I received the attached document from a colleague a few days ago. First Peoples Principles for Learning is a probably the most holistic picture of education that I have seen for some time. It’s beautiful. Our still-stuck-in-Modernism perspective on education would do well to just sit with this for a while and ask ourselves what we are missing and what possibly has been here all along for us to learn if we had ears to hear. I love the attention to intergenerationality, the long term impacts of our learning and actions, the need to pay attention to our stories, our history and memory. Though I have not looked closely, I doubt you would find the word memory in the BC Education Plan. Or how about the sacredness of some knowledge and the need for permission? We live at a time when everyone believes they have a right to access anything, at any time and in any place. Maybe all knowledge is sacred.
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The world is quite puddle-wonderful when you are in Kindergarten and you get to go to a ‘farm’ on a field trip and it just so happens that shortly after you arrive, one of two calves due to be born, drops gently into the field and you get to see the miracle first hand. Then you get to feed chickens and watch pigs fight over food, eat cupcakes, listen to stories and play under a big colorful parachute. in Just- spring when the world is mud- luscious the little lame balloonman whistles far and wee and eddieandbill come running from marbles and piracies and it’s spring when the world is puddle-wonderful the queer old balloonman whistles far and wee and bettyandisbel come dancing from hop-scotch and jump-rope and it’s spring and the goat-footed balloonMan whistles far and wee If there is one thing that I struggle with it is trusting in the slow work of God, especially in times of transition, I want to be settled into the next thing and on my way. I don’t particularly like the instability, the not knowing what is next. This excerpt from Pierre Teilhard de Chardin reminds me to slow down, be patient and wait. Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new. And yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability-- and that it may take a very long time. And so I think it is with you; your ideas mature gradually—let them grow, let them shape themselves, without undue haste. Don’t try to force them on, as though you could be today what time (that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will) will make of you tomorrow. Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within you will be. Give Our Lord the benefit of believing that his hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete. —Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ excerpted from Hearts on Fire The true test of leadership for me has always been the scary backward glance to see if anyone was following. And for leaders, it is true, that sometimes you have to use binoculars to see the followers in the far distance, though hopefully the gap is closing. Leadership is a mysterious thing and the fact that thousands of books have been written, many claiming to be the definitive work, it remains more than mysterious why someone is a good leader and another is not. I would from time to time at conferences meet young teachers who declared boldly that though they were currently ‘just teaching,’ what they really wanted to be was a principal. I’m not sure that’s how it works though maybe for some it does. It always seemed to me that if you want to be an educational leader you better always love teaching and stay connected to classrooms and student learning. There seems to me to be a paradox in good leadership, a blend of vulnerability and courage against all odds. There always seems to be so much at stake, the things you are on about are way bigger than yourself and your humanity is always going to be exposed. But maybe that is how trust is built, that’s how change happens and teams are built. Brene Brown says, “Vulnerability is the absolute heartbeat of innovation and creativity, there can be zero innovation without vulnerability.” I think that’s so true. But the shadow side is that many enter leadership and find that they cannot be vulnerable, cannot admit weakness and wrong. Jungian analyst James Hollis writes, “How many of those who are insecure seek power over others as a compensation for inadequacy and wind up bringing consequences down upon their heads and those around them? How many hide out in their lives, resist the summons to show up, or live fugitive lives, jealous, projecting onto others, and then wonder why nothing ever really feels quite right. How many proffer compliance with the other, buying peace at the price of soul, and wind up with neither?” Hauntings: Dispelling the Ghosts Who Run Our Lives By far the greatest joy for me in leadership was being mentored by a good leader and then inheriting a wonderful team of people to lead who allowed space for vulnerability. I have said it often, that despite the fact that there are difficult and even lonely moments in leadership, it should not and does not have to be lonely at the top. And if it is, you need to be willing to ask why. We were in Northern BC a few weeks ago with family and I was talking with my brother-in-law who is an eclectic reader. We always get into great conversations about what he is reading, his work in the justice system and we got to talking about formative practices and the shaping of hearts and my brother-in-law immediately thought of these lines from Carson McCullers in relation to some of the many people that come across his path. “But the hearts of small children are delicate organs. A cruel beginning in this world can twist them into curious shapes. The heart of a hurt child can shrink so that forever afterward it is hard and pitted as the seed of a peach. Or again, the heart of such a child may fester and swell until it is a misery to carry within the body, easily chafed and hurt by the most ordinary things. This last is what happened to Henry Macy, who is so opposite to his brother, is the kindest and gentlest man in town. He lends his wages to those who are unfortunate and in the old days he used to care for the children whose parents were at the café on Saturday night. But he is a shy man, and he has the look of one who has a swollen heart and suffers. Marvin Macy, however, grew to be bold and fearless and cruel. His heart turned tough as the horns of Satan, and until the time when he loved Miss Amelia he brought to his brother and the good woman who raised him nothing but shame and trouble.” Carson McCullers The Ballad of Sad Café When you work in the educational system as well you see this to be sad and true. I have heard parents speak somewhat casually at times about how their children are weathering the marriage break-up or other traumas, rather oblivious to the incredible emotional pain of little children which may be hard to see on the surface. Their hearts are delicate organs. Children need safe and loving homes, maybe less stuff and more love, time and attention, and they need safe and loving school communities as well. I was thinking about it being Earth Day yesterday and how different the world looks when you look at it through the eyes of someone who loves as opposed to someone who is careless. Over Spring Break we had the privilege of seeing Honduras through the eyes of someone who loves their country, its people, its language, its culture, its food, and its landscapes. JP exudes love in such a way that it’s easy to see things the way she sees them. For weeks before we went we were told about all the amazing people we were going to meet, places we were going to see, the coffee, the tortillas and beans for breakfast, the delicious plantain chips, the fried fish fresh from the ocean, its lovely beaches and extraordinarily lovely relatives. Well all of this turned out to be true and then some. We might just as easily have seen the country through the eyes someone who cared less and did not exude love. When you love something you want to care for it. When you love something, you want others to love it also. I have been blessed to travel to many wonderful parts of the world, but my experience of those places is so much more rich when I am with someone who truly loves their home and wants me to love it as well. As for loving tortillas and beans for breakfast, not so much. I’m sorry, I should have written about Earth Day today. If you are reading this I’m going to ask you to do two small things. First watch rapper Prince EA’s video Sorry and then go out and buy a small tree and plant it somewhere. If you live in an apartment do some guerilla gardening. Go out tonight and plant the tree in some place that really needs a tree. The video makes me angry at myself and gives me new resolve to try to live in such a way that my grandchildren’s great great grandchildren will live in a world that is better off than I left it. I resolve to be more mindful of how I use water, more thoughtful about what I eat and more kind to trees, the lungs of the world. One really encouraging surprise for us on the Honduras Trip was the maturity and engagement of our six high school students. All had done some travelling before and they seemed so ready to make the most of each situation. Early in the trip we established a daily check-in routine or debrief time and as leaders we were trying to give some shape to that, so we suggested that we might end each gathering with a known prayer. Without missing a beat the six began, May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you; may he guide you through the wilderness : protect you through the storm; may he bring you home rejoicing : at the wonders he has shown you; may he bring you home rejoicing : once again into our doors. Jenny and I have been reading Common Prayer each morning for several years so we had also committed this to memory. Our son Joshua uses it with some of his morning classes and I know the staff at SCS secondary begins their week with that as part of the liturgy. The students had learned it with their English 12 teacher, SC, who begins each day that way with them. It may seem like a small thing but I think it’s actually really significant. These small, formative daily life practices give shape and then become anchors in our lives. We need more of those soul shaping, monthly, weekly, daily practices. Even when I think I have all the seeds I need for another year of planting, I still can’t help myself from going to the seed racks at the Coop and I’m disappointed when they take them down for the summer. I love looking through the new varieties of things to grow, holding the packages in my hands. Seed catalogues are the same. They usually arrive in late January when it’s hard to imagine what a seed might become but there is nothing quite like paging through the possibilities and dreaming of spring. The poem below by Victoria Millar captures the power of seeds and their built in hopefulness and turns it into a lovely metaphor for our own periods of winter and darkness, our need to regather ourselves to living again with new vitality and passion after spiritual or emotional dark nights. She says that seeds must ‘gather to themselves the vision of what they will be.’ It takes patience to find that new vision, to seek darkness. Credo Seeds under the ground on a mid-winter’s night sleep with their dreams of Spring. They are dancing, tunneling, settling in, finding just the right place to begin their sprouting. But first, they must rest, gather to themselves the vision of what they will be. Is it faith—this survival spirit, this willingness to abide, to seek darkness, even revel in it, to be willingly unnoticed for long months of the year? I want to believe in my own renewing, let body and spirit rest, refuse to exhaust myself in someone else’s expectations, grow old before my time, cast off, disposed of. I want to be recycled endlessly, and flower again and yet again unexpectedly, bloom into a surprising color for an old woman, ripe with wrinkled youth and vigorous beauty, with twinkling eyes in deep sockets, making them wonder just how I do it. By Victoria Millar, Pietsen:Herald of Awakening and Spiritual Edification Friday was a big day for some new Canadian friends from Myanmar. The Lin family came from Myanmar/Burma, via Malaysia, a year and a half ago and was sponsored by our church through the help of World Renew. It has been so great to get to know this family, mom and dad and three young adult children, and our lives are richer because they are now free to pursue their dreams in Canada when they were unable to in Myanmar. A few weeks ago Ko Lin, the dad, got his driving license and Friday they got their first vehicle, a refurbished van and I could sense the new feelings of freedom and independence that they felt. Below are a few excerpts from an email one of the daughters sent. “The car is amazing…We can't even avoid the conversation without it. It's more than wings for us; it's the Aladdin’s flying carpet. We have been in the car since the morning. It is absolutely spacious and comfortable…We love the car very much. We were overwhelmed by the support from you and the church…We don't even know what to do or how to give you back for your helps in our lives. We know that we can't reach what you have done to help us, but at least, somehow in some way we love to have a chance for our turn…Thank you so much…I promise that your help to get us started in our lives will not be wasted. “ Thank you. the Lin Family There is no doubt in my mind that they will be giving back and already are and the efforts have not been wasted. The gratitude of this family and their zeal and hard work to become useful citizens is humbling and I’m embarrassed by the Canadian statistics and record on accepting and resettling new refugees. And it is not for lack of effort on the part of many people. Read this speech by Mary Jo Leddy and it will make you sad, embarrassed and angry. And once you have done that write to your MP and tell him/her so. http://dojustice.crcna.org/article/mary-jo-leddy-call-refugees Recently Canada announced that it would be accepting 10,000 Syrian refugees. What they didn’t tell us is that these will displace 10,000 other claimants. These lines from Leddy really hit home,,”…but this government has ruled by fear, by real fear. Make this a place that is afraid of criminals, afraid of young people, afraid of refugees, and terrible things happen. We know this historically when a country is gripped by fear. People do terrible things,…This is about who we are and who we want to be. Do we want to be a small, mean, little country, or do we want to be a country that has vision, that has confidence, that has hope, that has a sense of the future, and that can move to a common sense of responsibility for the world. We have been given this place on earth, not as a possession that we own, that we can extract from, not as something about which we can say “this is mine, not yours. I decide who gets in and who gets out.” We have been given this place to be responsible for, to care for, and to share with those who want to come and live with us in this little space of earth that we call Canada.” My life is richer and so is everyone who gets to know the Lin family. And this is true for most whom we welcome as new neighbors. But if we live in fear this can never happen. More needs to be said and done. |
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