Given the lack of media coverage of school board elections, people are asking whom I would support. Here are my favourites. There are many good candidates out there and this list is not exhaustive.
In Ottawa, Christine Boothby in Zone 2 Kanata and Shawn Menard in Zone 9 Rideau-Vanier/Capital have been acclaimed. Trustees Rob Campbell, Bronwyn Funiciello, Katie Holtzhauer and Jennifer McKenzie are not running again.
I am recommending the following candidates because I have worked with and know them or I generally agree with their approach:
Donna Blackburn in Zone 3 Barrhaven/Knoxdale-Merivale,
Theresa Kavanagh in Zone 4 Bay,
Anita Olsen Harper in Zone 5 College,
Chris Ellis in Zone 6 Alta Vista/Rideau-Rockcliffe,
Curtis Bulatovich in Zone 7 Gloucester-Southgate/Osgoode/Gloucester South-Nepean,
Erica Braunovan in Zone 10 Kitchissippi/Somerset,
Shirley Seward in Zone 11 River,
Michael Urminsky in Zone 12 Beacon Hill-Cyrville/Innes.
Elsewhere in Ontario, some trustees I have worked with are either not running this time around or have been acclaimed. I have worked with many of the following candidates and have great deal of respect for the following trustees:
Durham District School Board: Michael Barrett in Oshawa;
Grand Erie District School Board: Carol Ann Sloat in Brantford, Don Werden in Norfolk County;
Greater Essex District School Board: Cheryl Lovell in Windsor, Julia Burgess in Kingsville, Essex, Harrow;
Halton District School Board: Donna Danielli in Milton, Don Vrooman in Oakville;
Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board: Todd White in Ward 5, Dawn Danko in Ward 7, Wes Hicks in Ward 8, Stefanie Sheils in Wards 9, 10, Alex Johnstone in Wards 11, 12;
Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board: Cathy Abraham in Clarington;
Keewatin-Patricia District School Board: Gerald Kleist in Ear Falls;
Lakehead District School Board: George Saarinen, Marg Arnone;
Rainbow District School Board: Tyler Campbell in Sudbury;
Renfrew County District School Board: David Shields;
Simcoe County District School Board: Michele Locke in Midland, Tay, Severn;
Superior-Greenstone District School Board: Mark Mannisto in Greenstone;
Toronto District School Board: Chris Glover in Ward 2, Howard Kaplan in Ward 5, Shelley Laskin in Ward 11, Mari Rutka in Ward 12, Cathy Dandy in Ward 15, Sheila Cary-Meagher in Ward 16, Jerry Chadwick in Ward 22;
Upper Canada District School Board: Jeff McMillan in Ward 5, Arthur Buckland in Ward 9;
Upper Grand District School Board: Mark Bailey in Guelph Wards 1, 5, Marty Fairbairn in Guelph Ward 6/Puslinch;
Waterloo Region District School Board: Ted Martin in Kitchener, Kathi Smith in Kitchener, Kathleen Woodcock in Waterloo/Wilmot;
York District School Board: Loralea Carruthers in East Gwillimbury/Whitchurch-Stouffville, Joel Hertz in Vaughan.
Do your homework on the trustee candidates in your area. It's All in Your Handsis a great site to find most of the information you'll need to make an informed choice. Education is important. Vote today.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions only.
If you think that education and school board elections aren't important, here are some words of wisdom from one of our newest citizens to set you straight.
The media coverage of school board contests has been woefully inadequate during the run-up to Monday's vote. With responsibility for millions of children and thousands of employees province-wide, you would think people would want to pay attention to school boards. What about all those taxpayer dollars too? School board budgets are larger than those of many municipalities -- Ottawa public board's budget is just over $840 million and Toronto's is about $3 billion. Still don't care?
Sometimes I hear that democracy is just too messy, too complicated to try and understand. Really? What would you think if I told you that this messiness makes democracy special as it allows us to come together to make the best decisions for our communities.
James Surowiecki's book, The Wisdom of Crowds, makes this case well. Deliberated decisions made by a group are generally better than decisions made by an expert or even a group of experts. Surowiecki cites scientific evidence to back this up. I think his view is generally correct as I've seen it play out in the school boardroom on numerous occasions.
Let me give you a recent example. Many of you would have heard about the troubling conditions in the Bell High School science labs. Yes, they were bad. I speak not just as a trustee but also as a former chemist. Reagents were improperly stored due to a lack of proper storage facilities, safety equipment and infrastructure were lacking, and many of the lab benches were wobbly. It was an accident waiting to happen.
School council parents and staff at the school had drawn attention to these problems for sometime but likely due to the school district's overall need for repairs and probably because of the pressures for the construction of kindergarten space, nothing had been done to address the failing infrastructure of school science labs for over a decade. Bell's labs were the worst but as it turned out, other school labs weren't in great shape either.
When staff didn't adequately respond to concern expressed by the local trustee, the board decided to act and unanimously passed a motion directing staff to prepare a report on the state of all science labs. To its credit, staff recommended that $16 million be spent over five years to update all lab facilities within the OCDSB.
This is one reason why it's important to have democratic oversight within education. It's complicated to educate children particularly within the modern context of a demanding curriculum, varied populations and cultures, and numerous student needs. In a large rapidly changing institution, children can be overlooked and their educational requirements can go unmet.
In a real sense, school trustees are often the bridge between parents who rightfully have the best interest of their children at heart and school board staff who have to take into account the needs of all students. We are the simultaneous interpreters -- the people in a booth who hear something in one language and translate for those who think and speak another. We have our ear to the ground so that we appreciate the concerns of parents while we also try to understand the acronyms, regulations and constraints of education staff.
As elected officials, school trustees are often contacted by members of the public. People want their representative to give them advice or solve a problem. This is an expectation parents have when they contact their trustee. Many times I've been able to find a solution simply by knowing who to call and what to say. This is also a part of the democratic process and it has been a joy to help families and students when I could.
I've written about trustees' work in another post, How to make an astronaut laugh. By the way, Chris Hadfield will be speaking in Ottawa toward the end of November. He is wonderful story teller!
Perhaps Michael Barrett, the President of the Ontario Public School Boards Association, sums up the role of trustees best in a recent article published in North Bay's Bay Today. When it comes to education, we are the voice of the community. Trustees would not be able to do this if they were appointed by or beholden to another level of government.
Education is important. Vote on Monday. Do your homework on the trustee candidates in your area. It's All in Your Handsis a great site to find most of the information you'll need to make an informed choice on Monday.
Who you elect to office can make a big difference for your school board. Most candidates have websites where they can be contacted. Ask questions of your candidates. There are some exaggerating their experience, such as Jeremy Wittet who is running in my zone and claims to be a "former Ontario school board trustee." About ten years ago, Mr. Wittet was a high-school student trustee, which is a valued but very different role. Ask them why they want to be a school board trustee and then listen. Do they respond in a way that shows they have the best interests of children at heart?
People often ask who I support. In Ottawa, Christine Boothby in Zone 2 Kanata and Shawn Menard in Zone 9 Rideau-Vanier/Capital have been acclaimed. Trustees Rob Campbell, Bronwyn Funiciello, Katie Holtzhauer and Jennifer McKenzie are not running again. Over the years, they have put in many long hours in a job that can be thankless. They will be missed.
I recommend the following candidates because I respect and have worked with them or I generally agree with their approach:
Donna Blackburn in Zone 3 Barrhaven/Knoxdale-Merivale,
Theresa Kavanagh in Zone 4 Bay,
Anita Olsen Harper in Zone 5 College,
Chris Ellis in Zone 6 Alta Vista/Rideau-Rockcliffe,
Curtis Bulatovich in Zone 7 Gloucester-Southgate/Osgoode/Gloucester South-Nepean,
Erica Braunovan in Zone 10 Kitchissippi/Somerset,
Shirley Seward in Zone 11 River,
Michael Urminsky in Zone 12 Beacon Hill-Cyrville/Innes.
Elsewhere in Ontario, there are many good candidates. Some trustees I have worked with are either not running this time around or have been acclaimed. I have worked with almost all the following candidates and have great deal of respect for the following trustees:
Durham District School Board: Michael Barrett in Oshawa;
Grand Erie District School Board: Carol Ann Sloat in Brantford, Don Werden in Norfolk County;
Greater Essex District School Board: Cheryl Lovell in Windsor, Julia Burgess in Kingsville, Essex, Harrow;
Halton District School Board: Donna Danielli in Milton, Don Vrooman in Oakville;
Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board: Todd White in Ward 5, Dawn Danko in Ward 7, Wes Hicks in Ward 8, Stefanie Sheils in Wards 9, 10, Alex Johnstone in Wards 11, 12;
Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board: Cathy Abraham in Clarington;
Keewatin-Patricia District School Board: Gerald Kleist in Ear Falls;
Lakehead District School Board: George Saarinen, Marg Arnone;
Rainbow District School Board: Tyler Campbell in Sudbury;
Renfrew County District School Board: David Shields;
Simcoe County District School Board: Michele Locke in Midland, Tay, Severn;
Superior-Greenstone District School Board: Mark Mannisto in Greenstone;
Toronto District School Board: Chris Glover in Ward 2, Howard Kaplan in Ward 5, Shelley Laskin in Ward 11, Mari Rutka in Ward 12, Cathy Dandy in Ward 15, Sheila Cary-Meagher in Ward 16, Jerry Chadwick in Ward 22;
Upper Canada District School Board: Jeff McMillan in Ward 5, Arthur Buckland in Ward 9;
Upper Grand District School Board: Mark Bailey in Guelph Wards 1, 5, Marty Fairbairn in Guelph Ward 6/Puslinch;
Waterloo Region District School Board: Ted Martin in Kitchener, Kathi Smith in Kitchener, Kathleen Woodcock in Waterloo/Wilmot;
York District School Board: Loralea Carruthers in East Gwillimbury/Whitchurch-Stouffville, Joel Hertz in Vaughan.
This week, Sergent-at-Arms Kevin Vickers has been rightly hailed for his heroism in defending Parliament. As recent events illustrate, democracy can be fragile. If our Sergent-at-Arms can risk his life in defence of democracy, the least we can do is vote. And while you're at it, support education too by making an informed choice for your local school trustee. The views expressed in this post are personal opinions only.
Ripples permeate our world yet we are scarcely aware of them. The ripples in space tell us about the universe and the big bang. Electrical ripples and waves surround us but are rarely seen. Still they are observable through the use of an oscilloscope and they help tell us about the nature of electricity.
Ripples possess an innate ability to interact with each other. The dark rings in this photo are areas where the ripples act to nullify each other. The brighter ones are evidence of reinforcement. Human interaction can be much like these ripples. At times we build each other up. Other times we destroy each other.
This might be called karma, the sense of human causality to do good or perhaps not. In some Hindu sects, there is the belief that karma determines future life. Most religions have some type of belief that good begets good, whether it is with the Christian sense of charity, the Jewish belief in the mitzvah, or Islam's encouragement to do good works during the holy month of Ramadan.
I'm not one to believe in the religious sense but as I grow older, I see more examples of "karma" in the everyday. Kindness that begets kindness. Positive actions that encourage others. Unlike the pond ripples, we rarely see the outcome of our actions but a few years back, I was fortunate to see it first hand.
A young man approached me at a charity event and said, "Remember me?"
I remembered his face but I'm really bad with names. When he told me his story, I started to remember the details. We had worked together on an Ethiopian famine relief event a decade earlier. At the time, he was an engineering student and I was working with an agency on campus ... and over the work, we had one long, ongoing debate. His position was that the famine was caused by draught. I said that I thought it was due to the breakdown of societal and government institutions.
Then he said to me, "That debate made me very angry and I was determined to prove you wrong. So after I graduated, I signed up to work with a charity in Africa and I have just recently returned. I never would have thought to go without that discussion. I worked there for a decade and it changed my life for the better in unimaginable ways. Thank you."
Chuckling at the memory, I realize he never did say which one of us had been right. But I can still see the scene in my mind's eye and remember the effect his words had on me. I was dumbfounded as I hadn't realized until then how much we can and do affect others. I had never observed the ripples.
I feel this way again today. I've always said that you meet the most wonderful people in this job. I recently received a lovely thank you letter from a parent. We have served together on the Special Education Advisory Committee for some time and her note with an attached article* touched me deeply.
She also mentioned that she enjoys reading this blog. Hopefully without causing embarrassment, I want to say thank you too ... and thanks also to the many other caring hard-working parents I've met over the years. I hope the ripple that is you may go out to inspire others for years to come.
* This article first appeared in Volume 11, Number 3, Summer 2014 issue of Autism Ontario's Autism Matters magazine.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions only.
Canadian astronaut, Chris Hadfield, gave a presentation to a meeting of the Canadian School Boards Association earlier this summer. I had heard interviews with Commander Hadfield
during his stay on the International Space Station and had come to think of Hadfield
as a true believer – a bit of a cheerleader and a little over the top when it
came to space travel.
But as it turned out, Chris Hadfield is a wonderful
storyteller.I listened and began to see
the man behind the mission and the boy who dreamed of going into space.Hadfield painted such a vivid picture of his
experience.I almost felt myself stuck
to my chair by the immense force of lift off.When Hadfield described his spacewalk, I floated through the blackness
of space with the image of a moonless night down by the lake.And with his description of re-entry, I
imagined being in a car with bad shocks going down a dirt washboard road.
Times ten – what we think is physical
stress here on earth pales in comparison to the description of Hadfield’s
journey.From the tender age of nine, Chris Hadfield had yearned
to go into space and he showed us a photo of himself aboard a spaceship fashioned
from a Quaker Oats box.Commander
Hadfield spoke too about his years of training, in the air and below the sea,
and how he spent ten years learning to speak Russian in preparation for his
flight.
When asked about the highlights of his
space travels, Chris Hadfield talks about various things but mostly about his
opportunity to speak to thousands of school children.Hadfield is an amazing science teacher to
young and old alike!
Chris Hadfield’s accomplishments are
possible when a child has the opportunity to follow his dreams.Commander Hadfield reached the stars … or at
least came a little closer than most of us.For some reason, Hadfield’s passion wasn’t squashed in childhood.
Sir Ken Robinson speaks about the
importance of fostering creativity in school and caring educators talk at
length about how this may be done.Despite the talk, the standardization of pedagogy and curriculum seems
to be increasing.While there remains some
creativity in teaching, there also seems to be a belief among some bureaucrats
and senior politicians that the right method coupled with the right ingredients
will magically improve learning in our schools. While graduation rates are improving and there
have been changes introduced that make a difference in better addressing
children’s individual needs, many of the new programs haven’t delivered.There are still far too many children falling
through the cracks.
Chris Hadfield followed his dream from
childhood.Ironically in this time of
abundant choices, most children and adults don’t have the opportunities or the
inner knowledge to realize their ambitions.Still we often just tell them throughout childhood, especially at
convocations, to follow their dreams.
We live in a world of specialists.Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers talks about “The 10,000-Hour
Rule.”In other words, in this era of
accumulated knowledge and specialization, it takes roughly 10,000 hours of work
or practice to become expert in most endeavours or professions.Whoa Nelly, that’s a lot of hours! No wonder kids need a dream and a great deal
of passion to succeed.
What of the many without this burning
ambition?What about the kids in our
specialized age who are generalists by temperament?They’re not about to expend 10,000 hours to
master a craft that doesn’t set them on fire.What I would say then is to care about the person standing before you
and bring integrity to your work.These
will help you find meaning in life.
As a generalist, I have had wonderful
opportunities to work in various jobs over a lifetime.As a school trustee, I have been able to
bring this varied experience and knowledge to help influence schools and children’s
lives.While I want to encourage others
to run for trustee, I won’t sugarcoat it.Since the loss to direct local school taxation, there’s little formal
power or remuneration attached to the position.Most trustees are conscientious and it can be a lot of work.It can also be frustrating, sometimes very frustrating, but there’s
influence connected to the job that’s hard to beat.
In an earlier post, I outlined the importance
of assisting individual families and children by giving a little advice or making a phone call. On a slightly larger scale, I was able to make an arrangement to sharpen 600 pairs of skates that were donated to a needy school. Advocacy at
pivotal points, being in the right place at the right time, helped roll
out of the Pathways to Education and Empower Reading programs within our school
board. These two programs continue to work wonders for hundreds of students who struggle in school.
With two of my colleagues, we rewrote the school board’s special education policy to make it more responsive to the needs of
children.A number of trustees also worked
to oppose the proposed alternative programme closure and the closure of Rideau
High School, which if it had gone ahead, would have been severe blow to a needy community.
We helped develop a culture of equity
at the OCDSB. Recently our school board
was among the first to address and support the educational rights of First
Nations, Inuit and Metis students. This
is important both nationally and locally as more aboriginal families settle in
Ottawa.
I'm in British Columbia right now and I've been hearing about the teachers' strike here. There has been 13 years of teacher labour unrest in B.C. Trustees I've spoken to put the blame on the provincial government for the deadlock. During last year’s teachers' unrest in Ontario, many trustees played the role of honest broker to prevent a reoccurrence of the B.C. experience.School trustees
through their work with the Ontario Public School Boards Association have
influence in the development of new initiatives, such as mental health programs
in schools, and OPSBA has the ultimate responsibility in financial matters to act as the employer in
teacher and school board staff negotiations.
As I was saying, you meet the most
interesting people in this work.After the presentation, Chris Hadfield offered to sign his book, An Astronaut’s Guide to Life.As an aside, ABC is developing a sit-com based on the book. The casting possibilities should be interesting. I can't imagine who will play Hadfield but perhaps we may see Bill Shatner in yet another role, this time as Hadfield's oddball uncle. I
was in line for the book signing a really long time.As I waited, I had an opportunity to listen to Chris Hadfield answer questions and I noticed that he put a lot of thought into it. When it was finally my turn, I said, “Commander Hadfield,
these book signings must be nearly as gruelling as going into space.”
Chris Hadfield started to laugh, really
laugh, but then he stopped abruptly, studied my face, and said, “Seriously?No!”As
an astronaut and teacher, Hadfield didn’t want to appear to minimize the real difficulties
inherent to space travel.Then he saw the twinkle in my eye, realized I was pulling his leg, and we both started to laugh again. Our approaches may be as different
as distant galaxies but astronauts, school trustees, and many caring people find common ground in helping to educate children. Look at the trustee candidates in your area and consider running for trustee yourself. There's an online resource to help get you started, http://elections.ontarioschooltrustees.org/en/index.html. The deadline for nominations is September 12.
Few jobs offer such a great opportunity to make a difference. Over my eight years as a school trustee, I learned a good deal. There were many occasions to meet and work with some very good and thoughtful people ... and a chance to laugh with a man who had travelled to
the heavens. Overall, the experience was out of this world!
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions only.
I had a
couple of posts in mind to start off the school year but the others will wait with this week’s tragic
death of Robin Williams.Because of the notion of choice
often associated with the word suicide, I won’t call it that.Death is death regardless of its cause.
Robin Williams in Patch Adams
Like many, I loved Robin Williams!Somehow he became a quirky uncle who helped me through difficult times. This particular scene from Good Morning, Vietnam has come to mind numerous times in school board meetings. When
I was ill a few years back, I searched the Internet to find Robin Williams
videos and split my sides laughing over
many I found. Somewhat ribald,
his Dr. Roof piece (What if Dr. Ruth was a big black woman?) sent me into
convulsions of laughter.I’ve often
wondered what Dr. Ruth thinks of it.I bet she loves it!
His impromptu skit on the Tonight Show in 2006 of Angelina Jolie's infamous trip to Africa had everyone rolling on the floor with laughter. Think about it – an incredibly rich white woman goes to Africa with her entourage to adopt a child.How absurd is that … but it took Williams and
his zany insight to show us the irony.
Tragically, Robin Williams suffered from a
chronic disease, depression.From all
accounts, he did everything right in treating both the disease and the
addictions, which likely sprang from attempts to decrease his pain.
Earlier this week, a Canadian police chief tweeted that Williams "could have chosen" differently. Others called Williams selfish. This is a man
who gave his incredible gift of humour and time to millions and he was selfish?Really? Surviving these years with the pain of depression was likely a real act of courage, generosity and selflessness for Williams.
I’ve met police officers who understand
that mental illness is just that, an illness.They are kind and understanding in their approach.I salute them particularly since they are
often called upon to attend to people suffering with mental illness on a daily
basis.
But when a chief of police fails to
understand, well it sets the tone for the entire force and reinforces the views of more prejudiced officers.The tragic shootings of people who are
mentally ill, very often people of colour such as Toronto's Sammy Yatim in 2013, is evidence of the systemic
racism, ignorance and prejudice within police forces and frankly within society.
Mental illness is a disease.When I was
diagnosed with cancer a few years back, expensive medical resources were used
in my treatment and everyone treated me with the utmost kindness.Why is treatment for mental illness any different?
Mary Hamilton's article in The Guardianshould be required reading for every journalist covering Williams' death. Hamilton talks about the mental health care crisis in Britain but even in wealthy Ottawa, it is
very difficult to find mental health treatment particularly for our young
people.Why is that? Many people may not get
overnight treatment for cancer, still I discovered first-hand that some
treatments such as surgery are almost immediately available.Rightfully we have an expectation that people
shouldn’t wait for cancer treatment and
we’re willing to make personal sacrifices to raise large sums to help find a
cure for cancer.The wonderful Terry Fox
Run continues to serve as an example of what can be done.
According to the Canadian Mental Health Association, "20% of Canadians will personally experience a mental illness in their lifetime." This is a terrible toll in terms
of suffering and lost productivity. Why does the rate of depression continue to rise when there are programs to help prevent and treat mental illness? I spoke about Dr. Stuart
Shanker’s program in my last post. We should be rolling this out in every school. What makes mental illness different? You know the answer. In our hearts, we still believe mental
illness is a moral shortcoming. We often think those suffering with it are weak, selfish, or lack discipline … and we blame.
Over the last couple of days, a number of comedians have spoken about depression and comedy as being opposite sides of the
same coin. As Hamilton states, this may not be the case or it may be an over-generalization but still ... on this question, Russell Brand's eulogy in The Guardian is particularly moving. Does comedic genius spring from an
effort to deal with the pain of depression and the human condition? Does it come from a desperate attempt to
distance oneself from others and prevent them from recognizing the illness? Whatever it is, it speaks to the stigma and
shame associated with this disease. Space aliens can say the darndest things. Like his TV persona Mork, Williams’
good heart was evidence of other worldliness. Perhaps we all should take a page from his book and have the courage to sharpen our humour. Amateur attempts at joke telling can give real pleasure especially when it helps turn the tables on annoying teenagers, not that my kids were ever annoying.
Williams taught us much about
ourselves but perhaps his greatest legacy may be in fostering a public conversation about mental illness. This seems a fitting tribute of thanks for Robin Williams’ great spirit and comedic genius.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions only.
Twenty-three years ago, I bought an animal balloon kit at a garage sale. My eldest son, Gabriel, was about a year old and I thought animal balloons would be a big hit with the younger crowd. It came equipped with a pump, lots of colourful balloons and instructions. I dreamed of becoming a balloon artist in no time.
When I returned home, I sat down on the porch to try it out. As Gabe looked on with curiosity, I tried without success to blow up a balloon with the pump. So I stretched it a little, put the balloon to my lips and blew. It burst. The wanna-be popular parent in me wasn't deterred but the bang scared my son. So I did what many parents do and jollied him out of his fear. Here's a great little video that illustrates this well.
Like this baby, my son recuperated quickly and was eager for more as I started blowing up a second balloon. Gabe watched closely as I tried to twist it into shape and then, bang! Buyer beware of old balloon kits. The second balloon exploded too but this time, it burst close to my son's face.
Poor sweetie; Gabriel was scared. I comforted him and gave up personal aspirations of animal balloon greatness. In the coming weeks, he didn't want anything to do with balloons. Then without encouragement, Gabriel brought me a balloon. Initially it wasn't clear to me what he wanted as I couldn't imagine that the memory of the burst balloon had simply disappeared.
While watching my son closely, I started blowing up the balloon. As I did so, Gabriel became more agitated and when he gestured that I should stop, I did. Over the coming weeks, this activity was repeated four or five times and each time, Gabe allowed me to inflate the balloon a little more. One day, I inflated it fully and my son took the balloon and went off to play. I remember sitting there awestruck by a very young child, who even without many words, could teach me how to help him overcome his fear.
This memory came back as I listened to a recent presentation given by Dr. Stuart Shanker. In truth, it might have been helped along by some balloon swords and pirate hats worn by some, ahem, young people at a restaurant the night before. In his talk, Dr. Shanker spoke about how stress and anxiety deeply affect the majority of our children. Here are links to two excellent CBC Radio Ideas shows entitled Neuron Therapy where Dr. Shanker explains his ideas. The first show is from October 2009 and the second from June 2014.
To my mind, Stuart Shanker and his colleagues are coming to grips with some of the most important questions for children of our time. What is autism? Why are so many children suffering from anxiety or acting out? Why do many children have difficulties learning? Dr. Shanker's concepts are important for every parent to understand. Knowledge of self-regulation not only assists parents but it can help children become happier and more productive.
Stuart Shanker uses analogies of thermostats and car mechanics to explain his concepts. The hormones, adrenalin (epinephrine) and serotonin, act somewhat like the accelerator and brake pedals of a car. The former causes the flight-or-fight response while the latter brings the car back to a state of idling.
Forgive me but I am rather tired of mechanical analogies applied to biological systems. They can leave the female half of the population somewhat in the dark. Ditto the sports ones so let me try something different. The amount of stress a child can cope with is like the capacity of a rain barrel. Some rain barrels are smaller and hold less. Others are bigger or leakier and don't overflow easily. The difference in these rain barrels is what we call temperament and it seems to flow from differences in the genetics of the child or the in utero environment. Children of anxious mothers may become more anxious due to exposure to maternal adrenalin before birth. Or a child can be more susceptible to stress because of his body chemistry; how his genes are expressed. Or perhaps it may be caused by a combination of these factors.
The overflowing of the rain barrel is the tipping point when a child can no longer cope with stress. Sometimes the result is inwardly directed as anxiety while in other children, it's outwardly directed and the child misbehaves or is aggressive towards others. The point is that when this happens, your child is not directing his behaviour at you nor is your child bad. He simply can't cope with the situation.
Let's step back for a moment and examine the meaning of stress. As adults, we often associate stress with a bad situation -- an unpleasant boss or unpaid bills. But Stuart Shanker and other scientists use the term stress to mean far more. For a child, stress can be caused by that bully at school but it can also be caused by a lack of sleep, exercise or nutritious meals. Stress can be created by flashing lights or an especially noisy environment. Indeed diagnoses of stress-related diseases in children, such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), have increased exponentially in the last few years. While there may be some over-diagnosis going on, this increase is real and is likely linked in children to our increasingly noisy urban environment, greater television and video game stimulation, a general lack of sleep and exercise, and the intake of sugary junk food.
As productive adults, we cope by dealing with the source of stress or by reframing the problem. We feel lousy when we don't get a good night's sleep and try to get more rest the next night. If the boss bullies us, we tell ourselves she's a jerk and perhaps try to find another job. If the bills are piling up, we reduce our expenses. And if there is construction noise nearby, we may close the windows, turn on the stereo, or wear earplugs.
A child doesn't have these remedies at her disposal. Worry and fear can cause an ongoing production of adrenalin that shuts down the thinking and learning part of the brain, the prefrontal cortex. Adrenalin can also stunt growth and make the child more susceptible to disease by shutting down the immune system. Adults need to intervene to end this adrenalin-production cycle but since each child is different, a parent or teacher has to try to figure out the source of the stress and then address it or reframe it for the child.
In our baby video, the mother's tone reframes the situation and tells the child she needn't fear the noisy nose blowing. The baby laughs and equilibrium is restored with the production of the hormone serotonin. A smart teacher in B.C. has helped her students deal with stress by giving them noise cancelling earphones to wear and the students' grades have improved. It is all about the adult's relationship with a child -- knowing the child well enough to know what is causing the stress and then taking the time to intervene. An appropriate intervention allows the child to return to a calmer state.
Very young children are incapable of dealing with stress and caring adults have to regulate the child's environment to ensure that stress is minimized. As parents, we should limit video game playing and ensure that children get enough sleep. As educators, we should minimize childhood stress by dealing with bullying and by teaching self-regulation to students. As citizens who care about society and the next generation, we should support student breakfast and exercise programs, and well-maintained schools and classrooms.
And the point of the balloon story? It's that children naturally prefer to be in an anxiety-free state. They want to learn and be happy. When children are young, it's up to us as responsible adults to minimize sources of childhood stress. Then we must help them learn how they can do this for themselves; teach them self-regulation. Dr. Stuart Shanker and his colleagues are onto something. The question is if we busy adults are going to take the time to listen and then act.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions only.
"Be passionate. Be courageous. Be your best." Here's an inspiring interview with one of my heroes, Congresswoman Gabby Gifford. Passion and courage spring from a healthy emotional state. Like creativity, most of us born that way. And as with creativity, our emotional health is gradually eroded. I worked as a nursing aide to put myself through school. By many accounts, I was good at my job and one of the doctors would bring me on his rounds and allow me to observe surgery. He also encouraged me to apply to medical school. I was studying science at McGill and this ambition was shared by many of my friends.
I worked 30 hours a week during the school year and full-time in the summer on a cancer ward. They needed people during the evening shift and this worked well with my studies but I also liked this quiet time. I could read, I often read the medical charts, and I talked with the patients. Many patients were on the ward for a long time and I got to know them. Some died there surrounded by family; others had no one. Often they would call me over just for a chat but I do remember one man asking me a serious question. The doctor had told him that his cancer had metastasized (spread elsewhere) and he wanted to know the meaning of this word. I sat down, held his hand and explained. But I was young and certainly not a medical professional. Why hadn't the doctor put it in plain English? Another time, I was called over to hold the hands of a woman who was close to death. Her doctor wanted to drain her pleural cavity of fluid, a painful procedure. She had had this done on a number of occasions but was refusing it this time. At one point because of the woman's screaming, the head nurse looked in and then asked me about it afterwards. She reported the doctor to hospital authorities. The woman died the next morning. Later that day, her family thanked me for caring for their mother. I didn't tell them about the incident of the previous night but I felt sad that I hadn't been able to do more for their mother. As I was speaking with them, I chocked back the tears but afterward I went into a room, locked the door, and sobbed. I repeatedly heard that professionals do not become emotional; do not form emotional attachments with patients. Staff who do aren't good practitioners. Still I was left wondering at a system that dehumanized people in order to treat them. I did not go into medicine. This doesn't just happen in health care. All institutions standardize procedures to deal with large numbers of people. Hospitals assign patient numbers. Students are given Ontario Education Numbers, OENs. I have mixed feelings about testing and identifying students with special needs as within an institutional setting, this labelling can cause further stereotyping and the information can be used for little more than financial purposes. Before I go any further, let me say there are many times when a standardized approach makes a lot of sense. If I am going to have surgery, I want a surgeon who has performed the same procedure many times. I want the best standard approach. Similarly, I want children to be taught by teachers who are experienced and good at what they do. There are approaches that work well in teaching just as there are better techniques in surgery. As a school trustee, I am part of an institution that stereotypes children. It's the only way to teach large numbers. But there are many children who fall outside the average and when this happens, their families occasionally turn to the trustee for assistance in navigating the system. Sometimes when I hear their stories, I can't help but get teary and this teariness was used to ridicule me when I was first elected. Not any more. Half in jest, a member of staff recently told me that people now practice crying in front of the mirror. I hope not! My aim is not to make crying fashionable. Rather it is to make the genuine expression of emotion possible even desirable within an institutional setting. How are emotions relevant to who we are as human beings? How do they influence our thinking? I had a special birthday this week and reflected on my age. As I grow older, I have become even more emotional. With age, we all face hardship -- the loss of a job, a severe illness, the end of a marriage, the death of a parent or close friend. It's inevitable; a part of life. I'm better able to put myself in another person's shoes because I've suffered these myself. I've become more empathetic. People often enough become teary when they look into another's eyes and feel their pain.
Truly feel their pain. I won't bore you with details about mirror neurons and the amygdala but feeling emotion is necessary in life. People who suffer damage to the amygdala, the emotional centre of the brain, are no longer able to make decisions. Emotion also serves to lock into memory the special times of our lives. Everyone remembers the birth of a child or death of a parent. I remember that hospital procedure of 40 years ago because of the emotion I felt at the time.
But feeling emotion is not the same as acting on it. A response to anger can be negative in the sense of lashing out at someone or it can be positive in galvanizing us to action. Similarly with sadness -- we can either become depressed or we can express our sadness to empathize with others. It's not a question of dampening our emotion to be professional at what we do. Rather it's a question of how we choose to act in response to emotion. Sometimes it's better to express it and other times not.
Different cultures and people have different responses to emotional situations. There's no right way. The point is to be genuine. That's what people see and respond to.
John Irving, still the prolific writer
(and handsome devil)
Emotion is the only way to influence people. Poets and authors have always known this. I recently watched an interview with the writer John Irving and this is what he had to say:
The intention of a novel by Charles Dickens was not to make you think but to make you feel. Certainly that was what mattered most to Shakespeare. You move the audience -- you give them a comedy; you give them a tragedy. If they end up at the end of the day a little smarter than what they were when you began; well fine. But the principle objective is to emotionally and psychologically affect the audience.
Dr. Helen Caldicott, the preeminent nuclear disarmament advocate, spoke and wrote about the concept of psychic numbing, a tendency to withdraw from experiences that are traumatic. We live in a world that is constantly bombarding us with traumatic emotional cues -- from the violence of television dramas to the nightly news. Our emotion makes us human and it shouldn't be shut down. This means we have to figure out ways to limit this type of exposure so that we can be emotionally present elsewhere. For this reason, I limit my own television exposure and I recommend this to parents for children.
Be passionate. My wise son says it's not a dichotomy of head or heart. Right -- we respond with both head and heart. When people feel emotion towards others, they begin to feel empathy. When they don't, stereotyping and dehumanization can follow with a tendency toward conflict. And in the school setting, children's real learning needs can go unmet. And be courageous in life. I am glad for an ability to express emotion but over the years, I have paid a price for my public teariness. Still if these tears helped support the expression of genuine emotion and empathy within an educational institution, then they have been well shed. Now if I can just learn to tone down that raucous laugh. The views expressed in this post are personal opinions only.
