If 20% of Your Students Drop Out...

...whose fault is that? the student's? the university's? the public's? some combination?
If the public invested $50,000 and the student (and parents) invested $50,000 in two wasted years, does anyone deserve a refund?

(In the US, the actual rate is ~40%, in Canada it is harder to find.)

Strike and Resolution: 4 Views

There are three significant parties in BC. What are their positions on the teachers' strike?



The Liberal government's news releases are here, with strike messaging is here.

• The minister says he is eager for a resolution but the union won't move enough.
• They have issued an FAQ sheet.

The official opposition, the NDP, has news releases here.

• They think we should do mediation and return to school in the meantime.
• They say the government is "putting up roadblocks."
• They have asked for education minister Fassbender to resign.

The Green party has called for arbitration, specifically including binding arbitration last Friday, shortly after the BCTF had requested it.

The Conservatives have surprisingly detailed policy ideas on the issue, especially on the government dropping the court case.

You're Over-Thinking It

Scientific progress went much quicker in the 1800's. We figured out the electric motor, electricity,  steam train, engine, car, typewriter, mechanical calculator, telegraph, fiber optics, telephone, record player, movie, sewing machine, rubber, plastic, photograph, revolver, dynamite, antiseptic, pasteurization,


Nowadays, electronic devices become ever-smaller, medicine becomes ever more sophisticated but it seems our massive research efforts are just fine-tuning details. At best, we are just optimizing the great discoveries of yesteryear.

Around 1900, people discussed the idea that science must end. We had already discovered everything. My father ruminated on the thought through the 50's and asked me during the 80's whether there was anything left to discover about cars. Then a science prof of mine planted a slightly different explanation; we have already made all the easy discoveries. From here on, advances would only happen through careful analysis of subtle, hard-to-interpret results. Math, especially statistics, was about to get a whole lot harder.

Alternative explanation.