Technolandy

Day 28 (of 2025/26) three news stories that caught my attention: “student food program” (spoiler: another Landy food rant), no more overnight field trips, and the Nobel prize committee…

1. Well, I am a regular ranter that Canada remains the one g7 nation without a food program for students – though the Prime Minister this week stated that the national food program for students trial run will be permanent… but … I’m still going to continue ranting since the target is to feed 400 000 students and it needs to be a plan to provide universal access, not continued segregation and marginalization https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/carney-school-food-automatic-tax-canada-strong-pass-9.6934474 Once again, the wording (No child should go to school hungry or sit in a classroom all day wondering where their next meal will come from” doesn’t land with the vast majority of schools not having infrastructure to create ‘meals’ – no cafeteria = bag lunch snacks… and while a billion seems like a big number, when spread over 5 years… so 200 million (still looks good) but is targeting 400 000 students x 180 school days = about $2.70 per student meal per day – BUT, there are roughly 8 million students in Canada… so we are only targeting about 5% of the student population… and that doesn’t include staffing and those $ have to come from somewhere… 

So sorry – but I’ll rant that I agree with Prime Minister Carney saying “This is Canada. No student should go hungry….. et al” but even the almost $3 isn’t covering a ‘meal’, and 400 000 is not the 20% that our district/province is targeting… ideally we look towards a universal program, and while education remains a provincial matter, not federal (except for that Supreme Court ruling giving all provincial teacher unions language to talk about class size and composition in their contracts….) a federal partnership that pays for all new school builds (and ANY remodelling) to include a cafeteria – the kitchen and communal eating area AND staffing would be a start – mindful that this benefits schools and communities in ‘growth areas’ more than the ones relying on the horrible granola bar & juice box setup many of us always had stored away in our classrooms… much like early childhood educators, daycare, and education – food is something everybody wants to be universal… but nobody likes that there’s a bill and cost for that.

2. No more overnight trips? Yep – there’s a field trip trend… https://apple.news/A_cLcwgF-Rj-DWqFlIultAA and some parents are shocked… but this trend has been growing, and  the least of which has targeted that many of these trips/opportunities have built in exclusion bias built into them… and as I synthesize Shelly Moore, if you are not mindfully planning an event that ALL students can participate in, you are propagating a seclusionary mindset and exclusion model. Oh yeah, and then there’s the many liabilities that aren’t important, until they are… what are your thoughts on schools organizing over night trips? Should they continue to be the domain of the privileged (eg sports teams)?  

3. And despite him not so subtly asking for one, the Nobel Prize Committee ‘went in a different direction’ than pacifying the us president… https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/lookout-norway-nobel-snub-for-trump-leads-to-concerns-9431320 heck, the committee stated that it is “crucial to recognize courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist” authoritarian leadership… I suspect there will be blowback since the silence of the committee commenting directly on Trump … was very loud…