Furthermore, it is important that we not get too distracted by the stimulus
debate and work together to
promote an agenda for long - term economic growth for the country, which should include reform of a tax system that has grown out of control, finalizing trade agreements, kickstart a lagging regulatory harmonization agenda and ensuring young Canadians have the
skills to compete in a global market place.
Our plan is grounded in the following two premises: 1) When purposefully synchronized with one another across multiple forms of media («cross-media»), children's and adolescents» exposure to high quality youth - oriented social and ethical story content, i.e. stories of substance specifically about character development, compassion, and courage (CCC), is a powerful way to
promote youth academic achievement and ethical values; 2) Especially if these stories, told and «read» across media, in their various genres (human interest, biography, history and historical fiction, civic engagement, coming of age, social change, spiritual awakening, moral issues, etc.), are «taught» by «educators» (broadly defined) using an «evidence - based» pedagogy that A) makes use of peer to peer, and adult facilitated group discussion and
debate as a primary form of instruction, and B) takes advantage of access to the texts of the story that are made available cross-media (narratives, scripts, videos, etc.) to foster students» critical thinking and ethical reflection
skills.
Although econometric analyses of these early childhood interventions suggest a high return on investment, the salient features of these programs (child - centered vs family - centered vs community - centered) and the mechanisms underlying their success (
promoting cognitive vs non-cognitive
skills) remain a topic of
debate.18 — 20