I found this fantastic poster at the International Film Festival a few weeks ago. I love it! I bought it for my classroom, but I'm having a hard time letting it out of the house. I keep unrolling it and thinking that I got ripped off learning in school A is for apple, B is for banana, C is for cookie. It seems it was a food based ABC education. Why couldn't I have learned about Y is for Yoga, D is for Dreidal, O is for Organic, and R is for revolution. Just imagine what kind of world we would have if all our children learned these new ABCs. A is for Africa, G is for gay, R is for recycle, and the biggest one of all, P is for *P*E*A*C*E*. I wonder, what else I missed out on in my small town education. I'm sure my teachers did their best in their time, conforming to all the standards of the 70's and 80's. "See Jane. See Jane run." Too bad it wasn't, "See Jane. See Jane play hockey in her own league and recycle paper at her school." I wonder if I'm serving my students well in their education? Have I helped them see that D is for diversity, L is for love, U is for unity? That they can grow up to be whatever they want, regardless of pressure from their well-meaning (or not) parents. How could I have known that there were careers out there for me besides teaching, when teaching was all I heard about, all I was told that I had to be. Who knew that I could be a florist, horticulturalist, writer, farmer, architect, city planner, bookstore owner? Not me. So I was a good girl and did what I was told and now I'm wondering, is this it? Is this really what I was meant to do? Is there more for me? Am I making the most of what I got? So many careers, so little time. I would like to create a Canadian version of this ABC poster, C is for Canadian, S is for David Suzuki, A is for Arbutus, H is for Rick Hanson and Haida Gwaii, M is for Nellie McClung, I is for Inuit....C is for Choice.Thursday, February 28, 2008
The Real *ABC*s
I found this fantastic poster at the International Film Festival a few weeks ago. I love it! I bought it for my classroom, but I'm having a hard time letting it out of the house. I keep unrolling it and thinking that I got ripped off learning in school A is for apple, B is for banana, C is for cookie. It seems it was a food based ABC education. Why couldn't I have learned about Y is for Yoga, D is for Dreidal, O is for Organic, and R is for revolution. Just imagine what kind of world we would have if all our children learned these new ABCs. A is for Africa, G is for gay, R is for recycle, and the biggest one of all, P is for *P*E*A*C*E*. I wonder, what else I missed out on in my small town education. I'm sure my teachers did their best in their time, conforming to all the standards of the 70's and 80's. "See Jane. See Jane run." Too bad it wasn't, "See Jane. See Jane play hockey in her own league and recycle paper at her school." I wonder if I'm serving my students well in their education? Have I helped them see that D is for diversity, L is for love, U is for unity? That they can grow up to be whatever they want, regardless of pressure from their well-meaning (or not) parents. How could I have known that there were careers out there for me besides teaching, when teaching was all I heard about, all I was told that I had to be. Who knew that I could be a florist, horticulturalist, writer, farmer, architect, city planner, bookstore owner? Not me. So I was a good girl and did what I was told and now I'm wondering, is this it? Is this really what I was meant to do? Is there more for me? Am I making the most of what I got? So many careers, so little time. I would like to create a Canadian version of this ABC poster, C is for Canadian, S is for David Suzuki, A is for Arbutus, H is for Rick Hanson and Haida Gwaii, M is for Nellie McClung, I is for Inuit....C is for Choice.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment