BY KHADIJA KARIM

A number of career opportunities that exist in skilled trades and technologies within Ontario. So far, the government has 144 skilled trades such: as mechanical, electrical, automotive, and manufacturing. If your child is interested in a career in skilled trades and technologies, Skills Ontario will provide you with some helpful tips and resources to get your child started.

Skills Ontario offers week-long summer camps for grade seven and eight students. The camps provide children with the opportunity to experience multiple career paths with activities. Students can also participate in the Career Awareness Workshop where they will hear about many of Ontario’s skilled trades including construction and industrial. Parents and students may access the application provided by Skills Ontario, which includes an interactive quiz that will link student interests to a trade occupation.

Students in Grades 11 and 12 can learn more about apprenticeships with their guidance counselors, or OYAP coordinators. Most schools have a trades course, and students can participate in the Skills Ontario Competition. Volunteer opportunities are also there with Skills Ontario where students can experience and meet people in the trade.

Students in college interested in entering the trades should speak to their academic advisors. If students are currently in a trades, or technology program they can compete in the post-secondary Skills Ontario Competition that gives students a chance to connect with potential future employers and display their skills. Connecting with these people makes finding jobs easier for students.

Skills Ontario has a YouTube channel with videos about different trades careers, it also has a podcast called “Skills Ontario Trades & Tech Talk.” The podcast is about different careers and other things, such as post-secondary education and wages.

By exploring these resources, students can begin to use those experiences that will put them ahead in the skilled trades and technologies industry.

BY KAHA G.

This week in my Theory of Knowledge (TOK) class, we talked about propositional and procedural knowledge. My teacher showed us a video of Keith Jarrett, a famous pianist. In the video, Jarrett said that when he plays, he doesn’t plan out each note; he just plays. This led us to a discussion about whether his knowledge is propositional, or procedural. We agreed it’s mostly procedural since it comes naturally to him while playing.

My teacher also introduced the idea of the flow state, which is a mental state where a person is fully absorbed in an activity, and Jarrett seems to enter this flow state during his performances. My teacher then explained that flow states are often linked to happiness. In a class he taught on happiness, he explained that people who are truly happy tend to experience flow often because they’re doing things they love.

This got me thinking: are flow states always positive? For example, people with unhealthy habits, like overusing social media, playing video games too much, or even taking drugs, often feel this same kind of flow. Even though they might feel happy in the moment, these behaviors can harm them and the people around them. This leads us to the topic of this article, when does procedural knowledge become harmful?

What’s the difference between propositional and procedural knowledge?

Propositional knowledge is knowing facts, like learning how to conjugate French verbs. It’s something you must think about. Procedural knowledge is knowing how to do something without thinking, like driving/walking home or, in Jarrett’s case, playing the piano without planning each note.

When does procedural knowledge become harmful?

While procedural knowledge is helpful in many ways, it can also be dangerous when it’s connected to bad habits. Think about people who are addicted to video games, social media, or drugs. They often get into a “zoned-out” or flow state, where they lose track of time, but these habits can be harmful, especially when done too much.

For example, someone might feel a sense of flow when eating, because they love food. If this becomes their way of handling stress, it can lead to overeating and health problems. The same goes for someone who uses social media as an escape, spending hours scrolling without realizing the impact on their well-being.

This is why it’s important to be aware of our habits. While procedural knowledge lets us do things automatically, it can also make it hard to break negative habits. So, what can we take from this? Not all procedural knowledge is good. Sometimes, what feels like happiness might be harmful in the long run.

I want to leave you with these questions: To what extent can the pursuit of happiness conflict with long-term well-being, and why do we often seek distractions and unhealthy flow states, even when we know they can hurt us?

BY KAHA G.

Imagine being born into the trade of being a social media sensation at just four years old, with your mom running your account. Your mom posts sweet and innocent videos like “What I dress my daughter in vs. what grandma does,” and prank videos.

You climb the ladder of success until you’ve attained the title of the third, or fourth most popular four-year-old on TikTok with 17 million followers. Gaining the attention of local news stations, with the story of a single mom starting these videos to save memories now turned into a way to save money, attaining partnerships along the way. However, the fame dies down a bit.

Unfortunately, this is where your life takes a turn, when your mom starts taking video suggestions from viewers and the content becomes extremely suspicious and suggestive to the point where articles are being sent out in concern and worry for you. All this happening without your knowledge.

This is the story of Wren Eleanor, and by the end of this article, you might want to stop posting, or even remove your child from posts ever again.

“Wren.eleanor,” a mom-run TikTok account that started up around 2019-2020, has been facing major controversy over the past couple of years. In the beginning, Jacqueline (the mom) posted content about her child similar to the other mom influencers, but there were only a couple of instances where her videos went viral. However, there was one “shortcut to success,” when a video of Wren was posted showing her bare leg, or her wearing a bikini with the hashtag “bikini model.” While the intention might have been completely pure, this was the start of Jacqueline’s eye raising behaviour.

Her videos began consisting of Wren eating suggestively shaped foods. For example, Jacqueline would post videos of Wren eating pickles, whipped cream, foot-long corn dogs, Costco hot dogs, her taking large bites, food being fed to her in questionable ways, and being pushed to levels of discomfort.

This wasn’t the only change happening; her video thumbnails would be with Wren with an open mouth, a really big food item, or even a flash of her diaper. Even some speculated that these videos were orchestrated in response to being paid for by viewers, as in one of her videos, Wren was chewing a piece of gum and then said, “I swallowed it,” and right after saying “Is that okay?”

Her videos weren’t only attracting views on TikTok, but the number of people saving Wren’s videos using the “Favourite” feature was on the rise as well. It was evident that Wren’s anonymous viewers enjoyed the content so much that watching it once was not enough. For instance, a video of her eating a corn dog got more than 100,000 favourites, and in others it reached over 400,000.

Jacqueline started facing controversy around July 2022, when news outlets began reporting how creepy the content was. They pointed out how her fanbase wasn’t only just mothers and kids, but grown men saying things like, “Hear me out,” “She kinda hot,” and “There is no way that baby does not have a boyfriend,” to say what they are going to do to her, if you catch my drift. This wasn’t the only thing concerning the public, but it was the searches associated with her name such as: deep fake, scandalous outfits, pickles, and fair eats.

Lastly, in December 2023, TikTok stopped paying content creators for videos under a minute long, which made up quite a lot of Wren and Jacqueline videos, and people were asking if she was not in it for the money then what she was doing it for? Well, from an investigation by the New York Times into child influencers, parent-run accounts are known to sell: “photos, exclusive chat sessions, and even worn leotards to their fanbase.” If these allegations were true, then this means that Jacqueline isn’t just ignorant, and that she’s purposely exploiting her child to grown men for money.

Overall, I acknowledge that posting your children online should be a safe thing to do. It’s not fair that creeps are tuning in too, but the fact of the matter is that they ARE watching your children, and it is YOUR responsibility to protect your children from these lowlifes.

We all wish the world was a safe place to share whatever cute moments of our children with others, but that’s simply not the kind of place we live in, and it will never be. So please, protect your children from the watchful eyes of people with ill intent, and if you want to keep your children online still, then block, or remove people you don’t know from your followers, and private your account for only close friends and family to see because we truly never know who is watching.

https://www.parents.com/mom-of-tiktok-preschooler-wren-eleanor-facing-backlash-8612986

• “Spill” (YouTube channel), the title was “This child needs to be saved, from her mother and her fans.” The link to it is this:
  https://youtu.be/JLHYskB-ydM?si=2FEYeQjWcjQkkB1m