Leading From The Heart

by Tracy Rosen, teaching & consulting since 1996, blogging about it here since 2007. All views are my own and you should take them with a grain of salt, I do.

Year: 2009

  • Language Laws in Quebec’s Schools…time for a critical overhaul.

    Student Ordered Out of English School
     from the Montreal Gazette.

    Nina Wozniak and son Kyle look over pertinent papers, including Kyle's Alberta birth certificate, in their N.D.G. home yesterday.
    Nina Wozniak and son Kyle look over pertinent papers, including Kyle's Alberta birth certificate, in their N.D.G. home yesterday. Photograph by: DAVE SIDAWAY, THE GAZETTE, The Gazette. Click for Source.

    Imagine knowing you have to send your child to school in a language that isn’t his mother tongue. Despite the fact that such a school is available. Despite the fact that part of the boy’s family, albeit extended, can legally attend the school. Despite the fact that he had difficulties in his French school but “is thriving” in his new English school.

    Seems to me it may be time to take a look at Quebec’s language laws when it comes to schooling.

    I believe that there are around 350 English public elementary and high schools in Quebec and each year we close more English schools. It’s obvious that the French language in Quebec holds strong now, the reason for the Charter of the French Language (Bill 101) in the first place.

    We need to look beyond questions of language and focus on questions that bring us to the heart of learning. Our provincial curriculum places the learner at the centre of the educational process. How does this practice reflect that? How can we believe in a state-run education system that exists within a structure whose values do not jive?

    Whoa. Disconnect.

    Do you have similar disconnects in your education systems?

  • in the mood for spring


    in the mood for spring

    Originally uploaded by lichtmaedel

    We received upwards of 30cm of snow over the past two days. I’ve always been in love with this photo, I’m desperately in love with it today!

    I planted poppy seeds (no, not the ones from my bagel, the ones from the pods my mother gave me from her poppies) in the fall. Only … oh boy … 3-4 months until I hope to see some poppies in my garden. Oh Joy!

    I received a wonderful gift yesterday though. I took a taxi to a doctor’s appointment because I did not want to a) dig out my car and b) deal with looking for parking around the hospital and then around my apartment upon my return. Not to mention the fun of driving in a snow covered Montreal and possibly getting stuck behind the dreaded snow removal operations that could potentially add hours (seriously) to any car trip! I arrived back home later in the evening to discover that my car had been cleared off and dug out along with a path to my front door and my front steps! I really do have an absolutely wonderful man in my life.

  • Re-post: Free to be a princess and run with the wind…

    I found this over at Flip Flopping Joy.

    I used to love love love Free to be… You and Me as a child. The stories still hold life lessons.

    Enjoy. And may you always run freely with the wind.

  • Crimes against Children: Am I Not Human?

    An article on today’s cbc.ca struck me. It seemed unbelievable, the title seemed out of a supermarket paper, a tabloid:


    Quebec pastor who took child bride sentenced to 5 years

    According to the article, when Daniel Cormier was 48 he, a self-proclaimed pastor, married a 10-year old member of his Church. His Church was for the homeless and addicted. He said he was saving her by marrying her, and that he was ‘entitled’ to have sex with her because she was his wife.

    Daniel Cormier started a Church to minister to some of the most helpless of our society, and then he molested someone even more helpless – the child of an addict in his Church.

    Like I said, it seems like a story from the tabloids. But it’s not. If it were, it wouldn’t be true. And this is heartbreaking truth.

    Here’s another one:

    Elderly Quebec man to serve incest sentence in seniors home

    This man sexually abused his two daughters 50 years ago.

    Crimes against children happen all over the world, even in our backyards. What saddens me is that I imagine for every story we read about, there are so many more we don’t know about at all. These stories are important, they are sad, devestating, stories that should not be told – but they must be told.

    sigh…They must be told.

    Blogging for Human Rights. Click to view source.
    Blogging for Human Rights. Click to view source.


  • Montreal may ban insults to police

    The most ridiculous banning image I could find. Click for source.
    The most ridiculous banning image I could find. Click for source.

    Montreal may ban insults to police. Story from cbc.ca.

    er… what do you think of this?

    Me? I think it’s wrong. Definitely, people should respect others – regardless of the role(s) they play in society.

    But last I heard it wasn’t against the law to act jerky – and I do consider people who insult others by calling them names, by slandering them, by being generally rude to them – to be acting jerky.

    Can we start legislating jerkiness? Uh uh.

    I’ve been called names before, both personally and professionally. I teach high school students, it comes with the profession. I’m sure I haven’t been met with the extreme prejudice that police officers have been met with, at least not professionally. I have personally though, I’m Jewish and I have definitely met and been insulted by people who didn’t like me because of it.

    Jerky behaviour may suck, may hurt. But it sure shouldn’t be legislated against. And wait a second, while we’re at it – why in the world should we only ban insults against police? If we’re going to be banning insults, let’s ban them across the board. The next time a student or his/her parent calls me a, well, not a witch but close, I’m going to yell – citizen’s arrest!

    Now really.