A new tragedy of the commons

The Tragedy of the Commons: In economics, the tragedy of the commons is the depletion of a shared resource by individuals, acting independently and rationally according to each one’s self-interest, despite their understanding that depleting the common resource is contrary to their long-term best interests. ~ Wikipedia Have you ever been on a highway and […]

Parents as partners

I firmly believe that “It takes a community to raise a child” and so without cooperation and communication between a school and their parent community, ‘we’ cannot fully support our children and their learning. That said, I often wonder about how we can more meaningfully engage parents in a way that they want to be […]

The Capacity to Lead

Students of all ages have the capacity to lead. For a few years now I have taken a group of Grade 7 and 8 students to our feeder schools to teach the incoming Grade 5’s the “Seven Secrets of Leadership”, but really it is about so much more than that! This is from the e-mail […]

Statement of Educational Philosophy

[Originally posted May 23rd,’07] I wrote this three years ago, but recently had to make a change… As little as one year ago the second paragraph did not exist for me, and now it is placed in a position of importance. I post my Statement of Educational Philosophy now, after reading and posting a comment […]

$3,881.65 for one night’s work

…more on Empathy. Friday night I camped out at the school with 49 students, each raising a minimum of $50- to earn the opportunity to sleep over at the school. We hosted a 24 hour famine to raise money for our Me to We Club… we are fundraising to build a school in Sierra Leone. […]

“Who Have You Helped Today?” – Developing Empathy

Prelude Two Brothers, Craig and Marc Kielburger, are my modern day heroes. Tonight Marc is having dinner with Oprah Winfrey. The brothers’ US office is hosted by Oprah. They have had an audience with Mother Teresa. They have been featured on Oprah, CNN, CBC, BBC, and 60 Minutes. They are sought after speakers that have […]