THANK YOU IMAGE

This Science Teacher drove all the way to the home of his student; the student had forgotten his homework in the school. The teacher met his parents. "The homework was due next day and the boy loves his Comics more than Science", explained the teacher . Years later, after finishing art college, "the boy" came back to his High School to visit the teacher and told him about his brand new profession: animator. This photo registers the moment the student was reminding the teacher the height he was that day he forgot the homework at school.

Visit some aspects of this student's nowadays professional life:Dr. Pin Cartoon (show creator - March Entertainment/CBC TV), Mapple Shorts, book: BLUFFS Northeastern Ontario Series from the Edge (winner short story writer)

Main Page(Introduction)
Dialogues&Stories (Life, School, Classroom)

INTRODUCTION

When she worked in a restaurant next door to a home of mentally challenged people, she charged $2,00 (taxes included) for every item in the menu for anyone from the home. It made possible to them to come alone and order anything with no need of a companion to do the Math; they were given the choice to become regular customers, a pleasure that they enjoyed a lot. Accommodating their special needs was extra job for all the workers in that restaurant: being alert to change established routines, writing details on the order, taking care to do smaller portion as well special container. She told us the earning was low and the work was hard but the routine was good and the feeling of belonging paid off the extra efforts.

The stories in this website are like this one, people creating solutions to match a life situation. In this fast paced world of standard solutions, caring teachers will be happy to see their efforts acknowledged and reminded about their own brave stories when they slowed down and took their time to innovate when there was a need. Here we offer stories with no moral, no right or wrong but always with a lot of warmth and humanity. Usually these stories don’t bring a method to be repeated but they enrich one’s sense of understanding and empower one’s intuition and imagination, serving to liberate one’s mind to appreciate diversity, care and innovation.

So if your business is helping people succeed, like a parent, educator, planner or counselor, or if you are researching education, facing culture shock, welcome, this blog is for you!

Our stories are rarely found in official documents; our stories are happening outside the mainstream system's expectations: nobody expects chinese and aboriginal cultures to have the same saying; nobody expects dependability to be seen as a weakness in the text book; nobody expects excluding strategies to be taught in the text book; nobody expects a divorce to be a learning barrier; nobody expects a student who gives up the chance to learn because of one bad event with the teacher; nobody expects abuse at home; nobody expects the poor public transportation system; nobody expects the beauty queen hides a scar under her hair, nobody expects plagiarism to become excuse for student's non-participation; nobody expects to be graded on teamwork in a class that has no group work. These stories are happening to us and as one classmate said: "It will affect us all, whether you know it or not".

Measures, rules, plans, careers, and benchmarking are important to give an overview; these concepts belong to the science-industrialization paradigm. Learning and teaching techniques have been created. What now? Now is the time for understanding, time to connect, so teachers need to feel empowered to go beyond these concepts, spending more time with heart and soul issues. Our stories show our standpoint; our conversations revealed life, school and classroom as three interconnected themes and suggested attention to fairness, innovation and caring to complement the worries about excellence, morality, and safety in classroom.

For a synopsis of the 3 Investigation Themes (Life, School and Classroom), please click here

Please click "Navigation tips" to have an overview of this website features. Let us know how our website could be improved so you could enjoy it better. Post a COMMENT (click underlined "COMMENT", at the end of session) or send us an email: cultureshockproject@yahoo.ca

Main Page(Introduction)
Dialogues&Stories (Life, School, Classroom)

OUR HOPE

When we were given the chance to choose the subject we want to study first, most of us chose “How to manage stress”. We want to have more time, more mindful and meaningful moments, for all of us.

Traditionally, the educational system has been designed to accommodate the most people possible and it has been a strong engine driving social inclusion. But as an engine, it has its own pace. Those who don't meet the expectations are left out; people like us are struggling. We are not underachievers; life just happens. The side effects are evident: dropping out, bullying, violence, depression, stressful jobs. There is a feeling that something is missing.

We look at the Ontario Ministry of Education’s strategy 'Excellence for All' with a hope that now is our time. We recognize the challenge of inclusion in this strategy; we believe knowledge is collaboratively created; so we want to share our vision.

We hope our narratives will allow the reader to imagine what it is to be a person trying to fit in the system, that life is more the school so learning and teaching are for life. We hope our narratives will bring Benjamin Disraeli words to mind:

“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches, but to reveal to him his own”

We hope our narratives will bring to mind our words:

Care School because Care is Cool!

(Some of us in front of our school/2006)

To find out why we begin this research, please click: Ines H. and Dianna P.

A deeper view is available in the paper “Investigation initiators, the academics” – yeah: What our experience suggested about how the hermeneutic phenomenology helped with listening to the outsiders’ experience

Main Page(Introduction)
Dialogues&Stories (Life, School, Classroom)