Educational Discourse

As I was driving home today, I was listening to CBC radio. Now, my drive home is, oh, about 5 minutes and I really should walk more but I was running behind today and it looked like it might rain. I just happened to tune in when a guest columnist from the Globe and Mail was talking about the world obsession with sports, particularly North America. As he highlighted several new trends in sports, it became apparent that, for most people, we would rather sit on something and watch someone else be active than actually do all that sweating for ourselves.

Now this whole phenomena has been well documented in our media as we fight an ever increasing growth at the mid-section in all age groups. Now the one thing that was apparent in the program was that if you could make the sport professional or part of the Olympics or some other international sporting event, then people would get active. So, after reading Dave Sherman’s post at LeaderTalk, I began thinking that maybe we could combine what we are doing with technology and help our kids get in shape at the same time.

That’s were Kick the Can comes in. You see, any child can play kick the can. What we need to do is convince someone that this is a plausible idea, that it would be good for the health of our students, would be of little cost for equipment (of course it would depend on the type of can we chose as the official KTC can.) Now, in order to make this a worthwhile endeavour, we would use technology to make contacts throughout the world with schools who would compete in the international KTC league. Schools in local areas could compete against one another, moving on to the international event. Just think, a fun game that would get our kids back in shape and introduce a bit of technology along the way. Can’t you see it? Schools sponsored by Nike or other companies to train and get in shape. Students would be motivated to eat healthy and keep in shape as there would be international recognition on the line. Parents would be pumped to have their children getting healthy. To add some excitement, parents from the school would have to compete and there would be a special category for those schools whose parents and students advanced. We could even widen it to include teachers.

If you’re wondering if I’ve lost my mind, well, that is questionable. But, as I was listening to the blurb, I really wondered why we have to have more studies from yet more experts who continue to tell us we’re getting obese. My belt is telling me that! However, no matter how much we are told, it seems we cannot change what we have been doing because it is hard. Not impossible, but hard. Not insurmountable but very, very difficult. Really, getting off the couch to actually play ball is a lot tougher than watching the Blue Jays or whatever team play their games. And, well, their much better at it and I could never play at that level so I’ll just watch continuing with my lifestyle even though the watching and eating is leading me to certain health problems. I know. I’m intelligent. I’m a teacher.

Does this sound familiar?

It does not sound much different from the conversations people are having about what is going on in schools. Yeah, we know that they should change but we’re really too comfortable with how they are even though they aren’t really good for the students and may cause them certain problems down the road. Yeah, we know that the students have changed, just as we know that the food we eat has changed but, in both cases, we just can’t accept that we really have to change our habits. Maybe they’ll find a chemical way to shed the pounds or settle the kids. It’s not that teachers and the rest of society doesn’t work hard but there is an unwillingness to accept that life is changing in all facets and if we don’t make changes in how our society functions, we’re going to be in such serious trouble that KTC leagues may not seem that outlandish.

So what do we do as we watch so many around us continue to do what they have done even though it is really unhealthy? Well, what methods are being used to get the message out that we’re eating unhealthy, too inactive and we need to stop? Maybe we have to take a look at what other areas of society are doing to see how they are trying to inform the public regarding something that is serious for many but not enough people directly influencing the children are doing something to curb the problem. How many of us see whole families that need to change their habits? Is it up to us to say something? While we debate that issue, we should really look at what is happening under our roofs and decide “Is there a problem? If so, what do we need to do about it? As I’ve been thinking about the PD for teachers next year, some of it I have to plan, I’ve been twirling around this idea of combining technology to get the message out about Healthy Living and Healthy Lifestyles. Using this as a theme with our Reading Goals to have students more aware of healthy lifestyles and living. I’ll keep building with my wiki and let you see how things are a bit later in the summer!

W e do need to collaborate, both locally and internationally, in order the build a critical mass of teachers that will bring this to the forefront and move it into the mainstream discussions. As it is, I hear to many people comment about how it is not. One of the Horizon Project teachers, Julie Lindsay, was telling me about her new assignment:

 My challenge next year (August) is walking into a new school as Head of IT where it seems the IT skills are low and Web 2.0 skills are almost non-existent. What do I do? What approach should we be taking as a school? Can we fast track somehow?

I’ve heard this from a number of people. Maybe, by combining our efforts, internationally, we can bring a focus on a few different topics: poverty, child suffering, obesity and other such disorders ….. I guess the trick would be to have a focus that, with students working together, we could impact society in a real manner, bringing light to some of the problems that we are facing. Now, I’m not suggesting we provide definitive answers but, much like the work of Vicki Davis, Julie Lindsay, Clarence Fisher and other teachers involved in international learning projects, we can present information that will be viewed by the public - bring it more mainstream. Try to get various other partners involved who could support the learning of the students. Technology use would just be the vehicle and the means and not the focus. What do you think?  Or, we could start to organize the KTC teams!