Originally published September 11th, 2020 (Blogger)

Hey, teacher…leave those kids alone

Once upon a time, when I was a hospital teacher, I was trying to get a very bright 17 year old girl back into her school. She fought every step of the way.

“Help me understand this,” I asked. “You’re smart. You’re capable. You have plans for your future. You’re so close to graduating. Why don’t you want to go back?”

Her response, in seven words, revolutionized my entire identity as a teacher.

“I love learning…but I hate school.”

She had a choice between school or self-harm. …

How ubuntu could solve education crises in Canada and Hong Kong.

Originally published March 6th, 2020 (Blogger)

In recent years there has been a deep-rooted disassociation between the state and its citizens — Black Lives Matter, Idle No More, March for Our Lives, the Arab Spring, the Yellow Vests movement, the Wet’suwet’en pipeline protests, and more. These movements, and others, are born out of the belief that people have been ignored, victimized, or disrespected by their governments for too long.

It’s not just sweeping social movements, however. This instability is happening on a micro-level in classrooms across the country. In…

Difficult conversations will make civic education relevant again.

Originally published August 19th, 2020 (Blogger)

Civic education in Ontario is flawed. Schools give perfunctory lip-service to FNMI treaty rights by starting each day with a “land acknowledgement” so banal it is mocked on the CBC, Canada’s national broadcaster. Our civics curriculum is written so that the Indigenous perspective is disenfranchised. “Political equality” is mouthed, but meaningful economic redistribution and cultural recognition are not enshrined within our institutions or public life. Without equal distribution of power, equal opportunity cannot be achieved.

So, as a critical educator, it is my task to identify…

Originally published December 26th, 2019 (Blogger)

About three years into my teaching career, I got a position in a hospital. Nothing prepared me for it. Nothing in my undergrads, or in my B.Ed year, or in my previous years of work, or of life. I walked in to that hospital at the age of twenty-seven, and walked out four years later feeling as though I had aged a lifetime.

This program was designed for children and youth struggling with mental health issues. For a variety of reasons, they couldn’t be in school — their anxiety or depression kept them out…

Originally published February 17th, 2020 (Blogger)

#StudentVoice

In the spring of 2019, high school students across Ontario walked out of schools en masse. They were protesting the Conservative government’s proposed changes to the education system — four mandatory online classes; increased class sizes; reduced funding to autism programming; and a decrease in funding that would lead to thousands of teachers losing their jobs. The government accused the students of being manipulated by teacher’s unions. The students organized around a hashtag (#WeTheStudentsDoNotConsent) and spoke eloquently on national news.

At a time when mislabeled “millennials” are universally painted with the same brush —…