A Tale of Two Summers

Calmly, I sit by my window on a rainy, late August morning, my thoughts roll back to earlier summer months. May comes to mind with its early spring buds. Daffodils, narcissus, tulips push through the warming ground to bright sunlight.  June explodes with nature in full bloom.  Birds cheer from the thicket, trees burst forth in full leaf, and grass is green and lush.

July and August offer months of freedom for children to cherish. Brides and grooms offer their lives to each other. For students, it’s a time of happy holidays. Fun and freedom abound as life changes gears. Family vacations, staycations and everything in between become the norm.  Reunions, barbecues and outdoor living spring up everywhere.  Regular, bountiful rain and life-giving showers are generously bestowed on the earth and gratefully received.

However, as I ponder wonderful summer, an unease stirs within me. The rain seems wetter, colder, more persistent under thick, low-hanging gray skies.  My mind turns to those in our beloved country who suffer under forest fires and long for blessed rain to relieve their misery.  Theirs has been a summer of danger and grief bringing with it lives forever changed.  While we have rejoiced these many weeks, they have lived with despair.

Musing on life’s blessings and challenges, I sense in the air a hint of fall to come.  Nostalgia visits my heart. Summer is waning. Sunrise appears a little later; I begin the struggle of rising in the dark.  Is this the first whiff of the coming cocooning and hibernation?  Holidays are dwindling. Stores are hacking back-to-school supplies. Routine is on the horizon.

Sadly, there were no holidays, barbecues or fun in the sun for families in the furnace of forest fires. I wonder will their workplaces still exist?  Will children return to school as usual?  One can only hope and pray for winds to turn direction and copious rain to fall upon the burning inferno. Meanwhile, let us hold in our hearts those who knew not summer’s joys. - Sr. Jean Moylan, csj

Weekly Pause & Ponder

“And the world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles, no matter how long, but only by a spiritual journey, a journey of one inch, very arduous and humbling and joyful, by which we arrive at the ground at our own feet, and learn to be at home.” 


― Wendell Berry, The Unforeseen Wilderness: Kentucky's Red River Gorge

Lessons Children are Learning in School: Does Learning How to Live Wisely Have to Conflict with Learning to Thrive in the World of Science and Technology?

Two months ago, as the school term came to a close in June, Julianne Hazlewood, the host of CBC’s Morning Show, interviewed students at Sir John A MacDonald School in London.  Children from age 9 to 13 responded to Julianne’s question about the biggest lesson they had learned at school in the preceding year.  Some of the children’s responses were:

  • “you do not need to be ‘cool’.  Just be yourself and everything will be fine.”
  • “If you don’t give up, you will achieve your goal.”
  • “Just stay humble and kind.  Don’t hold a grudge.”
  • “Try not to take everything for granted.”  [E.g., the amazing teachers I am sad to leave as I move on to high school.]
  • “Friendship is the strongest thing on this earth.  Nothing can break it.”

Had I been asked, many decades ago, about the biggest lesson I had learned at school, I would have spoken only about academic learning, or perhaps about developing skill in some sport.  Lessons for living would have pertained to rules regarding behaviours which were deemed to be right or wrong. We were instructed in “rules” of life.  The children interviewed by Ms. Hazlewood were not merely taught rules; rather, the teachers seemed to have helped the children to internalize and practice the values inherent in being fully human. I expect that students have always learned lessons about how to live from the examples given each day by their teachers, and the quality of relationships between the children and their teachers.  For the children interviewed by Ms. Hazlewood, knowledge seems to go beyond “rules” and become actualized in attitudes and behaviour.

Today our teachers are better prepared to understand and foster both psychological development and    the process of acquiring knowledge and skills. The philosophical changes in education provide hope for preparing the next generation to be persons who are more fully, compassionate and wise human beings.  However, there is concern that deficiencies in teaching children mathematics seriously impacts their ability to function in a world where math and science skills are imperative.

Caroline Alphonso’s article in the August 14, 2018 edition of The Globe and Mail highlights the abysmal state of mathematics education in Canada; she identifies deficiencies in the mathematics curriculum and in the math skills of teachers.  University teacher education programs fail to prepare teachers competent in teaching such numeracy skills as fractions, percentages, decimals, and multiplication in addition to geometric and algebraic concepts.  A survey of incoming primary-junior and junior-intermediate teacher candidates done by the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education during orientation week, disclosed that about a third of the candidates scored at or below 70% in a grade 6/7 math test. In Ontario, half of the grade 6 students failed to meet the provincial standard in the 2017 annual math test.  The number of class hours and content of math courses in different teacher education programs varies widely; class hours vary from 36 to 72 in Ontario. Concordia University in Montreal’s program for educating elementary school teachers includes three courses comprising a total of 146 classroom hours. 

Lack of confidence and ability in math deters students from pursuing the STEM courses (science, technology, engineering and math) essential to the current needs of society.  This situation places Canada in an inferior position in developing our economy and our ability to compete with other countries. Some university education programs are taking steps to improve the math skills of teacher candidates.  Let us work towards balancing educating students to live as good members of society with the ability to contribute to the economic well-being of Canada. - Patricia McKeon, csj

Lots of Jobs Available! Really??

It seems not long ago that Canadians searching for employment were mostly out of luck.  Well-paying positions were scarce, unskilled jobs scant and student summer work, not likely. Freshly minted teachers needed not apply for teaching positions.  Skilled trades students vied for the few apprenticeship openings.  People holding PhD credentials were driving taxi cabs.  Job seekers seldom found work in their areas of expertise.

Now, a decade later, a front-page article in “The London Free Press” heralds, “Worker shortage is holding back Southwestern Ontario’s economy with no simple solutions.”  Suddenly, the economic engine is roaring back to life.  Or is it?  True, the Free Press article is an awakening call to inform readers that many jobs need workers immediately.  However, it leads me to ponder what might be some of the obstacles that are causing job seekers to hesitate before rushing to pick up the phone and fill out applications.

Might a significant number of positions be low-paying, part-time jobs which reinforce the term “the working poor” who barely subsist, have little job security, no benefits and certainly no pension plan?

Might the work be quite a distance from where the job-seeker lives without public transit, vehicle or means of relocating family, if necessary?

Might the employment opportunity involve precarious duties, poor working conditions and undue physical/mental stress?

Unless we can engage at the levels of business and government and find creative solutions such as the now cancelled living wage initiative etc., there will “no simple solutions”, as the Free Press article asserts.

-Sister Jean Moylan, csj