Natasha Regehr

Tag: Canada

Shame

Shame on us.  Shame.

We consider ourselves superior to our neighbours because we did not elect the madman to the south, but we are no better.  We have our own Trump Lite here in Ontario, and he just “cruised” to his third straight majority government.  He has decimated the school system and the health care system, choosing instead to fund expensive projects that put money in the hands of his cronies.  He says that he will defend Ontario from the threat of tariffs, but the reality is that not too long ago he was extolling the virtues of the man he now claims to be a danger to us.  He takes from the poor to give to the rich, and the poor and rich alike have chimed in, saying, “Give us more Doug Ford!”

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Love in the Form of Snowsuits

Substitute teaching in a variety of locations has a way of opening one’s eyes to realities we may overlook when we spend much of our professional life in the same building. Sometimes a trip across town is a greater leap than a voyage abroad. This reflection takes a hard look at issues of equality in Canadian schools.

I recently walked into a Grade 3 French immersion classroom in a rural community.  The students greeted me with rosy cheeks and cheery smiles as they walked in the doors and peeled off their abundant snowsuits.  They immediately went about the serious business of being obedient schoolchildren.  They hung on my every word (partly because I spent a good part of the morning impersonating Red Riding Hood in French, and partly because it was their natural habit of mind). 

The most challenging students in the room were two boys who were obsessed with measuring things and doing puzzles.  I had to confiscate their tape measure at one point because they were estimating and checking when they were supposed to be writing stories.  I commented that one of the mathematicians may want to consider being an engineer one day (at this point he was using the springing function of the tape measure to carefully propel objects across his desk).  “No,” he said.  “I want to be a farmer.  My dad wants to take over my grandpa’s farm, and then I’m going to be a farmer, too.  I really want to be a farmer.”

The picture of wholesomeness.

The next day I walked into a Grade 3 classroom in an English school in an urban neighbourhood on the literal “wrong side of the tracks.”  A little girl in a pink coat was curled up in fetal position on the carpet, and remained there, unmoving, until I left.  “Give me back my g**d**m slime!” exclaimed another girl, flopped on a bean bag, grinning feverishly.  Little boys ran around in their stocking feet, sugaring themselves with Christmas treats at 9am. 

“Is there anything I should know?” I asked the teacher. 

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2019 Gratitude List

What a year.

So many changes.  So much growth. Such very different lives.

Here, just a few days late, is my annual Gratitude List.  A few items a day, for 365 days, to breathe a little positivity into the last wakeful moments of each evening.  

What varied worlds this list represents, and what unexpected appreciations.  At the beginning, Devan getting me “Mr. Propre” (Moroccan Mr. Clean) to save me an unpleasant outing to the grocery store on a Monday night; at the end, the sounds of laughter around my mom’s table, with all of the family gathered for our first Thanksgiving together in four years.  In between, everything from donkey treats to doodle books.

Intrigued? Walk with me through a year of thankfulness:

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