Pie in the Sky

Royal Oak is finally going to get their much needed middle school. The neighbourhood has moved up and down and off the waiting list but now the news is final and it’s good...for those in the community with kids young enough to benefit from the future school. The families with older kids remain in the same conundrum, where to ship their kids as they get older.

I recall reading somewhere a few years ago that Tuscany had the highest population of kids under five in the province. I may have that wrong but the fact remains that the burbs are busting. You cannot walk through a mall without seeing pregnant women and little people crawling around the play area. We are breeders and running out of places to but our thousands of kids.

Here’s some pie-in-the-sky thinking...    

What if when new neighbourhoods are developed the builders all got together to build a school in the centre of the ‘hood that was ready to go when people move in to their new homes?

If someone is forecasting how many homes are needed and what type of family is going to move in can’t the school boards and builders get together to design a school to meet the needs of those predictions?

What if were designed to be a school by day and a community/ centre/ gym/ tutoring centre/ library/ resource centre/ childcare facility at 3:00?

I'm guessing it takes planning and doughs but surely a school sitting empty is expensive too.

The Renerts are opening their new school in the fall and the lights will not go off at 3:00 but instead the dance, music and karate programs that run during the day for the students will continue at night for neighbourhood adults and kids. There will also be math enrichment classes after school when Bright Minds starts up there in the fall. I bet the gym will be rented out too and any other available space that can help the community thrive.

It may take a village to raise a kid but the villager's doors are locked. The village kids are bussed all over town to go to school and few have tight connections to the kids in their own neighbourhood. But, if there was a central, supervised, vibrant spot in the centre of town that offered the stuff we drive our kids to after school...how cool would that be?

Tutoring, reading area, gymnasium, piano lessons, dance, library, arts and crafts...

The Calgary Board of Education is looking at using corporate dollars to add to their coffers. At least two sponsor’s names will be attached to Lord Shaugnessy High when it reopens this month.  

Alberta has no shortage of growing families and growing corporations. Businesses looking for ways to reinvest profits and feed into the economic future of the city and province. What better way to do it than help build places where the movers and shakers of the future can get an education, extra curricular activity and old-fashioned, much-missed sense of community?

Imagine hearing parents yelling to Come In For Dinner from their front stoop.

And imagine parents kicking the kids back out the door as they swallowed their last bite and headed for the community center.

Is this pie-in-the-sky ... ?

Focus on Kindness Rather than Consequences

At the school our kids go to now we, the parents, don't hear much about meanness, bullying or agrressive behaviour amongst the 350 kids. Not from our kids, not from other parents.

When there has been a problem it's been followed with high praise for the way in which is taken of. Everyone has been satisfied. 

Whatever is going on over there is working because the halls are full of happy kids helping one another out, smiling, giggling. At the open house last month a grade six teacher with some 20-odd years under his belt said he has never had this much fun at work. The teachers always look happy too. There's a nice vibe in the halls from the front desk staff to the custodian.

I asked the principal what she and her staff were doing. Was it Prozac in the water, laughing gas, cult programming ...

She explained that rather focus on the consequences of poor behaviour she and her teachers instead speak to the kids about being inherently kind to one another.

When you tell a kid what the consequence is for their repetitive, unacceptable behaviour all they do is figure out how to side step the consequence by shifting the blame, diverting attention, intimidation - you name it, they hone deviant skills.

Better to spend that time learning how to be kind.

This idea is an extension of how happy households maintain respect - and peace - within their walls and a good principal and staff can do the same with their kids as is clearly evident at St. Dominic Fine Arts School

I just read this article (give it a read, it's good) about a book called "How to Bullyproof your Classroom" in which the author says; "The problem with bullying is actually the challenge of kindness." Amen.

I was reminded of how happy our kids are now that they are in a school that subscribes to this thinking and the biggest part of their day is no longer at odds with the guidance we give them at home.