May 17, 2012, 7 to 9 p.m at Northmount School in Toronto.

R.S.V.P. to Mrs. Pereira at 416.449.8823 ext. 114

Open Houses occur every Wednesday from 1 to 4 p.m. 

About the Presenter:

Manfred J. von Vulte is the deputy headmaster of Northmount Boys Elementary School in Toronto. He is the published author of two books, which can be found in such prestigious libraries as Yale University. His writing is also featured in numerous articles in such publications as Dialogue magazine, Canadian Teacher Magazine and the Toronto4Kids Blog. His interests include writing about education as it pertains to students, family life and improving boys’ experience with learning. He has been teaching for 17 years and is a graduate of Francis Libermann High and York University.

What makes your school different? This is a question we get asked a lot at Young Drivers of Canada and it is a question that your school may be asked as well.

One way Canada’s private and independent schools differentiate themselves is by partnering with Young Drivers of Canada to add YD’s premier driver training programs to their schools strong academic setting.

There is a shared understanding that families are looking to invest in the best education to prepare their children for the road ahead. An enriched academic environment that will help safely nurture and support students is a win-win for everyone.

“It has been a natural fit for us to partner with private and independent schools. I have worked with St. Andrew’s College in Aurora for over 20 years. We also offer the Young Drivers program in Pickering College in Newmarket and Holy Trinity School in Richmond Hill. We have Ministry of Transportation approved classroom locations in each of these schools and conveniently offer the classroom portion of the course to students right on site. Pick up for the in-car portion of the program is available from school or from home. By adding YD’s well-structured and effective educational course to their offered benefits, our brand can help enhance their students overall educational experience,” says Young Drivers Centre director Pam MacDonald.

A new YD School Incentive Program Kit is available. Please contact Suzanne Vukosavljevic at 905-529-5501 x229 or svukosavljevic@youngdrivers.com to help create a turn-key individualized program for your school. To find out more about YD, visit www.yd.com or click here.

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Do you already have a driver training partnership at your school? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.

Related

Summer Safety Tips

Ways to Train the Teenage Brain to Drive Safer

Top 5 Driver Distractions and Driving Safety

How to Choose a Driving School for Your Teen

The Dangers of Teen Texting

How do your student report cards benefit your students? Your school? Are you merely providing them because it’s status quo? Grades alone do not ensure success, but rather being well-balanced breeds success, yet most schools report solely on grades.

Operating a private school, your mission is to prepare your students for future success and provide the guidance needed for them to reach their goals. Custom student report cards by a third party organization will take care of the reporting, so you can take care of your students.

GRIS custom student reports represents an effective combination of reporting proven to benefit students, parents and schools by combining the efficiency and objectivity derived from public accounting and mixed with the specifics of education. The mission of GRIS is clear: bring top quality reporting systems to schools all over the world.

Benefits of Third Party Student Report Cards:

• Higher student retention rates
• More satisfied parents
• Improved school reputation leading to increased applicants
• Happier teachers and staff
• An average of $40,000 extra income for the school

Case Study: GRIS Custom Student Report Cards

In February 2012, GRIS conducted an annual customer survey of 1,365 parents, students, school headmasters and university admission council’s and their satisfaction with GRIS student report cards in comparison to their standard school reports.

Below are the summarized results and the numbers speak for themselves. Certain questions have been repeated for sets of respondents to cross reference and corroborate the results.

 Headmaster Responses (8 responses – 100% response rate)

Parent Responses (1,347 responses – 97% response rate)

University Admission Council Responses (10 participants – 100% response rate)

Notes:
* denotes the response has been averaged (multiple choice response)
^ denotes the statement as been summarized from the group

An education is the most important investment in every child’s life. If you’d like to learn more about the GRIS reporting system and how to implement it in your school, GRIS offers a free information package off of their website.

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Have you implemented, or will you look into implementing, third party student report cards in your school? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.

Related

How to Write A Good Report Card

A Wonder-filled and Imaginative Education

Exit Interviews: Find Out Why They Stay and Why They Leave

Creating a New Culture of Teaching and Learning

More Articles on Advancement and Development

There are the typical cards with flowers, handprinted crafts, bookmarks and picture frames; each gift carrying with it a special message of love and appreciation. Often, it is this message and the moment of the presentation of the gift that carry a stronger memory with a mother. Mother’s Day gifts are so carefully made, and children present them with such pride, that Mothers often keep these crafty creations for years.

This year, I wanted to come up with something new and more meaningful for my students to make on Mother’s Day. I turned to Pinterest and teacher blogs for inspiration, and added in a bit of my own creativity. The process of determining what my own students would make for their mothers got me thinking about what makes a good Mother’s Day gift. Below are my top three ways to create meaningful Mother’s Day gifts from your students.

1. Creativity is key. Instead of having pre-cut flowers and stickers to make cards or bookmarks, have students brainstorm ideas for what they would want to include on a card for their mother. Ask them to consider their own mother’s interests, hobbies and talents. Personalization is integral to showing mothers that thought went into the gift. The thought behind the gift also indicates that a child has given enough thought about their mother to appreciate all that they do for them.

2. Time is of the essence. For many Mothers, a Mother’s Day gift is a snapshot memory of when their child was young. For that reason, try to come up with an idea that will include a picture, fingerprint, handprint, or silhouette of each child. Include the date on the gift so that it can always be a window back in time for the mother and the child. This is also a good opportunity to pull out the laminator and protective glazes—help student create memories to last the test of time.

3. Plan ahead. Include learning about family dynamics and relationships into curriculum and unit plans during the weeks leading up to Mother’s Day. If students have spent time considering the various aspects of their family relationships, they will often spend more time and effort into creating a gift to show how much they care. Using Mother’s Day as a learning opportunity will also allow for more open discussions to different family make-ups and members. If children are given an opportunity to discuss why some children have two mothers, stepparents, or if a mother has passed away, it does not exclude them from participating in Mother’s Day as it has in the past.

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How are you celebrating Mother’s Day and making it more meaningful for students? Share your thoughts and ideas in the Comments section below.

Related:

A Mother’s Day Reflection From a Single Mom

Mother’s Day Gifts: Five Socially Conscious Ways to Show Your Love 

Loving Learning: A Column by Kelly Farrell

The Teaching of Rhetoric: Past and Present

Elements of rhetoric, the use of impressive, convincing language to persuade, has been at the heart of the education system from antiquity to modern times. According to Earle F. Zeigler, author of A History of Sport and Physical Education to 1900 (Selected Topics), Athenian education originally employed it in the use of philosophy through the dialogues of Plato and Artistotle. Romans such as Cicero used it for law-making and policy. In Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, Marshall McLuhan emphasized how media such as television and video were leaving a rhetorical footprint in the classroom as well as in other environments. From those times to the late 19^th century, western educational tradition included the teaching of rhetoric, in one form or another, as a key communication skill. Elements of rhetoric have been found in dramatic prose, essays, persuasive speaking, after-dinner speaking and other types of communication for more than 2000 years.

Unfortunately, rhetoric is no longer a dominant part of curriculum in most schools in Canada, although it persists in the teaching of debating as a subject in a relatively small number of schools across the country. While we have historical knowledge of such titan rhetors and orators as those mentioned, even the teaching of debate has been relegated to the shadows in favour of a more modern curriculum with a focus on the sciences. I used to think that what held back the progress of this excellent skill was the lack of willing and able coaches to sponsor it; in recent years, however, I would now believe that the problem may have a deeper philosophical root.

Getting to the Root of Debating in Education

In recent times, postmodern influence on educational curriculum has relegated debate to the practice of “gifted” students while most other students and faculty view it with suspicion or even disdain. I think this is because debate is perceived as fostering disunity that can lead to intolerance. We are content to watch politicians on television debate the issues rather like the wicked sisters in Cinderella bickering, but are uncomfortable with the assertion that one shoe fits. In other words, it seems that we live in a debate unfriendly culture of epistemological relativism, one in which most people are convinced that all truth claims or assertions of reality are rooted in the subjective convictions of the individuals holding them. Rather than testing convictions with rationally opposing views, and due to the lack of common external referents, some hold their convictions as valid regardless of any such tests and view debate as annoying, or even as unnecessary

The practice of debate itself may not be guilty for inciting disunity and intolerance. Rather, it might be the modern contemporary cultural context in which debate is practiced that makes it so unsavory for some. The value of unity, defined as the commitment to commonly shared convictions and values, has been subtly replaced by uniformity, or a desire to establish a lowest common denominator for social order. Similarly, tolerance, once defined as the commitment to allow people of opposing worldviews be allowed to live out their convictions freely, has been replaced by the view that tolerance demands affirmation of every person’s set of convictions as being equally valid, thus being beyond the criticism of others. Not just debate, then but any form of disagreement with another person’s assertions has come often to be viewed as bigoted and intolerant.

It is hard to know how the practice of debate could be placed back on the pedestal of education where it was in former days given what I see as the prevailing tide of opinion against it. After coaching it for these last many years, it seems to me that there is a transformative and timeless power in learning how to debate in the lives of students who practice it, so I think it is worth trying to offer some defense of debate here in this article, without using debate to defend it, of course.

The Value of Teaching Debate and Learning to Debate

Perhaps it would be best to start with a proper definition: debate is defined as a controlled, timed argument where two opposing points of view must be presented. The clash takes the form of logical pieces of evidence carefully worded, which are offered to counteract evidence of the opposing side. Differing viewpoints are criticized vehemently, even as the speakers stating them are still worthy of respect.

Less obviously, debate is also the process of trying to persuade the opposing side that their ideas have validity and value beyond just the speaker’s convictions in the marketplace of ideas. In a sense, the ideal outcome of a debate is more than sharpening critical thinking skills, but to affect the other participant’s will, as ideas are intended to be acted upon in one’s life. A debate cannot achieve its goal unless the three elements of rhetoric: logos, pathos and ethos are applied actively in debate also. It is these components that link reciprocally between the speaker and the listener(s).

Aristotle’s rhetoric argued for a tripartite composition of every persuasive message: logos, pathos and ethos. Logos referred to the verbal content of the message. Pathos made up the emotive features of the message, including the passion, fervor, and feeling that the speaker arouses. Ethos related to the perceived character of the speaker determined by the concern expressed for the listener’s welfare.

The logos (logic) within a debate makes an appeal to the rationality of the opposing team through a cogent presentation of an argument from the presenter’s intellect. Simultaneously, the debater has a forum for expressing their conviction through their feelings while hoping to engage the emotions (pathos) of the opposing debater. Aristotelian pathos also moves the ideas of the intellect through the heart to the hands and feet of the participants (ethos) without being detrimental to the process of persuasion. The use of emotions is neatly bracketed by the intellectual engagement necessary in a debate. The path towards changing the will, or ethos is through the logos of the mind. If a viewpoint is well presented, appreciated by the mind and found acceptable, the debater adopts a new conviction and is moved to act according to it. What is most exciting then is that all students of debate then can make changes in their lives based on the exchange of ideas that have rational foundations when they are linked to, but not overmastered by emotions.

Returning to the initial question then, in what sense does the practice of debate contribute to fostering unity in the midst of our present-day diversity?

Defining Diversity in Education 

In order to help answer this question, one can examine diversity in education in a number of ways. Today’s educational context is defined by: ethnic, ideological and learning diversity.

What is unique and important about debate in schools is that the practice of it allows for disagreement in the context of ethnic diversity. In the article Quebec workplaces are the least diverse in Canada by Marian Scott, the executive director of the Association for Canadian Studies, Jack Jedwab, states, “nearly three quarters of Canadians work or study in multicultural environments.” Multi-national classes of students comes with a large set of values. Tremendous diversity of ethnic-moral-religious-philosophical perspectives exist because each culture considers different things worthwhile. Common ground exists, but there are also profound differences in what cultures consider valuable. The teaching of debate skills provides a forum for the expression of differing ideas that is bound by intellectual integrity, emotional balance and mutual respect.

Because values in their most basic sense involve how we feel about things, the pathos, or emotions will be heavily engaged. The learning of debate guides students to subsume but not repress their emotions about a subject beneath their intellect. The rules of debate specifically preclude purely emotive arguments that are illogical, and yet allow passion to infuse their manner and style of speaking. The will of the debater is fostered in wanting to win a contest, but again the rules of debate prevent the argument from being won by merely being loud, interruptive, physical or anything other than logical and evidential.

As an integral component of Brentwood‘s university prep curriculum, all Grade 9 students are required to take Debate in their Foundation year. By June, it is enormously satisfying to know that every member of the class is equipped with the rules of the two main competitive genres of debate: cross examination and CNDF. Much takes place, however, before the glow of self-congratulation settles upon the visage of the coach. My initial group this year offered an unusually lively mix of carbohydrate fueled enthusiasm after lunch, and one, Kevin —big, boisterous, bold—informed me unequivocally upon his late arrival on the first day that this was not the course for him. Structure and discipline, however, are, paradoxically, the great liberators and Kevin flourished under their stern tutelage, encouraged by the growing respect of his peers. By the end of term, he had become my most frequent volunteer. He acquired and obeyed the rules of formal debate; his cross-examination skills emerged as the best in the class, and most importantly, he is learning how to govern his impulsiveness. Not yet a diamond, Kevin is evolving; his story offers another trenchant example of debate’s transformative magic. —Mrs. Rebecca Day-Reynolds, my fellow debate coach at Brentwood College School, BC

Ideological diversity comes from people with competing epistemological grids and conflicting claims about what is true. To win a debate however, each team must have not only a firm grasp of their own ideology, but just as firm an understanding of the other team’s. It is only then that a cogent presentation of each perspective can be made and a meaningful analysis of the key differences in each can be crafted. Ideas are what we think about, “the stuff of the mind”, so they will relate most to logos or the intellect as both teams seek clarity on distinctions as well as shared understanding.

While students need to advocate for one side in a round of debate, most Saturday tournaments force teams to switch to the other side against a different team right afterwards, which creates a balanced view of the resolution by the end of the day. This creates an informed, unified population of learners that have exhaustively researched differing views of weighty topics…with little aid from their coaches.

One year at Shawnigan Lake School, a student came in his grade 11 year from Edmonton. A muscular young man who was well over six feet tall came into our class with bowed shoulders and eyes fixed on the floor. True to his initial presentation, it turned out he had had anxiety about saying much at all around his peers and while gifted verbally in all his classes, he clearly felt out of place and far from home. In debate, he showed particular talent in arguing the most knotty and difficult perspectives, representing a way of thinking about the world that few of his peers had ever even considered.  Quickly shedding his cowed aspect, he started regularly exhibiting a clearly articulated argument in a profoundly more confident tone than I had thought possible just days earlier. At Christmas time that year, during the Winter concert, several debate students, including him, put several teachers “on trial” on stage for vandalizing another teacher’s bicycle ; this was a hilarious parody of trial law that had hundreds of students guffawing by the end of it. Partly, I think because of the respect he earned among his peers, Josh graduated successfully having made a number of strong friendships from debate club and is now a competent young lawyer back in his hometown. —Mr. Neil Bryant (when I was coaching years ago at Shawnigan Lake School, BC)

Finally, educational diversity arises from modern understanding of the brain and how various teaching-learning styles exist extrapolated from the diversity of personalities and intelligences in the human population. One such diverse list is found in Howard Gardiner’s multiple intelligences, featured in Frames of Mind – The Theory of Multiple Intelligences.

Misconceptions About Which Intelligences Benefit From Debate

There is a common misconception that debate is only for “high-level” students. Arguably, debate is the only activity in school in which all the seven intelligences outlined by Gardiner are fully addressed. This is because debate not only allows each student an opportunity to express their views in a safe, multi-faceted environment, but actually requires a volitional response from the opposing debater. Non-response is not allowed, so the student is obliged to assemble some sort of reasoned rebuttal or opposing point, using whatever style(s) of learning might be accessible to them. Educational diversity relates to the will or ethos of debate, as it relates to willingness to engage in the teaching-learning process with others of different learning styles.

To specifically outline how a few types of intelligences are serviced in debate: Logical-Mathematical people thrive in a context of order where extended reasoning and detailed analysis are pursued. Interpersonal people love the chance to influence the opinions of judges and negotiate with their debate partners. Musical-rhythmic people are able to work with the pace, volume control, pitch control and metre of their speeches, crafting a heightened pathos of sadness when the words are spoken softly, excitement when words are spoken quickly and loudly. Finally, Intrapersonal debaters love tackling the big metaphysical resolutions that are found in philosophy, religion, political ethics and they are able to spend some isolated time reflecting on the topic and the research for it, as well as explain in debate how they arrived as their conclusions for their side.

At our school, debate is offered as an elective class which students can take from grade eight right through to their senior year. Outside competition in tournaments is a required component of the course as it is the most effective way to give students the necessary experience to learn some of the key rudiments of formal argumentation. Student’s winning tournaments, however, is not the goal of the course, but rather the ongoing development of the critical thinking skills so valuable to learning more generally. In my more than decade long career teaching and coaching debate, I found the greatest evidence of success for my debaters in hearing the conversations of my colleagues around the staff room table. Regularly will other teachers comment on my debate students’ ability to comprehend challenging and sometimes abstract concepts. Or, that they can always tell debate students by the kind of questions they ask in class; that debate students consistently seek clarification of terms - “Sir, how are you defining freedom in this context?” – or that they can break down the components of an argument, or a task of literary analysis, or the key elements of a scientific theory. It is perhaps these more intrinsic side benefits that provide a gratifying sense of achievement for students who learn to debate. —Mrs. Ruth McGee, debate coach of Pacific Christian School, BC

In conclusion, debate as the art and craft of preparation, presentation and persuasion of ideas is the best forum for students of every culture, conviction and learning style to present and explore the value of their convictions. The environment debate creates for this is totally safe and controlled by a unified format of presentation but still demands the engagement of the faculties of the intellect, emotions and will even while fostering diversity of culture, ideology and education. In spite of the perceived dangers of debate as an activity that divides, debate may be the one universal forum for the pursuit of unity in the midst of diversity without a recourse to violence.

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What are your thoughts on teaching debate in your classroom? How do you define diversity in education? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.

Related

Diversity Series: Learning Styles and Differentiation

Arts Education and Diversity: A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Lessons

In a Travelling Classroom, Discovering a Social Learning Awakening

In ‘Cafeteria-Style’ Schools, a Search for Connection

Moral Education: Teaching Religion to a Faith-Diverse Student Body

Open House Discussion: How Are New Literacies Taught at Your School?

Intercultural Studies: Through the Cultural Looking Glass

Neuroeducation will play a key role in the future of education, with curricula based not just on teaching subjects but on preparing brains for learning. YVONNE BERG/OUR KIDS MEDIA

The Brain Power conference on May 3-4 in Toronto began a valuable discussion seeking to revolutionize the way we think about child development and consequently, education.

The first annual conference brings together researchers, parents and educators to bring light to issues and recent developments in brain research and child development. It was an invaluable experience to be part of this initiative; I learned a great deal about current trends in research and issues that are important to parents of young children. Main topics at the conference included music, bilingualism and technology. After reflecting on the discussions of each during the conference, I decided to bring to light three lessons to be learned for private schools and parents.

It became clear from many discussions that I overheard in the presentations and workshops that many people are frustrated, and even angered, by the Ontario government’s decisions to cut funding to music and other arts programs. The question was raised many times: If music is so important to the development of a child (especially to their language development), why are schools not doing more? To answer this, I began to think of what we can do as private schools to ensure we are meeting all the needs of the children we educate and the way in which we can provide a valuable alternative to mainstream classrooms. Private schools have an inherent advantage over publicly funded schools in that their programming is not set by government bodies, but developed and implemented by individual school administrators. As a result of this unique opportunity that private schools have to educate children, they can embrace both time-honoured and research-proven programs that can only lead to positive development for the whole child.

Lesson 1: Music and Language

The links between language and music within the brain are very clear. Dr. Sylvain Moreno of the Center for Brain Fitness at the Baycrest Rotman Research Institute shared data showing how music instruction can directly improve a child’s ability to learn. Dr. Moreno explained how learning music through intensive and repeated exercises can actually prepare a child’s brain for learning by increasing higher cognitive functions such as attention, focus, memory and problem solving. A child’s ability to learn and process language is also greatly improved by preparing the brain to learn through learning music. Dr. Moreno and his colleagues have tested and developed a program designed to “train” children’s brain to learn. By using an engaging video game interface, they have developed a program called “Smarter Kids” which they hope to make available in the next year. This is a huge leap from the once-popular Baby Einstein videos, which were thought to passively affect a child’s brain development though exposure to classical music.

Schools can benefit from this recent research too; instead of playing classical music and hoping that it will improve a child’s cognitive functioning, teachers could be teaching mini-lessons on music before or during language classes. Music can also be incorporated into many curriculum areas. By actively engaging and including students in the creative process of writing songs, for example, or choreographing dances to describe scientific concepts or turning points in history, teachers can positively improve the cognitive functioning of their students, and thus, their ability to learn.

Lesson 2: Bilingualism

Similarly, John Godfrey of TFS, explained how learning a second language, such as French, can lead to a stronger usage of a child’s native language. When considering the large roles that both language and sound play in our lives, it is easier to understand how closely they are linked in the brain. Children’s brains are not hard-wired to learn one particular language. As they grow and develop and are exposed to the sounds of the language of adults in their life, babies’ brains begin to learn the sounds that they will need to communicate and they filter out the sounds that they don’t need. Reason follows that if a baby is exposed to adults in their life speaking different languages, they will develop the ability to determine which sounds work to communicate with each adult. This complicated and advanced form of cognitive reasoning is lost out to other skills as children grow older. What research is showing, though, is that by exposing children to more than one language when they are young, we are helping to develop and cultivate this higher cognitive function to learn language. As a result, bilingual children are more equipped to be proficient at language-based skills.

Of special note here is that it was widely acknowledged that not all children are capable of learning more than one language as a child. Children with learning difficulties, such as dyslexia, will have a very difficult time processing a new language, and would not benefit from bilingualism in the same way. It is important for schools to offer native language strengthening classes for these children at the same time as offering French to other students. All children have individual strengths and weaknesses, and this fact can be acknowledged by unique programming options. Many early childhood centres and daycares offer bilingual education options, and most private schools offer French as a second language for their students. When considering the intensity of a bilingual program, consider the student population as well as the options for learning available to all students.

Lesson 3: Technology and Child Development  

It is no surprise that children’s entertainment options played a significant role in the debates heard around the conference. Many parents and educators are concerned with the amount of screen time their children face. Additionally, changes in children’s programming over the past 20 years have seen television shows become more fast-paced and action-oriented than before. While there remain concerns over television programming, it was interesting to hear how current brain research is helping to influence the way children’s entertainment options are being developed. Television shows are attempting to fuse educational concepts into their plots while video games and apps are reinforcing academic learning.

As educators and schools, it is important to have a clear policy on digital education. There is an infinite number of options for ways to integrate technology into our schools, as the very nature of technology means that the options are increasing daily. Digital citizenship is a HUGE issue, and one that private schools have the power to teach more so than public schools. With more resources, and lower student-teacher ratios, we can use digital learning opportunities to teach our children how to grow up responsibly in the digital world. Similarly, it is important to work together with parents to choose appropriate entertainment options for children that enhance, rather than negatively impact, their academic or social lives.

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What do you think about the neuroeducation revolution? In what ways will it impact your classroom? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.

Related:

Brain Power: Five Ways Neuroscience Will Change Education

Loving Learning: A Column by Kelly Farrell

Arts Education and Diversity: A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Lessons 

Diversity Series: Learning Styles and Differentiation

Growing Minds: A Column by Karen Sumner

Improving Brain Functioning for Children With Learning Disabilities

Why Classrooms Should Be Teacher-Centred

Underachievement and ADHD: Is There a Connection?

The Marketing Package

1. OurKids.net

Now attracting 150,000 unique visitors a month, a 68 per cent increase from last year, OurKids.net continues to be the online hub for families researching private schools. We believe this increase in traffic is resulting largely from our continued SEO efforts, the enhanced usability and search functions on OurKids.net, improved editorial content, our increased social media presence, our blossoming relationships with third-party bloggers, and from our continued third-party multimedia marketing campaigns to brand Our Kids and private school education. The Our Kids community is also growing in terms of schools listing with us; there has been a 17 per cent increase in schools from last year.

2. Mobile App

We released a Private School Locator app version 2.0, which allows for social connectivity. Connected parents can now share, tweet, and email your content from the mobile app to friends and to each other. About 500 families have downloaded the app so far, and feedback on its usability has been positive. We believe the app is well positioned as the mobile platform is set to truly take off.

3. Digital Magazine

The 2012/2013 issue of Our Kids will be available on iTunes, rather than Zinio.com. We believe iTunes will better reach our target market (upper-middle class moms and families), will provide a larger presence than Zinio, and, since iTunes does not restrict the distribution of our magazine in other channels as Zinio does, it will allow us to circulate through multiple conduits. One of those alternative channels will include OurKids.net (which is, once again, receiving 150,000 unique monthly visitors, all interested in private school education).

4. Print Magazine

We’re continuing to receive positive feedback regarding the print magazine. Educational agents around the world are getting their hands on copies, and local families are continuing to read the magazine before and during their school search. New this year is a more decentralized distribution, allowing us to penetrate local markets more effectively. We will continue to distribute through The Globe and Mail in Ontario, but for the rest of Canada we have chosen more provincial papers: The Montreal Gazette, Vancouver Sun, Calgary Herald and Edmonton Journal.

In keeping with the direction marketing communications is taking towards being more integrated and mobile-friendly, we expect more schools to take advantage of the QR codes we can put in their print profiles.

What’s New With Our Upgrades:

-Gold/Silver upgrade to online listing: This now means you’re ranked higher in school lists for enhanced online visibility. You now also receive an Our Kids TV school video profile as a part of the upgrade.

-Online banner ad campaign: We now offer page-specific targeting for your online impressions along with the geo-targeting, which was introduced last year.

-E-newsletter: Now reaching 18,000 families.

-Open House campaign: Last year was the first time we offered this multi-platform push campaign, designed to inform our market of your open house date. Feedback has been excellent, and we’re continuing the program.

-Our Kids TV: In January we launched this private education TV channel, providing our community with a place to engage with digital video content. You can upload your videos to the website, or take advantage of our videographer specializing in private school marketing videos.

In this webinar below, Neil Persaud, director of sales at Our Kids Media, reviews the elements that make up the Our Kids Marketing Bundle and showcase how you can provide an even more branded experience to increase traffic and generate leads and enrolment for your school.

As part of Dialogue Magazine’s Diversity Series, John Sweetman discusses the positive and negative impact of contemporary mass media as it relates to influencing group ideals, a child’s true sense of individuality and identity, imagination of a culture, and how it can be challenged in the classroom.

Illustration by Dave Cutler

There is no doubt that Imperialism and Colonialism are inherently bound up in ideological and philosophical notions about a cultural (or as Said suggests, even moral) superiority. Because we in the “developed West” tend to assume this dominance, or superiority, it is not unusual for discussions regarding Imperialism and Colonialism to focus solely on economic and developmental issues. We are, as Said quotes from Rushdie using an example from Orwell, “inside the whale”.

Issues of wealth and resource procurement were of course motivating factors in historical cases of imperial domination. However, it is misleading (even dangerous) to ignore the more fundamental beliefs that allow one nation or cultural group to feel justified in dominating some other group of people, or nation, or culture. How are these ideologies and beliefs formed and put forward for acceptance and adherence? Does this continue today?

How Contemporary Mass Media Influences Adolescents

Because I am dealing with young people in my work everyday I’ve been considering the role of contemporary mass media in shaping adolescent attitudes and understanding of cultural values. There have been many studies conducted that investigate the attributed correspondence between a happy, “well-adjusted”, involved adolescent, and a strong influence from family life, or some other “moral” support system. The reality in our contemporary world is that even when these benevolent influences are present there is another seemingly ubiquitous presence—one which cannot be ignored in terms of its influence on our youth and their conception, which I surmise they possess, of an international mass culture.

Contemporary media is a pervasive, and at times invasive, fact of life in the late twentieth century. As family and traditional institutions like religion, school community, and neighbourhood communities are increasingly absent from the lives of youth in the “West”, media is always at hand to fill that vacuum. How might this increasingly secular position affect attitudes and beliefs of youth in the “East”?

It is an unexceptionable fact that media in its many varied forms has a profound effect on our society. It has an especially powerful influence on the adolescent component of our society, and this has only recently begun to be examined and measured in a complete and dedicated way. Unfortunately, often those who are the best at monitoring its effect are those who stand to profit from it. Who, other than its creators, have the methods and means to investigate how successfully the Western media perspective (by far the most influential contributor to a construction of a Mass Culture) penetrates international borders and foreign conceptions of 21st century life on earth? Of course there can be no complete and satisfying answer to this question, but it nonetheless remains a useful point of departure for critical thinking regarding the colonizing of minds.

Group Ideals vs. True Individualism

In Coleman & Hendry’s 1990, The Nature of Adolescence, chapter four on self-concept development contained the following quote: “According to Erikson (1968), when an individual possesses an identity, the self will include ‘a conscious sense of individual uniqueness’ and a sense of ‘solidarity with a group’s ideals’“. I submit that these “group ideals” are progressively being defined by Western media which expertly blend material/commercial attractions with overarching, unspoken, cultural inventions/attitudes concerning consumerism, immediate gratification, the glorification of the contemporary and the original, and ideas regarding freedom and speed.

Equally interesting is how the ‘conscious sense of individual uniqueness’ is being defined more and more by what’s “in-the-mix”; as ethnicity, belief systems, and even language is increasingly hybridized. In my own investigation into “Teen” fashion magazines it was hard to ignore the fact that the great majority of models in any photo were Caucasian (often, believe it or not, “blonde-haired-and-blue-eyed”). It was noted that the setting for most of the ads was an urban setting and there is no doubt that there are many more people of colour represented in the pages than ever before.

There seemed to be a particular interest in “mixed-race” models. This can be seen from a positive perspective as a step toward inclusive or equitable representation. The skeptic however, might ask if these beautiful people are being included more because of their exotic (and therefore unique) appearance which, like everything else in advertising media, may be used to gain some “attention-getting” edge over the competition. The last, most cynical question is: Are these models considered beautiful (by the main stream/dominant culture) because they have a more Caucasian aspect to their appearance than a ‘non-mixed’, non-Caucasian model? This is highly emotional territory and should only be carefully discussed with sensitive language and great thoughtfulness. It would take a masterful teacher to productively engage her students in this dialogue.

Questioning Culture Through Understanding Many Cultures

Initially I was interested in Said’s essay because after living and teaching abroad for 13 years I have become much more aware of the assumptions and values that I carry with me wherever I go. Before moving to Oman, I was quite ignorant of Arab culture, and of Islam. During the six years that I lived there, a tiny seed of understanding was planted and my education into the Arab world view had begun. What I appreciate about Said (aside from his rather unique position as an Arab American scholar) was his focus on the contribution of Culture and the Arts in defining a people, their traditions, and the dissemination of their values and beliefs. His notions about an imagined or invented tradition are very compelling—for this is the realm of education. While Said uses comparative literary theory as his main device for critique, in my mind I continually juxtaposed this with a view to contemporary media and a question regarding the possibility of a mass culture which transcends borders and specific cultures.

When I talk to people about my time in the Middle East I am usually met with a look of concern or bewilderment. The unspoken message seems to be, “Why would you go there?” or, “Better you than me.” I am not defensive because I know that (just as I was) many of these friends are uninterested in the countries of that region, and the knowledge they do have is for the most part dominated by western news images and selective reports (usually regarding conflict).

In the same way that I knew little about Chinese culture and imagination before I lived in Hong Kong for two years, I never had a real interest in the Arab world beyond a cursory knowledge of their artistic traditions and artifacts. With time, proximity, and  personal interaction comes some understanding. Then we are in a better position to question the construction of any culture that has been passed on to us exclusively through Western media.

How Imagination Can Define A Culture

A favourite quotation of mine is the oft quoted statement by Albert Einstein: “Imagination is more important than knowledge.“

I have always thought of this as an argument for a less scientific, more subjective and associative, alternative to problem solving in the realm of art & design. After reading Said’s article I see it in another light. Imagination can define a cultural identity. Imagination directs the use of facts and knowledge in constructing a tradition or value. Is it because of Said’s “Oriental” background that he is free to imagine imagination in this way? Would this occur to a Western writer so preoccupied with knowledge and convention?

There is never any clear line between whether media simply reflects the cultural milieu that produces it, or whether it creates the culture itself. It is reasonable to assume it does both. There is however nothing natural about it (save its commercial genesis). It is pure artifice. Said’s argument is that perhaps all Culture is.

In the classroom we need to make opportunities to develop our students awareness of the media’s guiltless artificiality; and to question the invention, the imagination, the position being offered. While the subjects and scenarios contained in the media may stem from “real” life they are always to some degree removed from any “real” context. Often they are repositioned to such a degree so as to become fantastical. Contemporary media (especially advertising media that continually grows in its proportion to the overall body of the media chimera) exaggerates, de-contextualizes, glosses over, “scrubs-up”, and offers a regurgitated morsel of reality which is often consumed with little or no consideration regarding its “nutritional” value— or whether we were even hungry in the first place.

Related

Kony 2012: Controversial Messengers on Ugandan Warlord Deserve the HypeCulture and Imperialism by Edward SaidOpen House Discussion: How can schools be diverse and inclusive?A Social Learning AwakeningInfusing an Acceptance of DifferenceReflecting the Real World

As schools have a responsibility of supporting students to reach their full potential, our school has undertaken the following initiatives in the hopes of creating awareness about mental health and having an impact on our students. We encourage others to adopt similar programs.

• Join mental health programs that support youth like The Jack Project. UCC agreed to be one of the pilot schools for The Jack Project. In partnership with Kids Help Phone, The Jack Project aims to support youth as they transition from late high school to achieve and sustain optimal mental health. To this end, the group held presentations for faculty members, parents and students at 22 high schools and 12 post-secondary institutions.
• Incorporate information about mental health into the teaching curriculum. While physical education and health classes at UCC address issues such as nutrition, substance use and sexuality, the Health Centre has been reviewing existing curriculum material and meeting with the head of the college’s physical education and health department to support teachers in including mental health in their classes. We also facilitated all of our health teachers to attend a day-long workshop conducted by Dr. Stan Kutcher regarding a new high school mental health curriculum.
• Organize seminars and activities. During Mental Health Week (May 7 to 11)—organized by UCC counsellor Susan Boeckh, with the cooperation of the school’s administration and Health Centre team—students are participating in yoga classes, a laughter and comedy workshop, a lunchtime drumming circle for our younger students, and a workshop on stress and anxiety led by a consultant psychologist for our boarding students.
• Set up confidential support groups. These groups have been up and running at UCC for almost 18 years. They are run by our core team (consisting of faculty members and Health Centre staff) and focus on substance use, changing families, anxiety, grieving and sexual identity. We started a group for gay and questioning youth this year. These groups are strictly confidential and follow a group work model.

We advocate for all schools, with the resources and cooperation of their administrations, to address mental health and bring awareness to the forefront for this vulnerable population by teaching students lifelong coping mechanisms for stress and anxiety, among other more serious mental health disorders.

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How is your school making mental health awareness part of your curriculum? What are ways you help and support students with mental health issues? Share your advice in the Comments section below, or email them to editor@ourkids.net for possible articles for DialogueOnline.ca or the 2013 issue of Dialogue magazine on mental health.

Related: 

Mental Health Series: Saving the ‘Sad Generation’

How EQ Is Key to Students’ Mental Health

Growing Minds: Nature and the Brain

How Students With ADHD Can Thrive at School