Pigging out at the Curriculum Theory Candy Shop- on libraries and books

Libraries are dangerous places because they contain books.  Books are dangerous because they beg you to take them home.

When my husband was a teenager, he stole an encyclopedia from a stall at a street market. When he told me this story, I gave him the stink eye and said “I can’t believe you STOLE something!” “I didn’t steal anything,” he countered. “You can’t steal knowledge. It just doesn’t qualify as something you can steal.” I couldn’t really argue with that logic, even if it was that of a teenage boy.

When my husband and I go travelling we write a travel contract. There is an item about books. It states the number of books that each travel participant is allowed to bring on the trip and how many each participant is allowed to purchase while travelling. More than anything, this is a safety measure to ensure that we don’t purchase more books than we can carry or so that our baggage weight allowance is not over the limit. We have to limit books because if we didn’t, the overwhelming desire to buy books would blow the trip budget. We are also running out of places to put the books at home.

Going to the library is very much like going to the grocery store. Whenever I feel a bout of impulse buying coming on, I quickly “get thee to a library. To the library go, and quickly too.” I browse the stacks like a shopper browsing the aisles. I put unnecessary purchases in the cart, except with books, there is no such thing as an unnecessary purchase. I always leave the library with a stack of unplanned reads. Yes, I have tried the old shopping trick of “don’t go to the store without a shopping list.” I go to the library with a list but I can never stick to it. There are too many tempting reads calling out to me from the shelves. I can’t stop myself from shelf reading and pulling at least half a dozen interesting titles off the shelf. I have also tried the other trick of not shopping while hungry- because if you do you will always buy more than you planned. Well, it is near impossible to go to a library when I am not hungry for books because I have a voracious literary appetite. Books are part of the culture of our house. Friday nights often find my husband and I nerding-out on the couch- each of us with a book, or several. That, or playing Bananagrams.

Sigh. Yesterday’s trip to the library was no different. I needed to go to the local Library of Higher Learning to get some books for the curriculum theory class that I am taking. The public library didn’t have what I needed. I prepared a list before leaving the house. “This time I’ll stick to the list” I told myself. “No impulse titles.” There were 5 titles on the list. Two I had actually placed holds on “JUST IN CASE ANYONE TRIES TO GET THEM BEFORE ME!!!” I have visions of library lurkers lurking in the stacks, pulling books that they psychically know someone really wants/needs. (Want and need are synonyms when it comes to books) I took one of my largest reusable shopping bags with me because I knew that a backpack wouldn’t suffice.

 I have heard that some global hotel chains build all of their hotels with the same floor plan so that travelling business people aren’t disoriented when they arrive. It makes for a “more pleasant stay and they feel at home.” When I entered the Library of Higher Learning, I immediately felt at home and knew that I was in for a pleasant stay. “It smells like undergrad!” I thought. “Same smell, different institution. Le siiiiigh. Eau de vieille biblioteque.” It made my mind race and my stomach do excited flip flops.

“Stick to the list!” echoed in my mind as a tromped up the stairs. “Stick to the list!”

“Stick to the list!” my steps reminded me as I wandered the stacks looking for the right call numbers. “Stick to the list!”

“Stick to the list!” nagged at me as my fingers stroked the spines. “Stick to the list!”

“Oooook. I am looking for call number LB 880 S662 C87. ‘Curriculum, pedagogy and educational research…… Aaaah. Here it is…WHAT’STHIS? THE PAOLO FREIRE ENCYCLOPEDIA?!?!?! Get in the bag. GETINTHEBAG!” The “stick to the list” mantra quickly dissolved as I found title after title that I HAD TO HAVE! “Indoctrination in Education.” In the bag. “Jacques Rancière: Education, Truth, Emancipation.” In the bag. “Rediscovering the Spirit of Education After Scientific Management.” In the bag. “Teaching Against the Grain.” In the bag.

“Is this a book which I see before me, the spine toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee!”

I had entered the Curriculum Theory Candy Shop and there was no going back. I was pigging out. My giant reusable shopping bag was soon overflowing with books not on the list. “Oh well,” I sighed. “You can never have too many.”

As I dragged myself out of the library with great reluctance, I heard Macbeth say with approval,
“My more-having would be as a sauce, to make me hunger more.”

Life in the fast lane

For the past few months I have been swimming more regularly and working on my technique. A plantar fasciitis diagnosis has kicked me out of the gym and banished me to the pool. I am not overly happy about this. Swimming is still not an activity that I love and I would much rather be in the gym, sweat dripping in my eyes and drenching my clothes. But, I had promised myself that I would become a stronger swimmer and the opportunity arose.

 

Kick kick kick inHALE kick kick kick inHALE Kick kick kick inHALE kick kick kick inHALE Kick kick kick inHALE

 

When I started swimming months ago I began in the slow lane. Always one to be a bit overly confident (or arrogant depending on what end of the situation you are on), I thought that I would be conservative with the swimming attitude. (Varsity water polo swim cap aside.) I quickly realized, however, that the slow lane is not for swimming. It is for gluing oneself to the wall and catching up on the daily goss’ with the other barnacles. It is where the World Competition of Strangest Pool Exercises is held on a daily basis. It is where flotation belts are donned, goggles are snapped into place, bodies are secured to the ground in 3 feet deep water, and arms are extended over the head while fingers dig the air. Why you need a pool to do this and what is it exercising I’m not sure.

 

Leaving the madness behind, I quickly graduated to the medium lane. Swimming happens in the medium lane. Mostly. For several weeks I swam in the medium lane until I discovered that I was swimming the same way that I drive. I am a path of least resistance driver. I get frustrated with the slow people in front of me and change lanes so I can pass them. (Reason #4 for why I no longer own a car). One day, after passing the same dawdling ladies several times, I slithered out of the pool and padded over to talk to the lifeguard.

 

“Ummmm, Do you think you could ask those two ladies who are doggy paddling abreast in the medium lane to move to the slow lane? I’ve passed them a lot.”

“Well I think you should move to the fast lane.”

“Pardon?”

“You should move to the fast lane and those two doggy paddlers can stay in the medium lane.”

“Ummm, I don’t want to move to the fast lane and then be one of those people. You know, one of those slow people. I don’t want to be someone else’s doggy paddler.”

“You won’t. I’ve been watching you swim. Move to the fast lane.”

 

Confidence boosted, chest out, varsity water polo swim cap held high, I padded back to the pool singing in my head, “Movin on up! Moving on out- ofthemediumlane! Time to break free, nothing can stop me!” and slipped into the fast lane.

 

“Hmmmph.” I thought. “Life in the Fast Lane! Duh nah nah nah duh nah nah nahts!”

 

It turns out that I am not someone else’s doggy paddler. (But each time I get too excited, I have to remind myself that it is a public pool during public swim hours.) Sure, I am nowhere near as skilled as the guy I like to call “The Fish” and the 12 year old kid who is being coached by his dad out-swims me every time. But I am definitely becoming a stronger swimmer and if I am strategic about when I start swimming in the lane, then nobody passes me.

 

I no longer swim like the September Marie who swam like a fish caught on a line. 25 meters was an accomplishment for her! Swimming is no longer a series of mechanical movements. I can swim with relative fluidity and with more vitality.
 

I do still focus on certain movements. My arms don’t “drag lazily over the water before they plunge in again” as my swim instructor put it. They split the water with a force that would please any owner of a Slap Chop. And the catch and pull are embarrassing. There is no more check marking in the water because the abs are always engaged. And my torpedoing techniques are amazing. The one area that needs serious improvement is my breathing. I have yet to figure out the perfect breathing pattern to make my entire body happy while under water. And if my breathing is off, the entire body is imbalanced.

 

There is always an internal monologue running while I swim, like a computer humming. The monologue is no longer a chastisement of my terrible technique. In fact, my mind is quieter when I swim than when I suffer through a yoga class. Being underwater closes off the rest of the world and I don’t have to hear all the loud ujjayi breathing. I only hear myself. The monologue that now repeats itself is my own personal coaching mantra. As I exhale, I blow a continuous brrrrrrrrp of bubbles. Stroke stroke stroke breath. Stroke stroke stroke breath.

 

Brrrrrrrrp! inHALE Brrrrrrkickickabsrrrrp! inHAAALE! Brrrrrrchopchopstrokerrrrp inHAAAAALE!

 

Life in the fast lane.

Honouring Emily

 

There are some teachers who have a huge impact on the lives of students. Perhaps they offer a non-judgemental and listening ear, perhaps they silently sneak recess snack to the student who doesn’t have anything, perhaps it is the extra time they put in before and after school coaching sports, tutoring, directing plays or musical groups. Perhaps it is that they listen to their students’ interests and create lessons that are relevant to their students. Perhaps they are motivating.

 

To me, Emily Longworth is one of those teachers.

 

Em was a positive role model for her students and for everyone. She lived an incredibly active life. She rode her bike everywhere and was an avid runner. She was fond of hiking and travelling. Em believed in experiential learning and the more hands on, the better. So that none of the students at her low-income school would ever have to miss out, Em bought school supplies and paid for field trips out of her own pocket.

 

Emily lived every moment of her life to the fullest. She had a rambunctious, mischievous personality and boundless love and energy for learning and teaching. Em taught with authenticity- there was no “teacher self” when in the classroom, there was just Emily. In everything she did, she was never afraid to just be herself. I’m sure she was an unconventional teacher and took learning risks so that her students could have the best possible experiences. Emily’s students knew her to be kind, caring, silly, loving, generous and understanding. They connected with her and adored her.

 

Em died 7 years ago today in a hostel fire in Chile. At 25, she had just graduated as a teacher. Emily’s joyfulness, boundless heart and roguish humour were and are contagious and although she only had one sibling, Katie, her passing, for many, was like the passing of a soul sister or a daughter. To know Em was to have her spirit fill your heart.

 

Although Em is no longer with us, she continues to touch the lives of those who love her, and even of those who never met her. When Em passed, her family wanted to create a lasting legacy of Emily’s life and achievements. Through the Emily Longworth New Teachers Creative Activities Fund, Em continues to impact and change the lives of young students and teachers alike. The goal of the legacy fund is to sponsor “curriculum enrichment or extracurricular activities by student teachers which promote multicultural understanding, healthy lifestyle, environmental awareness, and inspire students to achieve their full potential in life." This seems like a lofty requirement, yet as a teacher, Emily achieved all of this.  The fund focuses on hands-on, child-centered and student motivated learning experiences and “has already supported a plethora of creative projects. It has helped Grade 1 students create “cuddle quilts” to be donated to children who have lost a family member to cancer and enabled Grade 5 and 6 students to start a school-wide composting program. It also financed a permanent, multimedia mural about the oceans, produced by Grade 2 and 3 students under the direction of artist Angela Grossman.” As Emily’s Dad explains, “the teachers don’t receive money themselves; the projects benefit students and the broader community. We also try and direct it to lower income kids who might not otherwise get these kinds of opportunities.” In true Emily style, the legacy fund has turned a tragic loss into an empowering and motivating opportunity for students and teachers.

 

When she was alive, Em had a big impact on me. She and her sister always filled me with happiness and energy- I wanted to have the same approach to life as they did. I wanted to see the positive in everything. Now that Em is gone, forever travelling, she has had an even bigger impact on me. I fight a daily internal battle between my authentic self and my significator self. My authentic self is much like Em- rambunctious, silly, loving, child-honouring, and understanding. My significator self is my survival mode self. She is often grouchy, controlling, impatient and worried about curricular outcomes. My significator self is the self that isn’t my true self. It is the self created by a business or factory model education system. My authentic self is much like John Dewey or Maria Montesorri- she wants children to be honoured, to explore, to learn through hands-on experiences, to become independent thinkers. Almost every working day, the battle rages on between my two selves. More and more often, the authentic self is winning. And even more recently, it isn’t even my own self berating my significator self. It is Em. I aspire to teach and live, like Em, with my authentic self. I aspire to listen more openly to each of my students and to give them the attention that they deserve.

 

Em teaches me to learn and be in every moment with my students, to not worry so much about the mandated outcomes and to honour the curiousities and interests of my students. Em teaches me to scrap the planned lessons for the day and to go explore the living wonders of the park next to the school because there is much more powerful learning in the discovery than in the sitting and being told. There is much more powerful learning in digging in the dirt and sifting the soil through our fingers than there is in just talking about it. It is much more important to follow a child’s interests than to tell them “we aren’t learning that today,” because if that is what they hear, what is the lesson that they are really learning? And how will they learn if they are not interested.

 

Em will never know the impact that she has had on my life as a teacher. But every day, especially today, I teach in her memory and honour.

 

Read more about The Longworth Legacy.

Make a donation to the New Teachers Creative Activity Fund.

 

 

Through the Looking Glass- A Jeweller's Stange Loop Exploration

Through the looking glass I tumble down from Brobingnag into Lulliput. I leave behind the titanic shell and fall, fall, fall, fall, fall, fall, fall, fall, fall, fall,, fall……….

 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144… A skipping game of layers built on top of each other. An exo-cranial home. Skeletal blueprint. Tectonic fractures interrupt the architecture, interrupt the strong natural ridges with instability. Did the owner feel the cranial earth move? Surface craters mimic the moon. Are these natural hiccups in the calcium carbonate skipping game? Are these natural bruises experienced in the submarine environment? Briny spice mixes with gritty soil and flossy web.
 

 With the jeweller’s loupe, I begin to see the Strange Loops in the natural world. Science and math working together to create a Fibonacci skipping game across the ridges of the shell. Science and math are a Strange Loop. Can science exist without math? Can math exist without science? They are the same thing and yet they are not.

 A square is a rectangle but a rectangle isn’t a square.

The jeweller’s loupe reveals the Droste effect present all around me. I look at the shell and see a shell in a shell in a shell in a shell in a shell in a house in a house in a house in house in a world within a world within a world within a world within a

 The more I look the more I see. The smaller I look the bigger the world gets, THE BIGGER THE WORLD GETS!!!

I’M OVERWHELEMED

because everything is connected and everything depends on and is everything else.

 

Climbing back out of the lens and into the big picture, seeing how the little fits into big, and fits and fits and fits again, I wonder…

…if this is true, which it is, then why must we compartmentalize, organize, ghettoize our learning.  If the big picture and the small picture are really the same but different, because one is within, within, within, within the other, why do we

p

i

g

e

o

n

h

o

l

e

 what we are learning? Why do you subject-ify the learning? If the natural world is integrated, should not our learning be fractally integrated?

 Cuz the curriculum’s connected to the… whole world. And the whole world’s connected to the… science. And the science is connected to the… math. And the math’s are connected to the… reading. And the reading’s connected to the… writing. And the writing’s connected to the… speaking. And the speaking’s connected to the… history. And the history’s connected to the… whole world. And the whole world’s connected the… curriculum. Now see the learning of the world.     

 ************************************************************************************

I try to explain to wondering parents that I integrate the subjects in my classroom… that in learning science we are also learning math, that in working on word study we are learning the mathematical patterns of language, we are learning patterning and patterns are in everything we do. Parents who were taught in a pigeonholed system have great difficulty taking the little picture and applying it to the big. I was taught in a pigeonholed system and regularly have the same trouble.

If, as a teacher, I allow the students to follow their interests and curiousities, or as a class we pursue each students’ questions, there is always a convoluted way that this can be woven back into what “we should be learning”- the PLOs of the curriculum. We all are curious and ask questions for a reason. As animals, curiousity and questioning help us give meaning to our world and help us figure out how to survive. So the pursuit of these questions and curiousities leads to authentic learning and education.

Looking through the jeweller’s loupe and exploring the worlds within our worlds helped me to focus the lens on more authentic learning. I was as enthralled with the Lilliputian worlds as I know my students would be. A million questions and curiousities burst into my mind and one question spawned a million more thus perpetuating the Droste effect of learning.

The 7 Characteristics of Living Things

Yippee!! Another term and another class has begun! We spent the better part of two days talking about “lived- curriculum” and narrative inquiry.  When I sat down to plan the science lessons for the week, I started to see parallels between what I was planning and what the cohort had been talking about the day before. The science lessons that I was planning are about Living and Non-Living things.

 There are 7 characteristics of living things. Living things:

1.       Breathe/ respire

2.       Reproduce themselves

3.       Excrete by-products

4.       Experience movement

5.       Respond/adapt to environment

6.       Consume energy for food

7.       Grow 

As an educator, I often hear talk of “lived curriculum.” Is then educational curriculum a living thing? Does it do each of these 7 things? Or, is curriculum a non-living thing? Inanimate? Or even dead?

 How do the 7 characteristics of living things apply to curriculum?

1. Breath and Respiration

The Oxford English Dictionary gives two definitions for the word inspire. 1) to “fill (someone) with the urge or ability to do or feel something, especially to do something creative,” and  2) to “breathe in (air); inhale.”

The origin is as follows:

“Middle English enspire, from Old French inspirer, from Latin inspirare 'breathe or blow into' from in- 'into' + spirare 'breathe'. The word was originally used of a divine or supernatural being, in the sense 'impart a truth or idea to someone'” 

Does our educational curriculum fill students and educators “with the urge or ability to do or feel something, especially to do something creative?” Does it breathe life into our learning, expanding our desire to explore and learn more? 

2. Reproduction

When new curriculum is written, is it an exact replica of the previous curriculum merely packaged in new fonts, designs and language? Or, is does the new curriculum contain some of the DNA of the previous curriculum plus new DNA from a more modern source? Does it copy or even resemble the parent document, or does it rebel from its ancestors by introducing and trying new things? Does it do all of these things all at the same time? 

3. Excretion

Is there a tangible and measureable product that results from teaching this curriculum? More specifically, does this curriculum result in lasting learning experiences and behaviour changes that are functional in a student’s future? 

4. Movement

Is the curriculum portable? Can it be taught anywhere at anytime? Is this curriculum accessible in the classroom, in the computer lab, on the playground, in the park, at home, or on an experiential trip? Is the curriculum culturally accessible to everyone in the intended audience? It is accessible to all demographics, sexual orientations, genders, learning styles, ethnicities, or abilities? Where does the curriculum take us physically and mentally? Does it “move” us emotionally?

5. Response and Adaptation to Environment

Does the curriculum respond and change accordingly with world events? Does it respond and adapt to evolving technology? Does it respond and adapt to a more worldly and social-media savvy student population? Does it prepare students to survive in an ever-changing world?

6. Feeding

What is required of educators and students to keep the curriculum alive and breathing? Are there resources needed? Is there time and mental and physical energy needed? Does the curriculum feed off its deliverers like a parasite, sucking their energy and enthusiasm? Are the expectations too lofty for the students? Or is there symbiosis with the educators, students and curriculum alike giving and taking from each other? 

7. Growth

Does the prescribed knowledge in the curriculum lead to further exploration? Is there a ripple effect of learning, discovery and exploration? Does it allow educators and students to grow as learners, problem solvers, thinkers, doers, seers, be-ers?

The answers to each of these questions are, of course, subjective and a matter of perspective. In my mind, educational curriculum is a highly regulated set of documents that are the intellectual property of the government. It is written through consultation with educators, government employees and sometimes students and the public. It is highly regulated so that all students can be assessed in a largely similar way. It is highly regulated so that we CAN compare apples and oranges and so that we CAN put square pegs in round holes. Whether intentional or not, curriculum serves to assimilate and enculturate the student population by deciding what they need to know.

I believe in a “lived curriculum”- one that is more elastic and organic than traditional curriculum. A lived curriculum allows students more autonomy in choosing what they learn. It allows both students and educators the freedom to follow passions and curiosities, to not worry about “covering the curriculum” word for word. A lived curriculum is an authentic curriculum as it is one that follows the inspiration of students. It contains both old and new curricular DNA, yet may rebel and seek out new, uncharted territory. A lived and authentic curriculum “excretes” the product of lasting learning experiences and behaviour changes in the students. It is accessible to anyone anywhere because it is THEIR curriculum. It has the freedom of movement because any situation, exploration or curiosity can become the curriculum. An authentic and lived curriculum is one that adapts and changes with the world, with the population and with technology. It is in symbiosis with educators and students, each giving and taking from each other. It allows for growth of the students and educators, who are themselves, students.

How an educator presents the curriculum is paramount to its “lived-ness”, authenticity and vitality. Allowing oneself and one’s students to move freely within the framework of the Prescribed Learning Outcomes can generate a lived curriculum. One can still “cover the curriculum” when exploring the unique and seemingly off-topic inquiries of students.  Students and educators who learn through a lived curriculum will be far more prepared for world outside of education as they will know how to adapt, think for themselves and follow their interests.

Is then educational curriculum a living thing? Does it do each of these 7 things? Or, is curriculum a non-living thing? Inanimate? Or even dead?

The choice is yours.

Design Thinking Paradigm and The Article and Paulo Freire

Teachers and their methods of delivering curriculum are constantly under the public microscope. Parents, students and teacher themselves want to ensure that their child, themselves or their students are learning what is set out in the Prescribe Learning Outcomes or what has been outlined in government mandated curriculum packages. But what if there was another way of doing things? What if it should be the entire educational system under the microscope? I have used the beginning stages in the Design Thinking Paradigm (Empathize- Define- Ideate- Prototype- Test) to analyse one of my favourite articles on this very subject.

Empathize (with the beginnings of Define)
Every time I read This Article, I cry. I have to take several nose-blowing breaks and wipe the back of my hand across my eyes before I can continue reading. When I am finished, I feel like I have had the wind punched out of me. I also am filled with hope.
 

The Article, “How a Radical New Teaching Method Could Unleash a Generation of Geniuses,”  outlines how one elementary teacher in an impoverished Mexican border town rejected formal teaching methods and allowed the students in his class to take ownership of their own learning. This lead to truly awesome and inspirational results. The Article gripped my heart from the very beginning with its harsh descriptions of life in the Mexican town of Matamoros, but it was the following which dug deep into my soul:

“…the dominant model of public education is still fundamentally rooted in the industrial revolution that spawned it, when workplaces valued punctuality, regularity, attention, and silence above all else. (In 1899, William T. Harris, the US commissioner of education, celebrated the fact that US schools had developed the “appearance of a machine,” one that teaches the student “to behave in an orderly manner, to stay in his own place, and not get in the way of others.”) We don’t openly profess those values nowadays, but our educational system—which routinely tests kids on their ability to recall information and demonstrate mastery of a narrow set of skills—doubles down on the view that students are material to be processed, programmed, and quality-tested." (The Article)

A friend first posted The Article and I read it by accident. I sat there and bawled because it spoke to my soul and my soul was saying “Other people have not given up on education. Other people have found a way to fight the factory system and to change how we learn. You can do this too.”  The Article was the soul food that I needed after working several weeks in a factory style classroom. There are things that I try to do differently, there are ways that I try to break the factory machinery, but working against such a well-oiled system is exhausting and often degrading. And quite often I find that my tools break before the machinery does. Nevertheless, The Article has become my motivation to go to work each day. It is my motivation to, bit by bit, disassemble the educational machinery that has been hard at work for several centuries. It is my personal call to action.

The same friend that posted The Article also recommended I read Paulo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed.” She was taken aback that I had never even heard of it before. “It is teacher soul food,” she said. “It will become your bible.” A few days later, my course instructor responded to a piece of expository writing that was to jumpstart our term papers. He also mentioned Paulo Freire. Not a coincidence. It was time that I had some Paulo in my life.

Define
I have been taking Freire with me everywhere: the bus, the train, the couch, the classroom, the library, the kitchen floor, the bed, the bath… We’ve been everywhere together it seems. My friend was right, “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” is fast becoming my teacher bible. What The Article refers to as the “dominant model of public education [that] is still fundamentally rooted in the industrial revolution that spawned it,” (The Article)  Freire refers to as the “banking concept of education.” (Pedagogy of the Oppressed, page 72) Together with The Article, Freire has implanted some ideas in my mind that are starting to sprout. Where once there was hopelessness about my job there is now budding optimism and anticipation. Sergio Juárez Correa revolutionized his teaching. I can too.

Ideate
Juárez Correa recognized that for children to experience powerful learning, they must be in control of their own learning. He based his rationale on research conducted by Sugata Mitra, “a professor of educational technology at Newcastle University in the UK. In the late 1990s and throughout the 2000s, Mitra conducted experiments in which he gave children in India access to computers. Without any instruction, they were able to teach themselves a surprising variety of things, from DNA replication to English." (The Article)  Juárez Correa was well-read and despite instincts rooted in his formal training, he continued to step further back from the role of teacher and stepped closer to the role of mentor and facilitator.  Joshua Davis, author of The Article has obviously done his research on the subject and supports Juárez Correa’s method with data from a variety of brain studies. My little community of educational frustration has given way to an entire world of research and experiences! When I add Sugata Mitra to my reading collection I just might have a pedagogical holy trinity! I will have the tools to complete the "Ideate" stage in the Design Thinking paradigm and begin the "Prototype" and "Test" stages.

I still need to write my term paper and I don’t want to use all of my material here.

I will end with a quote…

To them, knowledge isn’t a commodity that’s delivered from teacher to student but something that emerges from the students’ own curiosity-fueled exploration. Teachers provide prompts, not answers, and then they step aside so students can teach themselves and one another. They are creating ways for children to discover their passion—and uncovering a generation of geniuses in the process. (The Article)

And a question:

How can we, trapped in the factory, break down the machinery and start a revolution? What tools would you use and to what purpose?

Remembering through peace

There are two main approaches to health: pathology and salutogenesis. The pathogenic approach focuses on finding treatments for diseases whereas the salutogenic approach focuses on making healthy life choices to avoid becoming unhealthy. In other words, “dis-ease versus health-ease.”

As I sat through yet another Remembrance Day assembly that is supposedly honouring veterans I started to wonder why educators don’t have more of a salutogenic-style approach to Remembrance Week and Remembrance Day.

If you were to ask the average elementary school student about the meaning of war, you would get a multitude of responses all involving guns, fighting, combat gear, tanks, land mines and bombs. The names of their favourite war video games would also be thrown in. Children know all about war, even if they have not lived it themselves. When asking my children this week what peace means, I was met with blank stares and fidgeting. This was obviously a new and uncomfortable question for them.

The main focus for Remembrance Day activities in most elementary schools is war. Students talk about wars that have happened and where they happened. Statistics about how many people died are discussed. Destructive technology is studied and ogled. War is glorified.

At assemblies, students watch videos depicting war- bombs being dropped, no man’s land, barbed wire, artillery, troops in combat gear, tanks, bodies being shovelled by a backhoe, children playing on burnt-out tanks. Every time an explosion happens on the screen or a picture of a gun or tank appears, there is a collective murmur of “Whoa, cool!” that ripples through the assembly. War is glorified. War is “cool.” The children then go outside for Recess and play war while the supervisors yell “No gun-play at school!” In the staff room you can hear “Why don’t they get it? We just had an assembly on why war is wrong!” Not quite. Somebody(ies) obviously missed the point.

A colleague of mine told me that a member of the armed forces came to speak to the intermediate students at her school. When asked “Have you ever injured or killed anyone?” he replied, “I never answer that question. It is too personal.” In not answering the question he has answered the question. Do you think children are stupid and can’t see through your lack of bravery to speak the truth? If you have the guts to pull the trigger or set a land mine, you had better have the guts to tell the truth about it. There is no honour or bravery in avoiding the truth.

I’ve taught students who have had their houses bombed, whose parents have had their eyes gauged out in torture, whose parents had to run for their lives while their neighbours hunted them down. I bet those students don’t think war is “cool.” To them, someone being injured or killed is a reality, not an embarrassing question.

I spent an entire day by myself at Vimy Ridge. It was peacefully grotesque. The pock-marked ground juxtaposed starkly with the all too orderly white headstones. The bright green grass was dotted with tall skinny trees replanted by the German government as part of the war reparations. The white limestone memorial piercing the sky seemed to pierce my heart at the same time. I had the park to myself yet I felt crowded by the horror of the past. Underneath my feet, on the very ground I was walking, lay the dead. Young lives, cut short by gun-fire. This was nothing to glorify. This was a tragedy. This was a nightmare. Everything at Vimy was still ripe with conflict, yet is was a place of sacred peace.

Many years ago, my sister went to Guatemala shortly after the Guatemalan Civil War had ended. While she was met with much pain and suffering, she was also met by a movement of peace. Where North American culture would hang on to pain and let resentment and the desire for vengeance build, the Guatemalan people are finding empowerment and peace through their pain. They are choosing peace. In a church, where many indígenas were tortured, raped and murdered by the militia, their spilled blood staining the floor, was a sign that read “Take off your shoes. You are on sacred ground.” In a place of horrific pain and suffering they are honouring their dead through peaceful remembrance. Where the ghosts of the past could and should haunt them, the indígenas are allowing their wounds to be opened, cleansed and therefore healed through peace.

Why then should we not have the same approach when teaching children about Remembrance Day? Why is the focus not peace? Why are we not allowing ourselves to find empowerment in the past? It is possible to recognize veterans without glorifying war. To discuss and expose the truths and reality of war (post traumatic stress, depleted uranium poisoning, disfigurement, refugees, loss of life…) is to demystify war and to ensure that it isn’t glorified. It is also possible to celebrate Remembrance Day through peace.  How can we expect children to learn that fighting is wrong if we continue to glorify war rather than promoting and teaching about peace? War is the pathological approach to conflict. We must fight our “enemy” to solve the problem. Peace is the salutogenic approach. Why not give our children the tools (and not just lip service?) to prevent conflict so that we may all live peacefully? We can teach our children to wear a white poppy next to a red poppy so that hopefully, one day, we will find that we no longer need either.