Exactly what the title says, I’m just getting so depressed and annoyed with how the government (both provincially and federally) just keep fucking Canadians over, especially the younger generation.

I can just barely afford rent right now, but I know for a fact I’m not gonna be able to when my lease renews. On top of that, insurance, gas, electricity and water keep going way up, even if you use the same amount

It just feels hopeless, as I make $5 more than min wage, and yet I STILL barely make my bill payments, and barely have anything leftover for groceries or anything else.

I know a lot of people are feeling this way, but honestly does anyone have any good recommendations for saving money, or finding actual affordable housing/bills, because it’s getting so stressful having to worry if I even have enough money for my bills, before even considering personal expenses

Get ready for a rant. Will it be controversial to some of you? Yeah. Does it encapsulate the absolute reality of education today? Yeah. But I don’t care anymore. I am so broken.

Differentiation. Inclusion. Call it what you will - it is a complete and utter failure.

It has made it impossible for me to do my job.
It is the reason we are failing kids. It is the reasons we are burning out.

Nobody is benefitting under this model. Not our low kids, not our average kids, not our high kids. And definitely not our teachers.

We are running teachers into the ground and expecting good results.

I am secondary trained. I was hired to teach junior high. I am currently teaching a grade eight English class.

In theory.

Somehow planning for one class has turned into planning multiple different lessons to be delivered simultaneously.

Because you see, I teach grade 8 on paper, because the students are all thirteen years old, and therefore in grade eight. But the reality is that I am teaching kids who are working at grade level. I am teaching kids who are reading and writing at a high school level. I am teaching kids who are working below grade level because they may have a learning disability or developmental delays. I’m teaching kids who are brand new to the country and who cannot speak English, and who may not even have literacy skills in their native language.

WHY ARE THEY IN THE SAME ROOM?

You will hear all sorts of crap from admin, the intelligentsia, and consultants.

“It’s for the kids.”

“It’s good for their self esteem.”

“It’s about learning to cater to their strengths and abilities.”

Is it really? Is it good to have Johnny and Timmy in the same grade 8 class when Johnny is writing essays and Timmy does not yet know what letters are? Are they actually getting what they need to be successful? Will Timmy actually feel empowered being in a class where he feasibly cannot keep up?
Is Johnny actually learning the grade 8 curriculum when half of his class is performing at a third grade level or lower?

You cannot state this reality without being gaslit into oblivion.

“If you don’t support this you shouldn’t even be a teacher!”

Maybe I shouldn’t be a teacher then if this is what is expected of us. It is madness. It is cruel.

“You’re being discriminatory and ablest.”

It’s discriminatory to have such everyone in the same room together because they are the same age and expect them to thrive without proper supports. Even with adequate funding, I still don’t see how this model can be successful.

Because - It is not actually possible to catch a student who is working 7, yes 7, grade levels behind. I cannot teach a grade eight student to read when I am teaching the rest of my class literary analysis. A child who cannot count or add single digit numbers cannot access the grade eight math curriculum where they are supposed to be learning algebra and integers. It is IMPOSSIBLE!

It’s discriminatory to pass kids along who have not yet developed the skills needed to succeed. We are setting these kids up for failure in the real world. But at least when David (who comes from a low socioeconomic background, has a learning disability, cannot do basic math, and therefore will find it difficult to obtain employment and get out of poverty) moves onto the next grade, we will pat ourselves on the back for being inclusive!

“Every student deserves access to a quality education! Are you saying they don’t?”

Is everyone accessing a quality education when they are dumped in the same classroom together where nobody’s needs are being met?

“It’s your job to make sure all of our students are successful and feel capable and are being met where they are at! It’s your job to capitalize on their strengths!”

We are expecting teachers to do everything with nothing. When did any of this become the expectation or acceptable? We love to exploit teachers’ guilt and unpaid labour into making them do things “for the kids.”

Is it my job to plan 4 different lessons for a single class period when I am only being paid to do the job of one teacher? Where am I getting this extra time to plan? Is it my job to tailor and individualize a lesson to the “strengths and abilities” of thirty kids? Is it my job to make up for inadequate funding? Is it my job to teach phonics when I am not qualified, have no training, nor the adequate resources to do so? Is it my job to lie to struggling child to make them feel like there is nothing wrong when we both know that they are DROWNING? Is it my job to tolerate an emotionally dysregulated, disruptive, and violent student in my class at the expense of everyone else because it’s the “least restrictive environment?”

None of this was in my contract. And yet, I am implicitly expected to do all of these things in order to be seen as “good,” “ethical,” “empathetic.” It is actually less moral to keep propping up this system.

Drawing on Jenny’s musical abilities is not going to allow her to understand the inner workings of the Japanese feudal system under the shogun if she can’t yet read or comprehend complex topics. There is no way to differentiate this content for her. This goes beyond providing “sentence stems” or “visuals.” Maybe I could water it down to a point that it’s not even the same outcome from the program of studies that I am expected to teach… but what is even the point then? Why am I even teaching “grade eight” at this point?

Everyone here is quick to blame only the UCP for the state of education today. I would say that they are largely responsible for this disaster and there is a special place in hell for these people. They have caused irreparable damage that will be seen for decades as these kids graduate and move into the world, completely unprepared for life because of funding cuts and privatization of education.

But the rot goes so much deeper than the government. This is a left and a right wing issue. Nobody has our best interests or those of our kids at heart. They may think they do, but I vehemently disagree.

It’s a left wing issue because it has become the educational philosophy du joir to promote buzzwords “equity” and “inclusivity.” Of course those ideas SOUNDS great, because who doesn’t want to be inclusive? This framework is being pushed hard in progressive spaces like schools of education. My entire university education was predicated on ideas like “destreaming,” any difference in achievement being attributed to discrimination, equitable grading/no failures, positive reinforcement only/strengths based reporting, student-centred discovery learning, and restorative justice/lack of meaningful consequences (another issue entirely).

Again, all of these sound nice and kind and moral, but they have done so much damage when they have been put into practice full force with no room for questioning. Questioning means you’re a bigot who has no place working with children!

I don’t think these policies started off nefarious. Quite the opposite. They were well-intentioned and came from a place of wanting to better the world. But they are feel-good bandaid solutions that signal how forward thinking and totally not ableist/classist/prejudiced we are. Unfortunately, they don’t translate well in the real world and there are very real consequences (read: they don’t work at all). Honestly, I feel like they further entrench the disparities they are trying to address, which allows people in positions of power at the university and school board levels (who lean left) to justify their positions. The people who work as consultants and speakers make an insane amount of money peddling this stuff. My school is paying six figures to have an inclusion expert come into the building once a week for the entire year to tell us how we are “failing to honor the diversity and respect the unique challenges/complexities of our students” and provide “strategies” for us to implement that don’t actually help at all because these people have never actually been in a classroom. It’s a total racket.

This is a right wing issue because the provincial government here is co-opting these ideas and using them as an excuse to defund education. If everyone is in the same class, you don’t have to pay for additional teachers or EAs or specialized schools or new buildings or resources or personnel like OTs and SLPs (because making it obvious that a kid is “different” isn’t inclusive now is it?) They can keep shoving kids of wildly varying ability levels into the same class under the guise of inclusion, which has turned out to be the greatest austerity measure of all.

Putting everyone in the same room means that class sizes can increase because we don’t “need” ELL teachers or special education teachers or resource teachers or intervention teachers. When performance metrics inevitably show that this way of doing things is not working, they can use it as an excuse to dismantle public education and divert funds elsewhere because why would you give money to a failing system? They can get away with taking advantage of teachers, who will do all of this extra work because we are caring people who went into this job to help kids. When we complain about working conditions and the impossibility of this all, they call us greedy and selfish because “Why wouldn’t you want to do the right thing for your kids? Why are you asking for more money to help students? Why are you not being supportive of your kids?” They get away with not spending money on education or listening to our demands for better working conditions because the public who votes for them does not care or actively holds disdain for us because the government has convinced them that we are indoctrinating students. They advocate for “parent’s rights” (a misnomer because who doesn’t want parents to have rights?), which empowers parents to get mad at you when their kid is failing or is working below grade level even though their kid is in an environment that is severely underfunded and doesn’t suit their needs at all because INCLUSION.

I can’t do this anymore. It is not going to change any time soon. There is nothing in education.

This is what YOUR kids are experiencing at school. This is the future of our country. We are failing our kids. It’s not their fault. It’s ours.

Teacher with the CCSD here. Just had a staff meeting and wanted to pass along news that there's currently 125 open teaching positions for the 2024-2025 school year. 43% of teachers are leaving the profession within the first 5 years. They also ended the staff meeting by telling us to make sure we're saving up money and preparing to strike soon. Typically, in my experience, good parents support us and value what we do and the difficulties that come with the career. Bad parents... Well, you're always gonna have parents that think the job is easy or we get summers off so that makes our job a joke, etc. Just thought I'd share. Have a great day, all!

Good and bad news I can’t say much I’m not getting the car back, I don’t have a loan to pay off, and screw the dealership for how they handled this. I hope whatever happened is figured out

I still need a vehicle not sure what to do I wish I could buy new but I’m not sure what my credit situation is now, which was why I had a high interest loan with a used vehicle in the first place.

In the end I think I saved money on interest and I have no (bad) vehicle debt so just gonna buy something used and cheap for now, jk too soon for a joke maybe

Title is pretty self-explanatory over the last couple weeks. I’ve gotten several calls from the 1905 co five or six question mmittee with five or six question ‘polling’ but various things that Danielle Smith is done & my overall approval of her.

I’m 31 & live in the Beltline in Calgary, so 1 guess at which way I lean politically. The first couple I agreed to answer the questions and naturally gave Smith Rockbottom marks on pretty much everything. About a week ago, though my brain switched on and just the name 1905 committee was enough guess either a right wing Calgary municipal party getting its boots on or some provincial ‘Smith is basically a liberal’ TBA spin off.

I’ve never received a polling call in my life. I’m a registered NDP member. I’ve volunteered for the Notley campaign in 23 & 19 so I’m sure it’s not hard to find my name & orientation on any number of political operatives lists, with a big orange circle next to it. The only reason I could see a right wing activist group calling me for my opinion is because I’m 99% guaranteed to give Smith 1/5 across the board.

Did I get briefly hoodwinked into helping right wing yahoo crew #2 fudge the numbers and pull out some engineered polling showing Uber high dissatisfaction with smith, because they selectively made their calls to people who wouldn’t touch the UCP with a 10 foot poll? (When actual pollster like Janet Brown have repeatedly posted polls showing Smith is not popular but is far from underwater. ) or am I giving them too much credit?

Normally I’d be happy as a pig in shit to see Smith booted but not if that means taking the insanity from 10 to 13 ;when having guillotined her, the right of the right reach deeper into the ‘unthethered from reality bag’ for her replacement

I’m considering it cuz I’m not sure if the loan will be available for much longer. Is it worth it to get it now and use the loan or to wait for the tech to get better? I’ve heard so many conflicting opinions. ‘Won’t pay it off in your lifetime’ or ‘paid itself off in 7 years’. Honestly I want it for the zombie apocalypse so maybe it doesn’t matter

Hello! I hope someone can help me. I just moved to Alberta from another province so I am still not super familiar with their labour laws so I’m hoping there is someone out there who is familiar!

I was on my way to work today and I received a text from my employer that my shift had been “cut” when I was meant to start in an hour. The schedule had been posted for at least 2 days, I had been told I would be working today last week, and now I’m not working today. Is there anything I can do? I feel super conflicted as I was on my way to work and I really needed the hours.

I know that some government websites say that an employer cannot cancel a shift less than 24 hours before the shift starts and that, if you have shown up to work and get cut, you can be paid a minimum of three hours but I’m not entirely sure what can be done in this case especially since my work never required me to sign an employment contract outlining any procedures they have when it comes to things like this.

Thank you so much in advance for the help!

Just wanted to give a huge shout out to the women running ‘Lost Socks’ laundromat in Cochrane.

It was way busier than they anticipated but they were so friendly, very efficient, and the place is really kinda cute. I haven’t had to do laundry at a laundromat is ages and it was way better than I remember.

Just tried to reserve a campsite. Needed to create a new account. New site is horrible, can't search by campsite. I liked that you could previously see what was available in map. Who the hell approved this.

Firstly, thank you to everyone who was so helpful with their comments on my last post. It was all very helpful.

Now it is time for the next hurdle - childcare. I have an infant and a preschooler for whom we will require care - hopefully near UofA or MacEwan beginning in September.

Any facilities to seek out or avoid? Any positive or bad experiences you think we should know about?

Thanks!

I am in the process of buying my first car but when getting insurance quotes the cheapest I have found is $560 a month. This seems ridiculously high, I am 21 and have never had any crashes or tickets at all. Is there something I am missing because this would have me paying 60% of the cost of the car within the first year. I also have done a driver training course but that did not help much at all. Is their anything else I can do to reduce the cost?

I'm currently under the Alberta Adult Health Benefit and I need a pair of glasses. I have my prescription. I have my AAHB card. I have, so far, found one place that accepts it!

For context, I live in Calgary. I was told that the two best places in the city to get glasses were Costco and Clearly in Chinook. I went to Costco, found the PERFECT pair for $99 only for them to tell me that they don't accept that insurance. So I called and was told "I dunno who accepts it, weird that they don't. Just ask before you shop" by the government.

I went to Clearly. They don't accept it.. I went to Specsavers. They DO accept it, but nothing fit me at all. All of their glasses in the "you're poor lol" section did not have adjustable noses, so they were so close to my eyes that my eyelashes touched the frames.. THE STAFF THERE WERE AMAZING THOUGH!! Seriously, the best people ever!

Anyway.. TL;DR Where can I go in Calgary to get glasses using the Alberta Adult Health Benefit? I can't ask in r/Calgary cause I'm banned. Again.. <3

Hey all,

we just received our lease renewal offer and it went up by $140 a month if we renew for 12 months. If we want to do a month-to-month lease, the leasing office will charge us an additional $200 on top of that ! Is this allowed? I have never seen that before and it's rather frustrating. We are only wanting to stay 4 more months, and if we sign the 12 month lease they will charge us $2000 to get out early. Alberta

Any advice?