Conference Day

We had three sessions for the Friday Conference Day.  The first, the keynote address, was by Cheryl McLean, on the importance of the creative arts in interdisciplinary practice.  She was talking about the ways that the creative arts - visual arts, theatre, dance - can be powerful tools for change, and need to be incorporated into things like community development projects, medical research and education along with the more traditional science and business models.  She talked about her experience doing an art-based project in a nursing home, for example.  I couldn't agree more.  Some of the most powerful learning experiences I have had in my life have been through the arts - for me, mainly music - and I have seen this effect over and over again through various projects in which I have been involved:  a project in the north in which Inuit students were given cameras to document their lives; a NFB project in which Inuit youth were given the tools to make a film about their village; a puppet project in which youth wrote and performed their own play; various projects here in the Annapolis Valley in which artists have come into the schools to either facilitate or work with others to document or celebrate or investigate problems and issues in the lives of the students.  The arts can involve people, can get at the heart of problems and can suggest solutions in a way that a purely scientific approach cannot.  I don't think that this is a new idea, but I do feel that our schools have marginalized the arts in recent years, and I hope that administrators will take heed and work to return the arts to their proper place of importance.

The second session was a discussion of race with Dr. Michael Corbett and Martin Morrison.  Martin is the Race Relations, Cross Cultural Understanding and Human Rights coordinator for the Tri-County Regional School Board.  The question he was asked was:  why do you define yourself by your race?  If race is an artificial construct, why do we have this position that brings race to the forefront?  Why can't we all just be colour-blind?  Martin's response was that white people may think that we live in a colour-blind world, but the reality for visible minorities is that the world is not colour-blind at all.  He told us that, even in Nova Scotia in 2014, he keeps his receipts on him when he is in a store, just in case he is accused of stealing something.  He is aware that he is judged as a black male in a way that people who are white males are not.  We watched a clip by someone called Michael Kimmel who quoted, "Privilege is invisible to those who have it."  Those of us who belong to the dominant race have the privilege of never having to think about race.  I have experienced in a very small way what it is like to be a minority, when I lived in a Northern aboriginal community.  I didn't like being judged as a "Quallunat".  And this was only a little taste of it, in a small part of my days.  Even in this tiny community, the outside world was ever present through the mainstream media, a world of culture, images, science, education and values that largely reflected my own.

To be honest, I wasn't looking forward to the third session, as it was an overview of the counseling program, which doesn't have much to do with me.  But the session was surprisingly interesting.  In a quiet, logical and humble manner, Dr. John Sumarah presented to us the fundamentals of the program.  He talked about the history of counselors in Nova Scotia schools, and the current models for counseling today.  Some of the things that I was surprised to learn were that counselors do not try to "solve" problems but rather to help their clients discern their problems clearly and come to their own solutions...that counseling involves a mutual exchange between the counselor and the client, and that the counselor is as vulnerable as the client in this relationship...that counseling involves a recognition of the importance of intuition, both in the counselor and the client.  ...that the issue of whether to disclose allegations that may come up in a counseling situation is complex, and that counselors are bound to do what is in the best interest of the client, even if this sometimes means withholding information from the parents...and that the Masters of Counseling Degree requires many more courses than ours, along with a supervised practicum!  Finally, Dr. Sumarah left us with this quote:  "School is not simply a preparation for life and work...it is the "stuff" of real living now."   We are all - classroom teachers, specialists and counselors - involved in the same enterprise, that of educating the whole child.  And this means having a school which addresses all the needs of the child, both on the outside and on the inside.