Too much of a good thing? I think that I have changed my mind

For those of you in schools… have you ever felt that you were doing too many initiatives and that it had gotten away on you? You worry that in sending kids off to conferences, bringing in guest speakers and pulling students out of class for events the regular school subjects are thrown out of whack and too much curriculum is missed.

Last week I had those creeping feelings. April was tremendously busy, especially when it followed many, many events that have been ongoing throughout the year. Several of those events specifically targeted our First Nations students in grade 8 and 9.  There was an Elders’ Poetry Project, a Crossing the Cultural Divide Projects, Girls Support Groups, Boys Support Groups, HIV Awareness in Aboriginal Youth sessions, the Friendship Centre Conference, a Tribes Health presentation on the effects of energy drinks, First Nations Dance group, Aboriginal Film Festival, a visit from the Chief, Canoe Races, Aboriginal Heritage Day… all great things, but it did cause wonder if they were taking away from our core function in education?

Then came the Labour Relations Board ruling that report cards must be issued on May 1^st and that those report cards will give an indication of progress to date (if anyone reads this post 5-10 years from now… it is currently 2012 and we are embroiled in one of the most acrimonious contract disputes between the BCTF and BC Government in recent memory so there has not been any reporting so far this year).

As I sign report cards, my normal practice is to keep a list of students that I need to have “achievement chats” with because their marks are not satisfactory. This is somewhat subjective, but I am consistent with myself, and over the years I generally look for students with more that one “I” in courses and poor overall grades. I was pleasantly surprised to find my list was shorter than I expected. In fact it was noticeably shorter than last year.

I think that I think this is an indication of success and I think that I think it might have something to do with all of the initiatives!

It may be like Pro-D for staff. When you have a one-off session, it is often motivating but does not stick long term. The events for our Aboriginal students were different topics, but there is a common theme and that is something along the lines of “respect others, respect your community and respect yourself”. I am thinking that the net effect of multiple sessions with many of the same students attending them has been to build confidence and motivation in our First Nations students… I think.

What is our core function from grades 7 to 9? Maybe it is indeed to build confidence and motivation in places where it is lacking so those students transition to high school and pursue their studies. For students who already possess those attributes, probably missing classes is less desirable.

What is our purpose in education? It is certainly “learning”, but perhaps a truer definition is indeed “to improve the life chances for our students”. How do we accomplish this? This is the beauty and frustration of education… it allows us to think about what we are experiencing, although we are never entirely sure about what we think.