Hallowe'en has come and gone - 52 days till Christmas

Christmas, Hallowe'en, Diwali, Easter, Yom Kappur, Ramadan...

Many of these culture landmarks, and there are many, provide us with opportunities to better come to understand one another. They also provide educators with fodder for selecting and reading new and exciting books. 

There was a time when I wouldn't have given a second thought to sharing books about any and all cultural events. We seem to be at a time however, when the word "appropriate" casts a dark shadow on such things. At great risk, I dare share a few but guaranteed winners of my favourite Christmas reads. 

This amazing book of short stories by Cynthia Rylant is one of my all time and forever favourites. Six short stories, each one capable of bringing you to tears... I don't recall religion being a theme in any of the stories - poverty, loneliness, love... 

I don't know how accessible this treasure is as I have had my three copies for a long time now. But it is out there and worth your tracking down now, in early November. 

My daughter Victoria will tell you this is THE best Christmas book ever and I agree. No, not religion but Santa Claus, his wife and the child they have always been denied - Holly. We read the novel together several times over. We shared it with friends and neighbours and anyone walking by. It was and remains THAT good. 

A few years back, Holly Claus was released as a picture book and again, WOW! If you plan on reading the novel aloud (as I did and would highly recommend), you will have to get started soon. 

I can't imagine any North American not knowing of The Polar Express. Chances are that they have read the book (or had it read to them). If not, they have almost  certainly seen the movie. Amazing! 

That being said, I am absolutely certain that some children have yet to read or hear the book read to them. You will not want them to be denied this magical experience. 

And finally, I obviously could go on at length and I am not even a librarian, let  me close with one of mine. This beautiful book illustrated by the late Moses Beaver, teaches us how closely intertwined Christianity is to Indigenous belief. The Haudenosaunee will tell you that Peace Maker was born to a virgin, that he
paddled a canoe made of stone and that his greatest gift was a book known as the Great Law (not really a book but a series of stories that would later be written down as the Great Law. Our book is in both English and French as well as in Inuktitut, the Inuit language. It includes a CD of Susan Aglukark singing Canada's oldest carol, the Huron Carol.  

Reading - a whole language perspective

The Gift of Reading

Feel free to quote me or to use this guide

“The single greatest gift we can give our children and/or our students is the gift of reading. There are two reasons for this: 1. No matter how poor, how underprivileged, how shy or how challenged, there is one way that every person can access anyone or anything. That is through reading. 2. Non-readers in Canadian and American schools are doomed to fail. Sadly, even children who might have it in them to become strong readers but who are slow starters are often destined to a similar fate. Our schools are not for children; they are for children who can read. And more and more, they are for children who can read at an early age. ” David Bouchard

John Dewey: “Schools should not be about handing down a collection of static truths to the next generation but about responding to the needs and interests of the students themselves.”

John Goodlad: “Almost everywhere I go, individuals endeavoring to bring about change report that teachers are paying less and less attention to the needs of individual children and more and more to the “standards” being imposed on them.”

 

1. Testing:  We are testing our children too much and we are testing them too often. Standardized tests are too costly, both in terms of money and of time; the time it takes to write, prepare and mark these tests and the time that preparation and testing detract us from our true purpose which is and will always be: to teach. 

Shelly Harwayne (2): “Not so long ago at an airport gift store, I noticed a schoolhouse music box. I couldn’t resist turning the key. It played, “School days, school days, dear old golden rule days. Reading and writing and arithmetic, taught to the tune of a hickory stick…” We may not have actual hickory sticks in our school anymore, but standardized tests are serving the same purposes. In some schools in this country, those tests continue to dictate teaching practices, and there is as much pain and punishment attached to them as to those old hickory sticks. Even in our school where we downplay the yearly plague of tests, we have children who in the not-so-merry month of May complain of stomach cramps and develop asthmatic attacks from which they do not suffer at nontesting times. The teachers who have to administer these exams to children who have only been on this planet seven, eight or nine years, wince as much as if they were witnessing a child being physically abused.”

Alfie Kohn: “All of us with children need to make it our business to understand just how much harm these tests are doing. Every time we judge a school on the basis of a standardized test score – indeed every time we permit our children to participate in these mass testing programmes – we unwittingly help to make our schools just a little worse.”

“The party and even the name of the president don’t seem to matter. Virtually all of Bill Clinton’s lengthy remarks on education in his 1997 State of the Union message could have been delivered by George Bush or even Ronald Reagan…and indeed, the speech reportedly pleased Republican governors. …He framed the task at hand not as enhancing the quality of student learning but as making sure the USA was number one in educational performance. He called for competition among public schools and for rewards and punishments to “motivate” teachers. Most of all, he said that the solution to our educational problems was more testing (Clinton, 1997).”

William Nicholson’s Wind on Fire trilogy (3): “Ignore the questions on the paper. Write about what you know best. Give them your best. …These tests are like giving tests in flying to fish. Let’s each of us do what we’re good at doing.”

2. A major concern: What if the children who are being subjected to standardized tests are not, at the age of their being tested, capable of passing them? What if Frank Smith, Alfie Kohn, and Maria Montessori are right?

 Frank Smith (1): “Parents aren’t challenged by the mystery of teaching their children to walk, talk, and read faces, they just have to give them support and a nurturing environment. Reading is simply a matter of looking at print and making sense of it.”

“Why do some people have so much trouble learning to read? 1) They are confronted by reading when it is not the best time for them to learn, just as not everyone learns to play the piano, to swim, or to play chess at the same time. They may be too involved in other things, or trying to recover from some trauma. Learning to read is not necessarily a problem at any age – unless there are years of reading confusion and failure in the past.”

Marlene Barron (4): “Reading is a natural process. Children’s first babbles are a beginning stage of talking. Children’s first scribbles are the beginning of writing. It happens easily and quite naturally. Through these first scribbles children discover that writing is much, much more than just spelling, grammar or penmanship. Writing is expressing ideas and feelings as information on paper. And when they “read” their marks – their writing – back to us, they discover what reading is all about. It is making sense of print. And this sense-making process is much more than just sounding out letters in words.”

David Bouchard: “The act of reading is as natural as the acts of walking and talking. Children learn to recognize words just as they learn to identify faces and objects. There is no rushing a child to walk or to talk or to read. Under the right conditions, children will read when they are ready, and not before. No toy, no programme, or no specialist can rush the process. Children must be given the time, the setting and the care that they require in order to become readers. We are inflicting serious damage onto children by subjecting them to programmes that are meant to teach them to do something that comes naturally. We are force-feeding them before they are ready. And to our shame, we are then labeling them in a way that has life long consequences on many.”

3. The Solution:

Einstein: “Modeling isn’t one way of influencing people. It is the only way.”

Brian, a cab driver in Calgary, Alberta: “I’ve never read a book from cover to cover. I’m not a stupid man. I listen to the Canadian Broadcasting Network (CBC). I read newspapers and such.  Yet when people who read books get into my cab, I always feel less than them. Whose fault is it that I don’t read?”

Einstein: "The Inspired Mind is a sacred gift, the rational mind a faithful servant.  We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the master" 

Administrators:

Model

1. Seek out and purchase the books you should be reading 
   
   
   
2. Set the scene: a reading corner in your office, a good reading light, etc… Re-decorate your workplace. This picture is my principal’s office taken the day I retired.
3. Change your timetable and INSIST that those around you discover you reading: Do Not Disturb: Director/Principal is Reading!!!
4. Once your fire has been lit…spread the flame to parents, educators, and students alike.

Dawn Adams: “Show me the books he loves and I shall know the man far better than through mortal friends.”

 

Motivate – You MUST model and more…

1. Book talks – led by you
2. Professional Days that focus on your personal love of reading
3. Community reading programmes
4. Use of technology

Manage

1. Protect children from everything that detracts from the love of reading and that includes the plethora of standardized tests.

• Augustine Birrell: “Reading is not a duty and has consequently no business to be made disagreeable.”
• James Cook: “A person who wants to lead the orchestra must be prepared to turn his/her back on the crowd.”
• Einstein: “Whenever mankind has made a fatal mistake, it has never been because of a lack of intelligence but rather a lack of imagination.” 

2. Schools need teacher librarians!

Roch Carrier: “School libraries, which have been weakened by budget cuts in recent years, are the nub of Canada’s illiteracy problem. Restore the strength they had in the 1970s and the whole country would be better off. The state of our school libraries can only be described as desperate in almost every province.”

 

Research in 3300 schools since 1999 shows that the positive impact of school libraries is consistent. Test results are 10-20% higher. (Lance and Loertscher, 2003). Yet, Canada is declining:

• 2% of Ontario elementary schools have a full-time teacher librarian compared to 42% 25 years ago.
• In B.C., teacher librarian positions are written into the collective agreement however, there was over 100 teacher librarian positions cut in the year 2000 alone. Funding in B.C. has been reduced from one for every 400 students to one for every 700 or fewer.
• In 1978, Alberta had 550 teacher librarians that were half time or more. In 1998, that number dropped to 252. In 2000, according to Alberta Learning, they had but 106 teacher librarians remaining. This translates to a provincial ratio of 1 teacher librarian for every 3000 students.

3. Children AND teachers must have access to good books – school and classroom libraries

4. ALL schools should have DEAR time (we are all someone’s hero) and other programmes that highlight reading

Stephen Covey: “It’s easy to say “no” when there’s a deeper “yes” burning inside.”

 

Teachers:

Light your personal reading fires

• William Yeats: “The best of teachers do not fill buckets. They light fires.”
• David Bouchard: “We cannot light fires in the hearts of our children unless we have flames burning in our own.” 

Look for those who look up to you then go out and…

Light their fires – Even if we give our students the skills with which to read and we do not give them the heart, we are doing them an injustice! 

* Mark Twain: “A person who can but who chooses not to read has no advantage over another who cannot read.”

Parents: 

“Childhood should be a journey and not a race!” 

Read

• C.S. Lewis: “No book is really worth reading at the age of ten that is not equally (and often far more) worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond.”
• Gail Haley: “Children who are not told stories and who are not read to will have few reasons for wanting to learn to read.”

Rule the television

• Stephen Krashen (The Power of Reading): “Television is not the culprit in the literary crisis. The culprit seems to be the absence of good books.”
• E.B.White: “I believe television is going to be the test of the modern world and that on this new opportunity to see beyond the range of our vision, we shall discover either a new and unbearable disturbance of the general peace or a saving radiance in the sky. We shall stand or fall by television – of that I am quite sure.”
• David Bouchard: “Having a television in our home was like having a sewer pipe that carried the occasional shiny rock dumping into our living room. It wasn’t worth putting up with all the garbage just to get an occasional gem. And worse, TV made no demands on our children’s imaginations. Reading demands that the imagination be in full gear.”

 

Reach Into Your pockets

• Cuba Gooding Jr. (Jerry Maguire): “Show me the money!”

 

 

 

THE ANIMAL SCHOOL:

 

The Administration of the School Curriculum

with References to Individual Differences

 

An excerpt from an address by: Dr. George H. Reavis

Assistant Superintendent Cincinnati Public School

1939-1948

 

Once upon a time, the animals decided they must do something heroic to meet the problems of " a new world".  So they organized a school.

 

They adopted an activity curriculum consisting of running, climbing, swimming, and flying.  To make it easier to administer the curriculum ALL the animals took ALL the subjects.

The duck was excellent in swimming, in fact better than his instructor, but he made only passing grades in flying and was very poor in running.  Since he was slow in running, he had to stay after school and also drop swimming in order to practice running.  This was kept up until his webfeet were badly worn and he was only average in swimming.  But average was acceptable in school so nobody worried about that except the duck.

The rabbit started at the top of the class in running, but had a nervous breakdown because of so much make-up work in swimming.

The squirrel was excellent in climbing until he developed frustration in the flying class where his teacher made him start from the ground up instead of from the tree top down.  He also developed a "charlie horse" from over-exertion and then got C in climbing and D in running.

The eagle was a problem child and was disciplined severely.  In the climbing class he beat all the others to the top of the tree, but insisted on using his own way to get there.

At the end of the year, an abnormal eel that could swim exceedingly well, and also run, climb, and fly a little, had the highest average and was valedictorian.

 

The prairie dogs stayed out of school and fought the tax levy because the administration would not add digging and burrowing to the curriculum.  They apprenticed their children to a badger and later joined the groundhogs and gophers to start a successful private school.

Suggested Reading:

 

Frank Smith, Unspeakable Acts – Unnatural Practices  - Flaws and Fallacies in “Scientific” Reading Instruction, Heinemann Publishers

 

Alfie Kohn, The Schools Our Children Deserve – Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and “Tougher Standards”, Houghton Mifflin Publishers

 

Shelly Harwayne, Going Public – Priorities and Practice at The Manhattan New School, Heinemann Publishers

 

Marlene Barron, I Learn to Read and Write the Way I Learn to Talk – A very first book about Whole Language, Richard C. Owen Publishers

 

Stephen Krashen, The Power of Reading – Insights from the Research, Libraries Unlimited, Inc.

 

Charles Ungerleider, Failing our Kids – How We are Ruining our Public Schools, McClelland & Stewart Publishers

 

William Nicholson, The Wind Singer – from the British YA trilogy Wind on Fire, Mammoth Publishers

 

 

(1)   Frank Smith – Ph. D. from Harvard. World travel researching, lecturing and writing on thinking and learning. Professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE); the University of Toronto; the University of Victoria, B.C.; The University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. Author of many articles and books, including, Unspeakable Acts, Unnatural Practices, Insult to Intelligence, Between Hope and Havoc, Essays into Literacy, and Joining the Literacy Club.

(2)   ) Shelly Harwayne - More than thirty years with the New York City public schools as a teacher, staff developer, co director of the Teachers College writing project, principal, superintendent, and author of several books including Going Public.

(3)   William Nicholson – Two Oscar Award nominations for the screenplays of Shadowlands and Gladiator. The author of the Smarties Award winning trilogy Wind on Fire. If you love children, you will read this series.

(4) Marlene Barron – Head of School at New York City’s West Side Montessori School. President of the Board of the American Montessori Society. On the faculty of New York University. Author of I Learn to Read and Write the Way I Learn to Talk.

Ready to help

Can you use some inspiration, direction and/or support

I present to educators, parents, and to students, both in person and virtually. I have done numerous online presentations and would love to support you. Lately, most of the presentations are done from my “shack” in Victoria.

To book one or merely to ask questions, contact my agent Chris Patrick. Chris can be reached a bouchardbookings@shaw.ca or by phone at 604-202-6104

 

Testimonial Letter to David’s agent Chris Patrick

Dear Chris:

I wanted to make a special point of thanking you for your flexibility in offering us a teleconference with David Bouchard. The Superior-Greenstone District School Board is a small North-western Ontario School Board with ten communities spread over a geographic region approximately the size of France. We use both teleconference and videoconference for professional learning and to bridge the distance between our schools.

We are extremely excited to have a literacy teacher in each of our schools this year. Our commitment to literacy included sending teachers to our regional literacy conference this summer and organizing a special workshop for our principals and vice principals about the principal’s role in literacy. We were thrilled to be able to participate in a Keynote address by David Bouchard in Thunder Bay.

David’s passion and enthusiasm grabbed our attention immediately. He continued to draw the audience into his magical storytelling by speaking of things that were relevant to teachers, administrators and parents. He combined a mixture of humour and realism to force us to confront the fact that we could be doing a much better job of teaching students. His address was powerful and inspiring. I was amazed to see the impact David had on our principals and vice principals. Literacy has become a main priority in both the elementary and secondary panels. They are excited and they are buying books! They are celebrating literacy and supporting students who are late readers.

 The benefit of David’s address carries on. We are talking and reflecting about our practices and we are committed to making things better for kids. As we were planning our literacy teacher training day, we wondered how we could get David to inspire our teachers, just like he inspired our leaders. The timelines were short, so a trip to Marathon seemed impractical….but a teleconference? Would he agree? Would he think we were crazy? You can imagine our excitement when we found out it was going to happen! Thank you just doesn’t seem like enough, we have now had the benefit of having David inspire our leaders and our teachers!!!!!

I did wonder if David would be able to convey his message through the phone line the same as he did in person. I ensured that each of the teleconference participants had a copy of his book The Gift of Reading and had some time before the teleconference to read the book and think of questions to ask. 

The teleconference was magical. David’s voice pulled the listeners into his world where he challenged practice, celebrated children and shared stories. The participants leaned forward, not wanting to miss anything; the room was still and quiet, except for the rich voice coming from the phone. The listeners were engaged and the conversation became a free-flowing exchange of ideas and beliefs. I watched in amazement as a participant, moved to tears by David, explained her renewed understanding of the importance of parental involvement in the reading process. I feel so fortunate to have been involved in this process and would definitely do this again. The evaluation forms were filled with words of gratitude for David’s involvement, but beyond the forms, there was a sense of excitement and energy in the air. The teleconference set the tone for the rest of the day; often participants would quote David or remind us of one of his key messages. Most importantly, it set the tone for the role of the literacy teacher. This was an excellent way to start literacy training and I am looking forward to making arrangements for a teleconference for our secondary school literacy teachers.

 

Thank you again for your flexibility and commitment to children.

 

Sincerely,

Patti Pella

Superintendent of Education

Superior-Greenstone District School Board

How to get your school reading

We don't teach reading...

We don't teach walking. We don't teach talking. They happen naturally yet there are rules and timelines. 

If Maria Montessori is right (I'm betting that she is) reading is as natural as walking and talking. She found that children needed three things to become readers and if these are provided, children become readers. 

Three things are required:

1. Time

2. A hero - a gift giver

3. Books

From a lifetime of experience, a sure winner with kids of all ages is story - oral or written. 

Surround yourself with your favourites then share them. Don't wait to be invited, push your way in and get sharing. 

What? An example you say? Sure. Try this treasure with middle/high school. 

Charles Dicken's classic Oliver Twist through the eyes of Fagan.  Fagin the Thief: A Novel

And if you really want to be ambitious, listen to it through Audible.co.    WOW!!! 

For younger friends, there are countless to offer. Let me start with one of my (if not my all time favourite) favourites...

Enough for now? 

Group hug

School Opening 2025

 Mission Statement:

Our school is a sanctuary for students, staff and parents. 

Our focus: 

Our school is focussed on reading. Parents, staff and students are committed to reading and literacy. 

Why? 

·         Cognitive Development: 

Reading stimulates brain development, particularly in early childhood, strengthening language skills, literacy, and social-emotional development. 

·         Imagination and Creativity: 

Books transport children to different worlds and scenarios, encouraging them to imagine possibilities and explore their creativity. 

·         Emotional Intelligence: 

Stories help children understand emotions, develop empathy, and learn to navigate social situations. 

·         Academic Success: 

Reading is fundamental to academic achievement across all subjects, improving vocabulary, comprehension, and critical thinking skills. 

·         Lifelong Learning: 

Encouraging a love of reading from a young age fosters a lifelong habit of learning and exploration. 

·         Strengthens Relationships: 

Shared reading time creates special bonding moments and strengthens the relationship between children and adults. 

·         Reduces Screen Time: 

Reading offers a healthy alternative to excessive screen time, helping children develop focus and reduce mindlessness. 

·         Cultural Literacy: 

Reading exposes children to diverse cultures, perspectives, and experiences, promoting understanding and tolerance. 

I remain as committed to reading today as I did back then, before the gray hair and a couple tattoos. The biggest change in me is that I am now more experienced and over many exciting years, have gathered numerous effective strategies that I am happy to share when asked. This I will do over the course of the next few days/weeks. 

Enough already, let's do this thing!

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.