With CBC news broadcasting live from Beijing, we've been trying to watch the news the last few nights as they've had some interesting stories on various topics about life in China as well as other national and international news. Particularly neat last night was the story on Canada's Men's Field Hockey team...a tribute to Canada's multi-culturalism!
However, in terms of leadership, there were a couple stories that to me just screamed "Think ahead." By the way, these items were not connected or in sequence in CBC's reporting:
1) A feature on life in China that looked at the results of the "one child only policy" and the strong preference for male children... and corresponding disdain, to put it politely, for girls. Apparently this has created a "demographic nightmare" as there are way too many single men now and no women for them to marry. NO kidding!
By the way, the same is true in India where my wife Sarah formerly lived and worked.
2) Apparently the issue of when to begin French Immersion for children in New Brunswick has been a controversial issue over the past year and yesterday the gov't decided they would change their decision from last year and allow students to either begin in grade 3 or grade 6. As a sort of "sidenote," they report also mentioned that NB is quite concerned because their students score fairly low in comparison to the rest of the country in national achievement tests.
HELLO! If you already score low in national achievement tests, would introducing a second language at grade 3 or grade 6 - where students across the country take the wonderful "Canadian Tests of Basic Skills" in those grades - really be a wise solution?
Those two examples cause me to wonder are there no leaders who think ahead even a few months, never mind a few years? Then again, before laughing at the silly and obvious "plank" in someone else's sight, perhaps I need to look again at my own life, school and policies and see if there are any "specs of dust" where I am not seeing the future implications!
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