Posted on March 19, 2025 under Wednesday’s Words of Wisdom with no comments yet

“I want to be a paperback writer”!

 

Potpourri.

How did I spend my March Break?

Do you remember when you were a kid and early into a new school year, your teacher would ask you to write a story about how you spent your summer holidays? I’m sure you do.

After an extremely busy couple of months substituting at school, I was looking forward to a bit of down time. I guess I don’t do “down time” too well. Part of this is my nature. I like projects. Also, I don’t want to waste a minute of what’s left of my life. Some recent sudden deaths , have shaken me to my core, making me more aware than ever, that I better keep my foot on the gas.

I have been pondering an autobiography for quite some time so when I saw a 10-day window, I decided to make this my Spring Break project. I set myself some goals for how much I would write every day and I’m happy to report that I have far exceeded that target. In other words, I’m on a roll. I have already churned out more than 28,000 words. More importantly, I’m having a blast. I’m doing this chronologically, so the first few chapters are reminisces from the 1950s and early 1960s. I’m leaning heavily on my siblings to fill in gaps in my memory. Because so many of us share a common background, my stories are your stories. Yesterday, I wound up the 1960s with Woodstock and a man on the moon.

During the break, I did something that I haven’t done in a very long time. I attended a hockey game. The St.F.X. women’s hockey team was playing a playoff game at home. In the winter, I have no inclination to bundle up in the dark and walk to a chilly rink in the evening but now that daylight savings time has arrived and it is bright out in early evening, I decided to go.

The Keating Millenium Centre was packed. It was a heart stopping game with the X-Women coming out on top of U.N.B. 2-1 to clinch the Atlantic title and punch their ticket to Nationals. There were several takeaways for me. Firstly, the caliber of the women’s game has improved in leaps and bounds over the years. The skill level and speed of play was dazzling. The second thing I noticed was that a significant part of the fan base was young girls, many of them students of mine from the Junior School. They are the next generation of university players and who knows, some of them might make it to the pros someday. Dream big!

The third thing I noticed was disconcerting but hardly surprising. There were quite a few university students in attendance and there was a clutch of them near me. Every time my head moved to watch the play go to the far end of the rink, I ended up looking at these students. Every one of them had their eyes glued to their phones. I mean, why bother going to the game. It’s just so ridiculous.

My final thought. During one of the intermissions as I went out to stretch, I bumped into Peggy and Leo Gallant. Peggy was a trailblazer for women’s sports for decades and you could see the pride on her face as she watched a packed arena, watching highly skilled young women play hockey.

It was a thoroughly entertaining evening, and I was very grateful that the game didn’t go into overtime as my heart was already beating too rapidly… and it was getting way beyond my bedtime!

Like almost everyone else on the planet, with the exception of Trump supporters, I remain disconsolate and enraged at what I’m witnessing south of the border. It is incomprehensible how one man can highjack the world. He is bringing untold hardship to so many people and his actions have the potential to create a worldwide recession. I believe that he has raised anxiety levels to the point where people are afraid, depressed and incredibly angry and outraged. Like so many others, I will never travel to the United States as long as Trump is president. I will also be judicious in my purchases and choose “Canada only” products.

Thumbs down. Elbows up.

Have a great weekend.

 

Posted on March 5, 2025 under Wednesday’s Words of Wisdom with no comments yet

 

 

“Lift every voice and sing, till earth and heaven ring,

Ring with the harmonies of Liberty,

Let our rejoicing rise,

High as the listening skies,

Let it resound loud as the rolling sea,

Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us.”

Lift Every Voice and Sing – James Weldon Johnson *

A month of reflection and celebration recently came to an end in Nova Scotia. February is African Heritage Month in Nova Scotia where we collectively honored the living legacy of Black Nova Scotians.

I was fortunate enough to witness this up close at the school where I substitute teach. There were several activities at the school and many more in the larger community. There were posters highlighting the lives of Black Nova Scotians from many walks of life. Students were treated to guest speakers like Tyrell Vernon, head coach of the St.F.X. men’s basketball team and Elder Mary Desmond. Selected classes had the opportunity to learn African Drumming under the tutelage of Robert Leek. There was an African Heritage scavenger hunt and an art contest.

Kudos to African Nova Scotian Success Teacher, Tara Reddick for her efforts in keeping alive the vision of courageous Black Nova Scotians.

There is still much work to be done. Sadly, racism is still alive and well. It is easy enough to point fingers at our neighbours to the south, but racism is never far away.

I routinely do a check-in with my students at the start of class to check the mood of the students. I ask them to rate how they’re feeling on a scale of 1-10 to gauge the temperature in the room. When they ask me how I’m doing, I always say “10”.

Why?

I am able to get out of bed in the morning and put my feet on the floor.

I am able to make my own breakfast, shower, and dress myself.

I have a roof over my head, and I can afford nutritious food.

I have a place to go most mornings where I’m wanted and needed.

I can walk everywhere without needing to own a car.

I continue to add friends at this stage in life when many are shedding.

I have the good fortune to have a family doctor.

I have the good fortune of having a dentist.

I am grateful to have publicly funded health care, Pharmacare and the Canada Dental Plan.

I am grateful for the gift of music.

I am grateful for my upbringing.

Mostly, I am grateful for my family- my children, grandchildren and siblings. They keep me honest… and humble!

And I NEVER forget this. I am SO grateful to be a Canadian. Most of us would agree that we live in the greatest country in the world, but we must not take this, or anything else, for granted.

“Sing a song full of hope that the present has brought us,

Facing the rising sun of our new day begun.”

Lift Every Voice and Sing.

Have a great weekend, and to my students and colleagues, a safe and enjoyable March Break.

P.S. I hate being political in this space. I cherish the few friends that I have! However, it is impossible to stand by idly and watch what is happening in the United States and not say something. There are no words to describe the disgraceful behaviour of the President and Vice-President of the United States in the “Evil Office” as they tag teamed to try and humiliate and degrade the President of the Ukraine last week.

These are very scary times indeed.

By the way, despite the rhetoric, Canada is not broken. Canada might be more unified now than at any time I can remember since Canada defeated the Soviet Union in the Summit Series in 1972.

I am grateful and proud to be a Canadian.

*In 1919, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) dubbed “Lift Every Voice and Sing” the “Negro national anthem” for its power in voicing a cry for liberation and affirmation for African American people.

 

Posted on February 19, 2025 under Wednesday’s Words of Wisdom with no comments yet

Don’t judge a book by its cover

 

“Don’t know much about history,

Don’t know much biology,

Don’t know much about a science book,

Don’t know much about the French I took.”

Wonderful World – Sam Cooke

I wasn’t the worst student nor was I the best. I covered the middle ground quite nicely. I was better than average in high school but when I went to university, there were too many distractions and thus a life of scholarship slipped through my fingers. English was my favourite subject other than gym. I never cared much for the sciences and history filled me with ennui.

Lately, I have been trying to turn back the clock a bit. I am much more interested in history in light of what’s going on in our world today. “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.” (George Santayana).

When the teacher becomes the student.

To my chagrin, I only took one philosophy course at university, so I am not well versed whatsoever in the writings of the great philosophers. I do know that pupils become teachers and teachers become pupils. Plato was a pupil of Socrates and later Plato became a teacher of Aristotle.

It seems that every day that I go to school to teach, I learn something new.

Last week during one of my substitution stints, I was teaching a class on self-compassion. Before presenting a video on the subject and an audio on meditation, I did my usual check-in with students to see how they were feeling. When asked, most students said that, on a scale of 1-10, they were somewhere between a 5 and an 8. A few indicated they were a 10. One student said he was a 1. I rarely pry but when a student says 1, alarm bells go off. With some gentle prodding, the student told me that a 3-day-old calf had died earlier that morning. I was very surprised to learn that 20% of beef cattle don’t survive their early days of life.

This led to a discussion about compassion which morphed into self-compassion.

Several students mentioned that their mood was altered that day because they had anticipated a storm day. This was on a Thursday. I launched into a discussion about reframing a situation. I suggested that maybe the storm might come later, and that school could be cancelled on Friday, giving them a 4-day weekend, Monday being Family Day in Nova Scotia.

Out of the mouths of babes.

Earlier that same day, I was working in the resource center where students come for remedial work and support. Many of the students face a variety of challenges and this one-on-one and small group work is both necessary and beneficial.

Students are creatures of routine and when their teacher is absent for several days due to illness, things are a bit off. For most, this is mildly unsettling but for one young student in this class, any deviation from the norm was a major issue.

I picked him up from his class and we made our way to the Resource Center. I had worked once before with this 10-year-old individual. There were some family connections which made things a bit easier for him. His teacher had given me a handout that he was to complete, with me pitching in to help when necessary.

While he toiled away, I sat near to him. It was obvious that he was very bright and didn’t need my help. What he needed most was a quiet place to work without distractions. I decided to pass the time by reading and hauled out a 1250-page tome: Les Miserables. He happened to look up and spotted the cover.

“Mr. MacDonald. That story took place after the French Revolution.”*

My head spun as if it was on a swivel. Without coming up for air, he proceeded to give me a brief history of the French Revolution for the next 10 minutes. He was an encyclopedia of information. He spoke of the peasantry, the aristocracy, the comings and goings of Napoleon and the infamous guillotine which he referred to as “The Widow.”

I was absolutely astonished. He went on to tell me that he watches historical videos when he is home.

I listened intently.

The teacher was now the student.

Have a great weekend.

P.S. School was cancelled on Friday!

*Les Miserable was written long after The French Revolution.