Yesterday, today and tomorrow

Yesterday, today and tomorrow

Another picture for what will be another conference. 

This conference will be uniquely exciting: Bahrain. In a little over a year, I will share  my learnings with a predominately Muslim audience from across the Gulf Region. My eyes and ears (and my heart) will be wide open to their beliefs and experiences. I hope to inspire as much I hope to be inspired. I will add to this as it approaches. 

For now - COVID.  I would have never thought that my life on road would survive COVID. Not only was flying and hotels a  huge road block as to how I lived my working life but one on one with audiences of students, educators and parents was clearly no longer happening. Yet, here I am in 2025 having been to Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ohio...next week in Kelowna and Kamloops...and I am hearing from my agent that he has events being planned in Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto and... 

All  that to say that tomorrow is hard to foresee. Come to think of it, yesterday is almost as hard to recall. 

Enough. Back to you soon.

Group hug

David 

 

Reading

A unique and proven perspective

Was Maria Montessori right in her understanding about what it takes to become a reader? And if she was, what does that say about our current methods of teaching reading?

Has reading become big business worth billions of dollars – a business that has taken on a life of its own in spite of obvious shortcomings. New, exciting curriculum, new courses, programmes, tests and evaluation tools…books on reading, books guaranteed to create readers, leveled reading programmes…

Montessori’s understanding of human nature and her philosophy toward teaching of reading has not escaped the attention of numerous academics in the US however over time, these have been quieted. There was a movement that reflected Montessori’s philosophy; whole language. It had a world wide following. I had the honour of being the Master of Ceremonies at a Whole  Language Conference in Winnipeg Manitoba a few years ago. Thousands from the world over attended to hear our keynote speaker, Bill Martin Jr. Manitoba was the heart of the common sense approach to reading a philosophy that also flourished in the Northern US. 

The movement however was short lived. Money speaks today. Money spoke then. Things reverted to where they had been. Get to children early (the earlier the better). Seek out a curriculum that is guaranteed succeed. Test them. Test them early and test them often. Use the results to build on. Reading is a science. Anyone can be taught to read given the right curriculum and the appropriate tools. 

But what if Maria was right? 

Maria Montessori believed that reading was a humanity and not a science - it was as natural a process as walking and talking. She taught that it took three things to become a reader:  

Time - a child will walk when they are ready - not when you tell them to.

A hero - they need someone to give them the gift of reading - a hero

Books - To read, books are necessary...books that included readers and books that are accessible to these readers. 

For the basics about Whole Language and Montessori's philosophy on reading, seek out and read Marlene Barron's "I Learn to Read and Write the Way I Learn to Talk". Barron served as President of the Board of the American Montessori Society. She was on the faculty of New York University. As a principal, I bought a copy of this small treasure for each of our school's employees as well as for our parent school council. 

I might be wrong in this but I don't think I am. I have spent years using Montessori's philosophy. It is tried and proven. 

 

April - time to write

Home to write..

I'm back on the road, in person...and it feels good. I have done school visitations and conference work for over 26 years now and I like it. 

I'm home from a week in Kelowna and Kamloops where I spoke with students and teachers. I shared stories and I spoke of residential schools, the need to recognize and embrace our unique gifts and as I always do, I spoke about mental health. 

I spoke with grade 11 and 12 students at Rutland Senior Secondary. The Indigenous program students gifted me a bundle from their own garden, tea, tobacco and a herb based salve. In Kamloops, I was able to present in French which is always a treat for me as I don't get to use my language as often as I did since the death of my Father,

Getting home (Kamloops to Victoria) took ten hours. Crazy, I know. I arrived home after midnight and woke early to do a keynote presentation on Zoom to teachers in Sooke. And that was a real pleasure. I am always happy to present on-line even though that can be a little challenging. (I have new respect for Cory Booker who spoke to the house for 25 hours). Speaking into a camera with no visible audience is...challenging. 

And now, my books- 

I have a couple books "out there". These are written, illustrated and well....out there. I trust my publishers but they can sometimes use a wee poke as a reminder that time passes. 

The Talking Stick is a book I have been talking about for some time now...and it IS coming - any day now. 

Dreamcatcher, the sequel to We Learn from the Sun, with Kristy Cameron and also published by Medicine Wheel Education is also done and "out there". 

And I have new dreams/projects. 

1.I have long been troubled by the status of rez dogs whose existence is not their fault yet who are often shot simply because they were born with no one who wanted them - with no one who cared. They are killed as part of a mass killing known as a cull. I have witnessed a cull  first hand and have to believe that there is a better way. These poor dogs have no voice but that of people like me and Donna the Strange with whom I am working to matter for them.

2. I remained committed to supporting the seal hunt and the people of Canada's north. Canadians have to become educated as to the state of affairs in our North. My part in this will be a book that outlines some of my learnings after having spent significant time there, among them. 

Home from my Prairie

 Home from my Prairie

What a wonderful week!

The highlight of my tour home was being able to share my learnings with thousands of students and teachers. 

I am in a position and of the age where I  can be open and honest. For our world to become what it should be, our youth will have to be given the tools they need to make it so. 

1. Residential schools were right there - all around me when I was a boy. Had the adults in my world had the foresight and the courage to tell me the truth about what was going on, I would have had a chance to make a difference.

Not a word about residential schools. Was it that no one knew about the hurt and abuse that was taking place in those schools? I think not. I don't believe that my parents and my teachers were anywhere near as aware as we are today, but many knew and they remained  silent. 

The Truth and Reconciliation Recommendations are clear in telling us that we MUST tell our children what happened. Are we? Before teachers tell the truth, they must feel that they are supported - they must trust the system they work within. This is where we are struggling. I hope that our board and administrators are leading in this effort.

2. Canada's Chinese Canadian youth deserve to know the truth of how Canadians treated the Chinese after inviting them to Canada to work on our new railroad.  Chinese youth deserve to know as does every other student. Why do our students not know that Chinese workers had to pay their voyage even after we invited them, needing their
help...that they were paid half what a white worker was paid...that they had tarps for shelter while their white counterparts were housed in shacks that provided much better protection from the elements and also that they would be responsible for all the hard and dangerous work. Should they not be informed that one Chinese worker died for every mile of railroad laid between Calgary and Vancouver? 

3. Canada's North - The lives of thousands of Northern Canadians would be so much fuller and much more gentle if our youth learned the truth about how these Northerners live and why. The seal hunt was decimated by people who knew nothing about the Inuit, the Innu or the Gwich'in. A movement was started to ban the seal hunt, the traditional way of life of these proud Canadians. Brigitte Bardot started a movement. a movement that ended with the banning of seal fur. She/they spoke of small white calves being cruelly bludgeoned to death on the open ice. They had pictures of men with clubs slaughtering these small white animals. This is NOT how seals were hunted. Yet, we Canadians did not stand up for our Northern family. We let them down then and continue to do so today. I have seen them hunt. They love and respect the seal. They share the last breath of the seal as it dies. If Canadian youth were taught the truth of  the hunt and of life in the North, they could make Canada a better Canada.

4. Our schools - We continue, and fueled by social media, to have our youth believe that success is defined by the clothes they wear, the cars they drive and the size of the houses they live in. Study hard. Master the curriculum and the academic world, and you are well on your way to success. We must tell students that they are being misled...that the key to success is not building their lives around ego or money but rather around the gifts that each has within. That is hard to do when our schools focus solely on the curriculum and not on the individuals under our care. 

Saskatchewan Bound

I'm headed home

Regina, Moose Jaw, North Battleford. In preparing for my upcoming trip, a quote from my book Prairie Born:

If I had a penny for each time I spoke 

Of cold, howling wind of deep drifting snow

Of darkness of  winter on route to the rink

Of so many memories I smile as I think 

Knowing full well that others who've never lived there

Will nod and listen but don't really care

As "morning, fine day" means nothing much more

But to me, it means....

To me it means... Come in and please shut the door

Will the kids be alright? Should I plug in the car?

If I start shovelling now will I get very far?

Will I have to start over before I am done?

Will the wind blow it back? I must weigh a ton.

Fill your cup up - let's visit...remember  the time

The snow bank was up past the telephone line?

Here's me in a picture, I'm shovelling the drive

The snow line is over the roof on three sides.

Say what? You can top that - well  try this for size

I'd shovelled three hours  and to my surprize

That night went I came home, d'you know what I saw?

The wind blew it...."

I know that I'm rambling but all this is true

It's more than just memories of times that I knew

It answers the mystery of what lies in our souls

Where nature's the teacher for young and  for old. 

It shapes us from childhood  through  sun, dust and rain

Compels us  to live for life's pleasures and pain

And the secret of me from the day of my birth

Is the nurturing seasons and our Mother the Earth. 

One of the things that we prairie ex-pats do on a daily basis is watch the weather. How it happens, I don't know but I always seem to find myself in Saskatchewan and Manitoba in mid-winter. I downloaded the image on the right this morning: 

I don't worry about the cold. Minus 25 or 35 or even minus 45...It's all the same. It's cold. No...I don't worry about that number. I do however worry about the condition of the roads. That and crazy storms.

The catch in our winter driving is to leave for your destination early and to drive slowly. I will be driving a  rental and will select a vehicle that can cope with harsh conditions. 

To choose one image that best represents my childhood memories, 

I defer to Allen Sapp.

 

LitCon 2025 Columbus Ohio

 LitCon 2025

Funny thing about LitCon is that it came so soon after the election in which President Trump all but calls for war on we Canadians. 

In truth, we are quite different than our southern neighbours. Though we have much in common, through some force of nature, we Canadians are more of a social minded people, i.e. gun control, social programmes for seniors, the needy and the disabled, universal medical coverage, educational rights and freedoms, the banning of books, penal systems, legalizing marijuana, etc...

The thing that has affected me the most is our differences in education - namely in reading. 

There was a time when our two countries were on a similar track - when whole language education was seen as the best option in education. Canadians wholeheartedly embraced the concept so much so that the Whole Language Consortium of Manitoba hosted a global conference in Winnipeg that drew over 5000 delegates from across the globe. Bill Martin Junior was our keynote speaker as we shared a common understanding on how best to  teach reading. Maria Montessori was our hero. Alfie Kohn and other innovative American academics appeared to have a solid footing in the US. 

This however was not the case. To mention Whole Language in many states today is waving a red flag. So when I was invited to speak to the IRA in Detroit, I expected the worst from the 5000 seated before me. I held nothing back in my opening, "America, you test your children too early and you test them too often!" You can imagine my shock when a big, boisterous man in the front row bellowed out AMEN! I came to understand that though government promoted standardized testing, phonics and strategies consistent with the idea of treating reading a science and not a humanity, there remained a substantial body who saw reading as Maria saw it....something as simple as walking and talking. Over the next few years, I was invited south of the border on numerous occasions. Yes, I ruffled feathers and stirred the pot but Americans, by far and large, are kind and polite. More often than not, they affirmed my belief in teachers, children and reading.

My keynote at LitCon in Ohio touched on missing indigenous children, on the importance of focusing on children and not the curriculum and as I always do, on our collective need to speak to mental health.

My goal was to outline individual roles in promoting reading/literacy in our schools and in our homes, a message that I have shared over the past twenty five years; through the teachings of Maria Montessori: It doesn't take magic or a new exciting programme to create readers. It takes time, heroes and books.

Over the past 30 years, I have presented at dozens of conferences. LitCon was the most well organized, from the setting at the beautiful Hyatt Regency in downtown Columbus to the amazing AV support through to the variety and quality of the numerous session presenters.

Thank you Allison, Billy and the entire executive for providing me with the opportunity to share my years of learning.

Zoom - Google Meet - Microsoft Teams

 Zoom -Teams - Meet 

There are many new exciting ways to meet and share...

Last week, I delivered a keynote address to LitCon, the biggest Literacy Conference in the US. 

This week, I shared my love for and the power of story with the students at Suncrest College. My goal was to enlighten and motivate an extremely diverse group of students from across my home province of Saskatchewan. 

The name Suncrest is  the combination of two words that hold significant meaning to each of the 11 campuses within the expanded region including locations in Canora,  Esterhazy, Fort Qu'Appelle, Kamsack, Melfort, Melville, Nipawin, Tisdale and Yorkton. The name represents Saskatchewas, one of the sunniest provinces in Canada. A crest signifies the top of the peak, representing the colleges' shared vision to exceed the needs of learners, partners and communities. 

Educational options include university degrees, skills training diplomas and certificates,  trades training, high school upgrading, employability programmes, safety training, and corporate/professional development.

My involvement was to speak to the need for and the power of story. I did this as any storyteller would do, for 90 minutes, I told stories.

I chose my stories with the intent of helping students (and staff) learn from some of my many life experiences across the globe yet remaining focussed on those I have had in Canada - from coast to coast to coast. 

I addressed the importance of reading. I touched on the how of becoming a reader. 

I spoke to the gifts each of us are given and the importance of building our lives around those gifts. 

Some of my stories focussed on the ongoing neglect in our Northern communities and on many of our reserves. 

I shared a few of my books. 

All this was done through Microsoft Team. The conference director was very well versed with the platform which allowed me to achieve everything I hoped to achieve.