Education

The pandemic has forced a giant-scale experiment in online education, and by many accounts it is going very poorly. From first graders to college students, everyone seems to be frustrated at having to take the classroom experience to a crowded space in the kitchen, and...

16 June, 2020 /

Was so great to speak to Manitoba Tech's Disrupted Future conference last week..I spoke about the future of work, which is scary and challenging but something we need to come to terms with now. There is lots to be optimistic about, and I think people...

03 February, 2020 /

The future of work is a huge subject, not one that can really be tackled by in a forty minute period, but we gave it a shot at the Globe and Mail's recent Future Forward conference. I was part of a panel that touched on...

09 July, 2019 /

Last week I had the chance to be a guest on my old colleague Bruce Sellery's podcast, Moolala. We talked about Income Share Agreements, about which I have kind of mixed feelings. They are a way to spread the risk for students, in that they...

06 June, 2019 /

Ugh, the college admissions scandal. Rich parents buying their kids into top colleges, coaches taking payoffs, entitled kids pretending to be athletes or scholars or whatever, and sometimes not even really wanting to go to school. It is all pretty distasteful - but is there...

16 April, 2019 /

I was intrigued when I heard about 'Income Sharing Agreements' which are basically a way share the 'risk'  of paying for an education between the student and another party.See my column for the Globe and Mail here ...

16 April, 2019 /

Here is my latest Globe and Mail column an d it is kind of radical. Given that lives are getting longer, should we think about starting careers later,  maybe as late as 40? Crazy right? Maybe, but maybe we need to at least open our minds...

17 August, 2018 /

How would you like free college tuition for you and for your kids? It would really take the pressure off, right? Of course you’d take it if offered – but what if there was a catch, the catch being really high taxes forever? That’s the...

04 February, 2015 /

I never thought I would admire Mallory Keaton, but I really do. Okay, the person I admire is actress Justine Bateman, not Mallory Keaton, the ditzy teenager she played on television show Family Ties (it ran from 1982 through 1989). For those of us who grew...

12 November, 2014 /

It is a reality, and it is not fair: if you leave the workforce for a period of time, even for a good reason, your career can suffer for decades to come. Women have known that for a long time though the ‘motherhood penalty’ on...

18 September, 2014 /

Oscar the Grouch as a great innovator? Well, not exactly, but apparently Sesame Street, the venerable children’s television show now in its 45th year, has taken a pro-active view of innovation for a long time. Give the show’s longevity, perhaps there are lessons for other...

16 September, 2014 /

Want to deal with the problem of income inequality? The answer is not, as many argue, to simply do a Robin Hood steal-from-the-rich-and-give-to-the-poor thing. According to a new study by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) , the best way to deal with inequities is to...

08 September, 2014 /

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is out with their new Employment Outlook and – as these things go – it is a fairly upbeat piece in that they do see the big picture improving, particularly in countries like Canada. Beyond the big...

03 September, 2014 /

See my Globe and Mail Economy Lab blog here ...

16 January, 2014 /
How to respond to the Wall Street Journal's story on four day school weeks a a solution to the state fiscal crisis in the U.S.? The economist in me says wow, `that`s a great inventive solution` while at the same time wondering if its a short sighted one that will lead to poorly educated kids and weakened productivity in future. I`m trying to keep my parent-reaction out of it, but I`m also wondering just how everyone is going to handle childcare on the fifth day of the workweek, which I imagine isn`t just going to disappear for most people.
09 March, 2010 /