breaking Literary + Political + Education news

While one often informs the other, the combo doesn't often make headlines which happily it did today with a breakthrough, very positive decision by the Toronto District School Board.  This decision mandates that the compulsory to graduate Grade 11 English course now be focused on works that contribute to "

Understanding Contemporary First Nations, Métis and Inuit Voices".

I originally wanted to call my new business W.O.M.B. (what's on my bookshelf), as I truly believe that we are what we read / that what we read helps create & nurture us.  Thus I'm incredibly pleased that so many more humans in Toronto, and hopefully around the world, will engage their minds with a completely different perspective.

Being a #goodhuman often comes from empathy, yet I have more patience for myself and others now recognizing that empathy is actually truly hard to practice when you have zero experience with the situation.  This education will help us all empathize and sympathize better with a group that has been sorely misunderstood for too long.  Even as a student of English, Poli-Sci and History, there was very little first-person Indigenous "history" or storytelling in my education until recently due to more publishing support in general (Five Little Indians, Indians on Vacation, The Back of the Turtle), and, my children's teachers assigning some incredible books such as Mood of Crusted Snow.

Thank you #TorontoDistrictSchoolBoard . 

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From The Canadian Press via #TheGlobeandMail

Canada’s largest school board has voted to make its required English credit for Grade 11 students a class focused on Indigenous works.

Trustees with the Toronto District School Board voted Wednesday night to replace the current mandatory course with Understanding Contemporary First Nations, Métis and Inuit Voices.

Board chair Rachel Chernos Lin called it a meaningful step as the board works to implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action.

Ontario curriculum materials indicate the course was designed as an alternative to compulsory English courses and shares the same learning areas, while exploring a range of Indigenous literary, oral, media and cultural texts.

The board directed staff to prepare a report by June with details on how and when to roll out the new required course to all of its 110 secondary schools.

The Toronto board is the latest to bring in the change after school boards in nearby York and Durham regions also voted to make the course a compulsory Grade 11 English credit.