Sunday, May 17, 2020

The bog is a treasure during the Covid 19 Pandemic

The BC Government has asked teachers to go back to face to face teaching.  What if this can be done without forcing highly social students to sit at desks with the smell of bleach and hand sanitizer in the air.  What if the only rule to enforce was "keep your distance". 

What if classes were held outdoors,  the way education has been done for a thousand years, in the territory of the Musqueam, Tsleil -waututh, and Squamish people. English class at the beach, Biology class in the rainforest: Socially distanced learning would not be so oppressive outside.  It would be engaging and memorable and relaxed.

Here's a class in xʷməm̓qʷe:m, Camosun bog. They smell fragrant Labrador tea.  They hear birds and treefrogs. Sundews glisten below, sticky with their catch of mosquitos and they are learning bog ecology from high school students who are leading a bog tour.

Covid 19 is changing the way we do alot of things. We can reimagine education too.