Irony

 When the speaker says “There is hope in Jesus today, amen?”

And the crowd responds by chanting “USA! USA! USA!”

I guess President Trump was in the house….

You Choose What You Read

My social media tends to be full of posts about scrapbooking and card making and reading strategies for early learners. And this makes me question the algorithm that chooses what we see. Social media seems to know my interests, fills my feeds with things that may be relevant to me.

This is probably why I don’t see Mr. Trump, Mr. Kirk, Mr. Trudeau or Mr. Carney populating my social media. Perhaps , but I would rather attend to where I can make a difference. I just don’t go looking for it because fundamentally I don’t have the emotional resilience to deal with political rhetoric. 

I do have the bandwidth to make a difference for the people who are in front of me and those people who come across my path… our neighbours, our family, the students I work, and even the person who drops off our Amazon packages.

Mel Robbins, author of The Let Them Theory, states, “The fact is, not every email warrants a response and not every conversation needs your participation—and you do not always have to have the last word. And as the famous saying goes: Your silence can’t be misquoted.”

Smart lady…

Good counsel…

But a perhaps a little naive, because my silence may not be misquoted, but it certainly can be misinterpreted.

“I speak from strong conviction."

People have the right to justify their opinions by saying “I speak from strong conviction.” Ironically, both despots and heroes throughout history have spoken from strong conviction. It’s even quite possible they may be described as carrying a torch for truth or freedom. 

Social media is full strong opinions about about Israel, Gaza, the Ukraine, gun control, immigration, child trafficking, residential schools, gender equity, food insecurity, poverty, politics, environmental responsibility….the list is long.  And in my own experience, people are often convinced that their opinion and their beliefs are the right ones…even me. In any group of people, there is almost guaranteed to be a wide range of perspectives about any singular topic. Many of might agree with a social media post, and of course, many of us might not.

The words Micah 6:8 are good council for each generation’s politically charged times.  

“O people, the Lord has told you what is good,

    and this is what he requires of you:

to do what is right, to love mercy,

    and to walk humbly with your God.”

And of course that’s my own strong opinion.

Only my perspective...and more to come (first published in March if 2010)

1. Stop with the name-calling. I am not a self-serving bully, Jim Iker has a right to his hair style, and Christy Clark is not the Grinch. 

2. Stop with the sweeping generalizations. For example "everyone I know thinks that...." or " "the vast majority of tax payers..."

3. It is okay to for teachers to want an increase to salary and benefits. It is about money for me - I want a raise and an improved benefits package.  This has a direct impact on the people I love the most and that's my family.

4. It also about students. I believe they are entitled to an education system where their needs are met without delay, and where they have generous access to whatever it is they need to joyfully reach their maximum potential. I also know that when you measure a system against Utopia, it will always come up short.

5. Stop complaining about how much teachers make. I chose this profession because it provides a good life for my family and, next to being a parent, it is the most important job in the world. I chose to go to university and pay thousands of dollars for my education. One of the beautiful things about our province is that education and post secondary education is accessible by everyone. You too could have become a teacher.

6. Consider separating the issues of class size and composition.  Class-size should have some flexibility. For example choir and band should be allowed to have up to 35 or 40 in consultation with the teacher simply because performance groups benefit from larger numbers. On the flipside there should be hard maximums for courses where there are safety concerns, such as carpentry, mechanics, metalwork, etc. Managing a class of 30 “regular” students is quite different that managing a class of 24 students - 4 special needs designations ranging from toiling difficulties to violent behaviour, 4 ELL students, 2 students waiting for district assessments, and 1 at a high risk for mental health challenges.  In my experience, this kind of class configuration is becoming more common as our society and its needs and challenges change.

7. Please remember that statistics can be easily skewed. For example, the class-size averages published in the Globe and Mail, include non-enrolling teachers thereby bringing the number down. School psychologists, learning support service teachers, PE teachers, speech and language therapist, teacher librarians, and counselors are all considered teachers when figuring out the class average. However they actually do not register a class.  

8. Stop accusing the other side of "drinking the kool-aid".  It is dishonours the memory of the Jonestown victims.

9. Stop saying you want "so-and-so'"s head on a platter.  It dishonours the memory of the journalist who recently suffered that horrible fate.

10. Stop saying things like "Christy Clark doesn't believe in public education." That is why she sends her son to a private school."  Realistically, if you were her, would you send the most precious person in your life to public school, where there is pretty decent chance of being hassled because of who your mom is?

11. Stop saying things like "The government should do the same as Ronald Regan did during the Air Traffic Controllers strike. He fired them all and rehired them according to the government rules and offers. If they wanted to work, they signed."

12. Work hard, be kind.