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| The more I stare at this picture, the more uncomfortable it makes me... |
I started skiing when I was 12 years old. One Christmas, in fact, I received a gift from my dad that included my first lesson and an opportunity to share something with my parents that they enjoyed. Like many others who have taken to the slopes, it definitely took some adjusting. I knew pretty quickly that this was something that I liked, but I also had many times where I let fear and my own insecurities get the best of me. This was often frustrating for my dad to say the least, but I eventually overcame these challenges and enjoyed a number of family trips to Whitefish, Sunshine, and regular getaways to Hidden Valley in the Cypress Hills.
When I first met my wife, one of the first things that she told me about herself was just how much she loved to ski. Growing up in Calgary gave her and her family numerous opportunities to head into Banff to tear up the slopes. My father-in-law even had a goal to teach his grandkids how to ski, which has been something that we have definitely taken advantage of. He has been gracious enough, and patient enough, to work with my own kids and help them develop a passion for the sport.
What amused me (in that parental karma sort of way) about this recent trip to Lake Louise was seeing the frustration of my own kids when they were unsure about their own skiing. I'll admit that I butted heads a bit with one of my boys when he outright refused to leave the safety of the Magic Carpet, in spite of skiing for nearly four years. He didn't feel like he could attempt anything new mainly because he didn't know how it was going to turn out. I tried to reason with him that we wouldn't be taking him on any runs that he didn't feel comfortable with, but that he wouldn't really be improving until he made the effort to try. It took some time but we eventually made the most of what remained of our day and my son admitted that he was glad that he tried.
I suppose it says a lot about the centrality of teaching in my life when I spent so much time thinking about how these lessons could be applied into so much of what I do in my own classroom. I often hear some of my students say that they can't or won't try something new because they think it will be difficult: they want to stay within the safety of the Green runs. The continuing challenge for many teachers today is to find ways to give kids the incentive to try something new or more difficult. The fear of failure has caused far too many to remain within their own comfort zones.
I don't always excel at guiding my students through this process, and can sometimes lose patience if I don't get the sense that my attempts of guidance are being that well received. Still... we press on.
An Attempt to Add Relevance in Social 9
The Social Studies curriculum for Grade 9 in Alberta is heavily focused on the aspects of government and economics in Canada. These are, admittedly, not always the most thrilling of topics for most 14 and 15 year-olds and yet the fact remains that this is their objective for 5 months. This semester I have a class of 31 students... a group large enough to leave me feeling that I need to be more directly involved in providing and explaining content than I would perhaps like to be.
I suppose that it would be really easy to post notes, give my spiel, and hand out a worksheet. It can be tough, after all, to engage with such a large group on an in-depth discussion on the meaning and impact of the three branches of government on the individual lives of the average teenager. However, this semester I really wanted to try to give kids a chance to at least attempt the process of governance on something that many of them have to deal with on a regular basis: the dreaded school dress code.
After briefly explaining the process of how bills are made into law in our Parliamentary system, I asked the class what they felt some of the most pressing issues were from their perspective as students. I have to admit that I was secretly hoping that at least someone would bring up something dress code related because I hadn't really planned for anything else. Sure enough, and much to my relief, one student quickly commented that our school's hat rule (which is to say no hat's at all) was dumb. This led to a quick conversation about some of the other policies in the dress code with an unusually smooth segue into my idea.
I divided the class into three main groups representing the Liberal, Conservative, and NDP Parties in their relative seat proportions as currently found in the House of Commons. I then explained the purpose of this activity: our little assembly would discuss, debate, and vote on a revision to the school's dress code policy. I further added that each group would have to work within the broad strokes of a policy standpoint that I would provide them:
- Liberals: We will respect student choices on what to wear while in school
- Conservatives: We will respect student choices on what to wear while in school with a few reasonable restrictions
- NDP: We will respect student choices on what to wear while in school and provide financial means to provide students with greater clothing choices
I won't say it was a perfect match, but I think one could make a reasonable argument that this at least roughly mirrors what we might see within our political system. Truth be told, I do have one student who insisted on representing the Green Party. I allowed it for two reasons: first, like our actual Green Party it doesn't really matter all that much in the end, and second, I particularly enjoyed this student's intentions for improving the dress code with green incentives. It should make for an interesting combination.
We should be finishing up the policy preparations tomorrow before moving on to getting individual statements ready. I'll report more on this as things progress.
~Mr.T
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