Hi everyone - this is a post I found in my "draft" file - it should have been posted last May - oops! Still relevant though ---- so here it is!
I have done a lot of thinking lately about how lucky we are in Central Ontario. Our youngest daughter recently took a job with a charitable organization called "Elephant Thoughts". The organization is based out of Collingwood and provides educational programmes to areas that are challenged. One of their aims is to raise the percentage of graduates from high school. Christine is working in Northern Quebec with Cree First Nations students and her experience to date has been wonderful. In the communities she has been in so far, she has found amazing children with a unique culture and look on life. Many of them start their lives speaking Cree then about Grade 3 they must choose a "stream" or second language - either English or French. This sounds wonderful, but in one community there was a lack of language emphasis, and since in that region you need 2 languages to graduate from high school, only 2 children graduated last Spring. Wow! This is hard for us to relate to, and makes me realize how little I know about many areas of Canada. I know the surface stuff - issues mentioned on the news and in the newspapers, and up until lately, I thought I knew quite a bit - I was definitely wrong. Listening to Christine's stories has become my drug of choice - I talk to her almost every day, and every day I want to hear what she has seen, experienced, and learned. The people have welcomed her with open arms - they have fed her, involved her in their celebrations and have been eager to share with her their history and stories. Every Canadian should get the opportunity to experience this - forget The Bahamas!
I have done a lot of thinking lately about how lucky we are in Central Ontario. Our youngest daughter recently took a job with a charitable organization called "Elephant Thoughts". The organization is based out of Collingwood and provides educational programmes to areas that are challenged. One of their aims is to raise the percentage of graduates from high school. Christine is working in Northern Quebec with Cree First Nations students and her experience to date has been wonderful. In the communities she has been in so far, she has found amazing children with a unique culture and look on life. Many of them start their lives speaking Cree then about Grade 3 they must choose a "stream" or second language - either English or French. This sounds wonderful, but in one community there was a lack of language emphasis, and since in that region you need 2 languages to graduate from high school, only 2 children graduated last Spring. Wow! This is hard for us to relate to, and makes me realize how little I know about many areas of Canada. I know the surface stuff - issues mentioned on the news and in the newspapers, and up until lately, I thought I knew quite a bit - I was definitely wrong. Listening to Christine's stories has become my drug of choice - I talk to her almost every day, and every day I want to hear what she has seen, experienced, and learned. The people have welcomed her with open arms - they have fed her, involved her in their celebrations and have been eager to share with her their history and stories. Every Canadian should get the opportunity to experience this - forget The Bahamas!
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