by Richard Fransham
This is to students. It’s encouraging to see you exercising your right to be heard on educational issues that affect you. I’m referring to We The Students Do Not Consent, #wethestudentsdonotconsent, the action to register your concern that the Ontario Government is making curriculum changes that you believe will have a negative impact on you. I’m hoping to see massive student participation on September 21st conducted in a manner that tells adults they have nothing to fear from you making your views known.
Photo by John Hamilton, managing editor pittnews.com.
I’m a former teacher working to have students included as full partners in their education. I was a co-teacher in the CHIP program and I’m the driving force behind OPERI, which is advocating for students to have more say in their education. I am also involved with Uniting for Children and Youth – UCY, which is currently focused on having more people than ever informed of education issues, and the candidates running to be school board trustees in Ottawa, when they go to the polls on October 22nd. We’re hoping that people in other Ontario communities might learn from what we are doing and will do similar things in their communities.
UCY is presenting five questions to the candidates for trustee. These questions are being spread out over the election period. The third one is about youth involvement in shaping our schools and we would like it to be a question asked by youth, not by adults. If you might like to participate, and/or can recommend other students who might be interested in helping to formulate the question, please let me know and I’ll let you know if there is sufficient student interest to make it happen.
Please see: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-teacher-helps-students-to-unlearn-1.4644695. (Innovative students and teacher in Ottawa)
http://www.operi.ca (Home page videos, The Students’ Corner and The CHIP Program)
http://www.ucyotawa.com (School board election info and Question 1 information)
Hoping to hear from many of you,
Richard
richard@operi.ca
Please keep me in the loop on this one, Richard. I greatly hope you get solid engagement from the kids you’re so committed to supporting. (A thought just occurred to me: would it help the kids you’re addressing if you provided a few categories or ‘starter’ topics? Maybe they don’t need that at all … but sometimes a little ‘priming of the pump’ has positive effects.)
Thanks Nini. One category might be locus of control, the idea that the less control you have over your life, the more stressed you become, which leads to illness, both mental and physical. A new book “The Self-Driven Child” helps to expand thinking in this area.
Would you be willing to provide another category?
Richard