Bilingual kids have intellectual advantages, say experts, including Ellen Bialystok, professor of psychology at York, reports the Los Angeles Times Oct. 7. They are exceptionally good at learning to ignore “misleading information,” can focus attention and ignore distractions, she said, describing a test she uses to determine this.
Firms, hope and charity
It’s hard to find fault with ventures like BoardMatch, which pairs young professionals and up-and-coming executives with charitable organizations that need their expertise, even if the corporate donors and volunteers are somewhat motivated by image and promotion prospects, Wes Cragg, a professor of business ethics at York’s Schulich School of Business, told The Globe and Mail in a story Oct. 9. “If companies create these policies just for PR purposes or [to] flaunt what they are doing, the value of the policies is diminished. … The evidence is that people, for the most part, want to do more than make money and advance up the status ladder. … The rewards to the company are indirect but quite significant.”