The Rainy River District School Board (RRDSB) has been making strides to prepare students to work in a changing cultural landscape.
Around 40 per cent of RRDSB students identify as Indigenous, calling for a more concentrated effort to ensure that there are resources and opportunities for teachers to embed Indigenous ways of knowing and doing to the lessons they teach.
Students that identify as being members of the LGBTQ community often do not feel a connection to their school and have a much higher rate of suicide and mental health issues, showing the importance of the sense of belonging.
A presenter at the January 9 RRDSB board meeting said the board is hoping to give these students a greater voice within the school.
“In an attempt to break down those barriers, to not only provide students who identify or self identified as being members of the to LGBTQ to have a greater voice within the school, but also to increase that awareness for their peers, so that we can build a greater understanding and remove that fear through education to help build a more inclusive space for all of our students,” said the presenter.
There has also been an influx of Ukrainian families in northwestern Ontario communities. “Which is also creating some interesting dynamics within the schools around students that may not have English as their first language,” said the presenter.
The importance of embracing diversity is also essential because many local students often move to other communities in Ontario where diversity is more prevalent and work with unique groups.
“So we need to ensure that we’re embedding all sorts of different opportunities for students to explore and learn about diversity and the diversity of the Society of Ontario,” said the presenter.
Ensuring that young minds are prepared to evolve with changing cultural landscapes will be a journey, not a destination, said the presenter.
“I think it’s important to remember that equity work is a journey. It’s not a destination, it never ends. It’s not bound by time or space. It’s constantly evolving and changing. And so are we, then that it requires us to, to learn, but it also requires us to reflect and unlearn some things. And then it requires us to have that humility to listen to those people at the margins, and really hear their voice. And then based on what we hear, not just nod and smile, but then to also have the courage to act.”
The Equity Backpack Program is a series of lessons that students investigate their own unconscious biases in an age appropriate way, while also exploring their own identities. The big takeaway is that differences should be celebrated, and that differences are our superpower.
“They should be things that bring us together because if we were all carbon copies of one another, we would be pretty boring. So as in the words of Audrey Lorde say it’s not our differences that divide us but it’s our inability to recognize, accept and celebrate those differences,” the presenter said.
The program is being run in all grade 6 classes in the board, starting a couple years ago at J.W. Walker School.
