Holiday greetings! So many arresting and thought-provoking stories crossed the Education desk for The Conversation Canada this year. I hope I can convey how much I admire and respect the hard work and passionate engagement of our writers.
I joined The Conversation team just two months ago. I have felt honoured to spend time working with authors and editorial colleagues to consider the stories we are supporting and commissioning. I hope readers will continue reaching out and challenging the platform to be responsive, relevant and truly a source for both water-cooler chatter and enlarging points of view.
When I read “The calls from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission are not suggestions. When Canadians are called, we must respond,” I knew this was a story I hoped might guide how I can approach the Education desk. This story issued a moral call that was, while addressing a government resource and policy choice, non-partisan. It was about the choice each of us faces to decide what kind of people we want to be and what kind of country we want to pass on. The photograph with the story of children in a Residential School has stayed with me.
So many of our stories have challenged me to try to listen more carefully to whose voices and stories our national “conversation” is about.
Whether we are talking about curriculum, schooling or public education, in 2019 let’s keep working at ways to be responsible in our common relationships. When we talk about education and future generations, let’s make decisions in full awareness and a resolve to change how we have inherited and benefitted from different levels of organized access to resources.
I hope we receive more research-based personal testimonies that demonstrate the commitment, courageous intelligence, and care that teachers and education researchers bring to their classrooms and communities.
For the perplexed parents and those seeking generational insights I hope researchers keep sending in both practical and surprising (shocking?) research.
Finally, if you are feeling taxed after thinking about the purpose of education, let me suggest looking at Mr. Snail and the small and big people who are intergenerationally involved in tending to relationships in his home by GabeKanang Ziibi (The Humber River in Toronto). I found it wonderful to learn more about this place.
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