal governments of all major countries agree to pay hospitals and treating physicians directly and promptly – regardless of whether the patient seems to have health insurance or not – and with a minimum of red tape. At a later date, the federal government of the treating hospital might then seek to recoup some or all of these costs from the home national government of the patient, or from a private insurance company – if the patient had coverage. Charles S. Shaver, MD, Ottawa 2. As Thomas Eric Duncan, of Liberia, is vilified, it may very well turn out he has done the world a favour. Did he leave Liberia because he knew he may have Ebola, and his chances for survival were better in North America? Maybe is he just uncaring? Whatever his motives, Mr. Duncan has starkly laid bare the folly and fallacy of the industrialized world’s misguided faith in its superior public health systems. And he has pointed out what folly industrialized world nations have engaged in by ignoring healthcare development among our sisters and brothers in poorer nations. Chronic and worsening inequitable global wealth distribution has come home to roost. Ebola was coming to industrialized nations at some point regardless. Mr. Duncan brought it here now, and challenged us. We have ignored our responsibilities to world health at our own peril. We are not as ready, or as failsafe as we think. Faith in our superior systems and technologies in the face of a new world plague is misplaced. We can’t even find enough home care for our growing numbers of elderly. And this system will contain Ebola? Did we learn nothing from SARS? Having spent four months in 2003 in a SARS Assessment Unit, I fear the answer is clearly no. Dr. Paul Caulford, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto The main focus of this article is that it serves us right – just desserts … We (Canada) are not ready nor are we containing Ebola and yet we ignorantly feel prepared / “safe”… We don’t know what we are up against! 3. Dr. Thomas Frieden is quoted as saying “Clearly, there was a breach in protocol” in reference to the nurse who has come down with Ebola. It could also clearly mean that the protocol is not reliable. We may not know as much about this virus as we thought we did. Howard Bargman, MD, Toronto The main focus of this article is that the medical community is not as protected (b/c of their own lack of diligence or faulty rules) as they may think... We don’t know what we are up against! 4. Given the danger of Ebola and our provincial public health care, it should be possible to integrate the two systems. This way when someone who has been to one of the outbreak countries goes to a doctor or hospital and swipes a health card, there would be a warning they could have gotten Ebola and the proper protocols can be started right away, instead of sending someone home at first like happened in Texas. Yes, there may be privacy concerns, but early treatment could save many lives and until the outbreak is under control this should trump privacy on an emergency basis. Sheldon Bergson, Thornhill 5.There are procedures that can be implemented to reduce infection, by making borders more strictly. The experts are saying our health care system is too robust to ever experience an epidemic on the scale of the one in Africa. But, do we really want to test this predication? Maybe we should feel more urgency and focus on stopping this scourge in Africa. If all countries put in a lot of money and effort into containing this exponentially growing disease and defeat it, we may be averting a major world catastrophe.I don’t want to panic Canadians but I am more spooked by this disease than ISIS and would rather our money and efforts be focused on the old medical adage, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Russell Pangborn, Keswick The main focus / idea of this article is that Canadian funds/money should be allocated properly and used to fight disease in Africa before it gets to Canada. The main focus / idea of this article is that Canadians should not take the outbreak of the disease lightly. 6. Might I suggest that Canadian residents returning directly from West Africa, or disclosing to border security that they have been in West Africa recently, be immediately quarantined to protect the health and safety of other Canadians? Harriet Hamilton, Burlington The main focus / idea of this article is that The Canadian Government should require quarantine for anyone who has been potentially exposed to Ebola. 7. Enhancing airport screening for Ebola patients is not the answer. Taking the temperature of passengers and having them fill out questionnaires regarding their activities in West African states is simply ludicrous. Thomas Eric Duncan’s temperature was taken before he boarded his flight in Liberia. In fact, he was screened three times. Worse yet, Duncan falsified the facts on the Ebola questionnaire. The only way to stop new cases of the deadly Ebola virus from entering into North America is to suspend flights to and from Ebola-infected countries and or impose a visa ban on travelers from those areas as well. Here we are in the 21 Century of progress and still unable to learn from our mistakes. Asinine. The main focus / idea of this article is that flights from Ebola infected countries should be prevented from flying to North America or entering (no visa) until people are sure that passengers don't have Ebola. JoAnn Lee Frank, Clearwater, FL 8. In the words of the World Health Organization, “The Ebola epidemic ravaging West Africa is the most severe, acute public health emergency in modern times. Never before in recorded history has a risk group 4 pathogen infected so many people so quickly, over such a broad geographical area, for so long.” Thanks for the coverage of this serious issue in your article, “Ebola finds it’s way to North America.” Public awareness and education of this deadly virus is now more important than ever. Bob Flint, Toronto The main focus / idea of this article is that Ebola is more serious to us now than ever and therefore people need to be educated on it. 9. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the agency that has led the fight to combat the deadly disease Ebola, has had its budget cut nearly $600 million since 2010. How can our country expect to adequately combat deadly diseases with an insufficient budget? Agencies like this seem unfortunately to be easy targets for budget cuts, that is until a deadly epidemic comes along. Kenneth L. Zimmerman, Huntington Beach, CA The main focus / idea of this article is that all North American countries need to financially support the fight against Ebola. The main focus / idea of this article is that the Canadian Government needs to stop cutting budgets of agencies that are responsible for keeping Canadians safe. Government's priorities for spending money need to be reassessed. 10. Ebola may be difficult to catch, but if you do catch it, you are more likely than not to die. It is one of the most deadly viruses on earth, with a mortality rate higher than the bubonic plague. Surely, given the seriousness of this outbreak, travel to the hot zone should be restricted to workers helping the afflicted and a quarantine system put in place to ensure the disease does not jump boarders and get completely out of control. David Richardson, Victoria, B.C. The main focus / idea of this article is that potential exposure to Ebola should be limited through travel bans and quarantine. |
Image courtesy of The Globe and Mail
Link to article "How far should schools go to accommodate food allergies?" for practice response writing... An alternative perspective on the same issue: For schools and parents, what is the right approach to food allergies?
Practice, Practice, Practice...
The importance of a critical mind aka why do we do this?How credible is conventional journalism? Well that depends on who you ask but it is always important to question all information presented to you. Ask yourself: Who is sharing the information?
Why are they sharing the info and what do they have to gain from the perspective they have presented?
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