The Children Left Behind: UNICEF report on children in the richest countries

I've been meaning to prepare a blog post for readers of GPS so as to answer some of the questions posed to me in the comments of these two posts. Like something explaining what "social control agent" means. Or describing exactly what a child welfare specialization entails. I'm getting there.

However, this is too important to not blog about right now! The link takes you to a page which is a press release for the report, and where you can download the pdf version.

The following is copied from that page:

"[The report] ranks, for the first time, 24 OECD countries in terms of equality in health, education and material well-being for their children. The report looks at a particular aspect of disparity – bottom-end inequality – and asks how far behind are rich nations allowing their most disadvantaged children to fall."

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives blogs about the report here, in a post titled "UNICEF shames Canada for inequality among children". (That's right, they SHAME Canada. If only UNICEF could impose harsher sanctions than shaming. CCPA concludes by wondering if our government has any shame at all.)

CCPA reports the study "looks at inequality by measuring the gap between those at the middle of the pack (the median position) with those at the bottom. The critical question, the report says, is just how far behind children should be permitted to fall?"

One final quote, (from UNICEF) and I will end my rant:

"The idea that inequality is justified as a reflection of differences in merit cannot reasonably be applied to children. Few would deny that children’s early circumstances are beyond their own control. Or that those early circumstances have a profound effect on those present lives and future prospects. Or that growing up in poverty incurs a substantially higher risk of lower standards of health, reduced cognitive development, of under achievement at school, of lower skills and aspirations and eventually of lower adult earnings, so helping to perpetuate disadvantages from one generation to the next.

None of this is the child’s fault."

feminism and women's role in North American society

I took a course on feminism in the political science department of UFV almost 2 years ago. At the time, I felt I had a firm grasp on the ins and outs of the term. We studied Liberal feminism, radical feminism, anti-racist and post-colonial feminisms, Marxist feminisms, Indigenous feminisms and male feminisms as "centers" of feminist and gender politics. We also studied the "category of woman" including questions of commonality, of difference, of identity and intersectionality. It was a pretty thorough study.

However, after the theoretical course ended, I began bumping up against "feminist" ideals in the real world.

Most notably, while attending the BC Association of Social Worker's (BCASW) annual conference, I listened to a speaker who operates a woman's shelter, Vancouver Rape Relief Society. The first year I heard her speak was during a plenary titled, "Where's the Harm", which discussed Canadian prostitution laws and the two Constitutional challenges to these laws. Her perspective here was that women were forced into prostitution because of social, cultural and financial marginalization; women didn't have a real choice. However, men who purchased these women's sexual services DID have a choice, and they were making the wrong choice. At the end of the talk, I felt very disempowered, because I felt that men were the "bad" guys, this was a war, and I'd better choose the "right" side to be on for the duration.

The second year was a plenary titled "A Master Class in Advocacy" and this same speaker decided it was a good idea to shame social workers for not doing enough to help marginalized people, especially her clients. She felt there was no point in negotiating with government, and that she was perfectly entitled to flout the law. Social workers were "the privileged" and had better start sending personal donations to women's organizations, because Stephen Harper has quietly cut most of their funding.


Other "real world" encounters with feminism include that whole "Sarah Palin is a feminist" debacle. Um, yeah, okay Sarah, if you say so... Another was at an ethics committee meeting for people, mostly social workers, employed in elder care. A woman who works for the Alzheimer's Society talked about a Muslim woman she saw in her community (in the Greater Vancouver area) who was wearing a veil. This woman felt the Muslim woman was oppressed by the veil, as if she couldn't possibly have chosen this garment on her own.

But really, my brand of feminism does say that if you call yourself a feminist, then you are a feminist - no policing the boundaries of the feminist politic. No one gets to be the expert, no one gets to say, "no, you're NOT a feminist!" My brand of feminism foregrounds individual experiences over theory. My brand of feminism is interested in being inclusive, in solidarity movements, in forming alliances. It's about action. It's sometimes called "third wave" feminism, but sometimes it rejects such labels, reminding us that there never has been a cohesive woman's movement! Even the second wave movement in the US in the 60's was about middle class women and their rights, not about the rights of Black women or Indigenous women or disabled women, etc...

Regardless, feminism seems to have a bad rap these days. Often, "third wavers" prefer to think of themselves as a part of a post-feminist world, and to think of feminism as "the F word". In some ways, I can understand this, such as when it's a reaction to the "war between the sexes". I don't want to fight against men; I have 2 sons, and they are the most important people on the planet to me. Then again, I'm mystified and horrified by gendered violence, by the patriarchal dynamics of power and control that play out in intimate partner violence. How do our sweet boy children become these 'batterers'? How are they led to believe that it's okay to control their wife or girlfriend through intimidation and fear? When I think of the violence committed against Muslim women by their governments in oppressive countries, I feel devastated and helpless. How can feminism ever hope to stand against such willful aggression?

It can't. We can't "divide and conquer" when it comes to such beliefs about intimate relationships. We have to work together, in partnership, without vilifying one another.

Still, it is important that feminism stay vital and relevant, because there is a great deal that needs to shift about women's roles in Western Society. Why is it okay that mothers are judged by much harsher standards than men?

I see this a lot in my studies to become a child protection social worker. We talk about "mother blaming" a lot. Especially in the rhetoric of violence against women - a woman who chooses to stay with an abusive partner is "unwilling" to keep her children safe, and may have them removed. Of course, intimate partner violence has a devastating impact on children, but mothers are not the only ones responsible for children's safety. The husband, the partner, the father, also has a significant role to play, especially if he is the perpetrator. Why is being a "bad mother" so much more stigmatic than being a "deadbeat dad"?

violence against women

Another thing I've been reading a LOT about lately is violence against women. It's one of those topics that is briefly discussed in several of the core social work courses, but doesn't have a class dedicated to the topic. Once class in Policy was on this topic, as was one class in Feminism (actually, that was a Poli Sci class) and the Sociology of Families, as well as being mentioned in the Aboriginal class, and probably in 110 and 210. It was also one of the advocacy cases I read in my Advocacy Writing elective, and was discussed in my crisis line training. Just yesterday, at my crisis line shift, I was asked to read some of a 75 page document from MCFD on "Best Practice Approaches: Child Protection and Violence Against Women." It is also a topic that came up in both of the two BCASW conferences I have attended, most notably by Lee Lakeman of Vancouver Rape Relief Society, a Downtown Eastside women's shelter.

The general consensus is that domestic violence is NOT about anger management, NOT about mental illness (although being a victim of it is VERY likely to cause mental illness), it is about power and control. As well, it is the general consensus that domestic violence is overwhelmingly gendered, hence the term "violence against women" replacing the non-gendered term "domestic violence".

However, this kind of violence is compounded by other forms of social marginalization. So, women who experience a lack of power beyond their gender identity experience much more violence, and that violence is much more severe. For example, Aboriginal women experience intimate partner violence at a rate of 20%, whereas mainstream stats place it at about 7%. This means Aboriginal women are 3 times more likely to experience intimate partner violence. As well, immigrant women, racialized women and women with disabilities experience more violence than the general population of women.

One interesting fact, however, is that intimate partner violence occurs in lesbian relationships, as well, and it is not mutual violence or aggression. This violence is also characterized by the need to exert power and control.

Thus, I would argue that violence against women is NOT a gender issue. Rather, I contend that it is an issue of power and oppression, and that by focusing specifically on women as victims and men as perpetrators, we end up "othering" men. This is NOT to say that I think we should NOT talk about violence against women. Rather, it is to say that we need to use a post-modern approach, recognize that this ISN'T a war between the genders, and that these men, although apparently not mentally ill, are in some way damaged by our culture, by our culture's need to oppress and marginalize groups of people.

My Aboriginal Social Work prof (Gwen Point, who is of the Stó:lō Nation, and whose husband is the Lieutenant Gov of BC ) seemed to empathize with First Nations men; she asked us to imagine what it must feel like to be a man, socially constructed as the provider, and then have your ability to provide for your family and your community stripped from you.

I think that we need to stop dehumanizing men who commit violence against women, and acknowledge that they need help. This is a pervasive issue, beyond individual pathology; it is an issue built into the very structure of our social systems.

The unfortunate thing, however, in this neo-liberal political climate,  is that there are no voluntary services for men who commit intimate partner violence. There ARE programs for these men, but they are either through Corrections or through MCFD. Thus, these men have to either have been charged/convicted of committing such violence (in which case, it's been going on for a LONG time, and the woman is probably extremely damaged from the constant terrorization), or the violence has to be a part of a child protection investigation. In my opinion, this is a day late and a dollar short.

the ethics of child protection?

I've been doing a lot of reading and writing lately specifically about child protection as practiced in BC.

I've had several assignments based on the 2001 Bruce Spangler movie, Protection, which is billed as a "realistic" look at child protection (I highly doubt it is, this social worker, who is drinking wine and smoking pot in the playground at Trout Lake, proceeds to cut her hands on the bottle, then smears the blood all over her face). Regardless, we have used the 'fact pattern' of the actual investigation for 2 assignments in my law class. One was a paper which combined a Report to Court with a critique of the social workers in the movie, the other was an oral assignment where we acted as a social worker giving testimony in court. A third assignment is a paper for my Child Welfare class, where we use the 'fact pattern' to write a case recording, and followed by a personal and professional reflection on our own possible reaction to the investigation, referring to texts and journal articles which are critical of mainstream and historical child protection practices.

I've also listened to several guest speakers in these two classes over the semester. Some were lawyers, some were social workers. Some presentations centered on child protection practices - what they do, how they do them. One recent one was more reflective, a social worker who had Bob Mullaly as an instructor (Mullaly has written two social work books based on critical theory in social work practice and on structural social work, both of which are anti-oppressive).

This social worker is done with child protection in BC. More specifically, she is burnt out by the endless, possibly needless changes in the bureaucracy. She has worked in BC for 12 years, but is leaving in the spring, to return to her home province on the east coast. She discussed a case or two where she felt it was ridiculous for her to have investigated, but was compelled to do so by her supervisor. She pointed out just how intrusive this is, and how the information collected stays on file forever. She also talked about how the Deputy Minister, "in all her glory," has decided to do away with the current child protection tool, Risk Assessment, which BC began using in response to Judge Gove's 1995 inquiry into BC's child protection system after the death of Matthew Vaudreuil. However, the new 'tool' is going to be the child protection workers themselves. To this worker, this means more work will be piled on top of already overworked staff.

I have also recently read everything I could find about MCFD since the 2006 Hughes Report, especially what was available about the changes Deputy Minister du Toit intends to make. She is scrapping Risk Assessment in favour of a new model, called "CAPP" which stands for Child and Family Support, Assessment, Planning and Practice, and which is mostly described in aspirational, visionary terms. Specific, measureable outcomes are not published, nor are details pertaining to what staff will actually be doing. Not very transparent, in my opinion, and thus, not very ethical.

Two further reports I have recently read are Broken Promises (2008) and  Hands Tied (2009), both researched and published  by Pivot Legal Society in Vancouver. The first talks about how the system has consistently failed children and their families for generations in spite of legislative reform, internal reorganization and changing governments. The second talks about why BC child protection workers are leaving their jobs at an alarming rate: not enough staff, and too much political churn.

As well, I have been reading whatever I can find about MCFD in the public domain - media articles, blog posts, and comments on both. One specific blog I have been perusing is GPS, which is "a personal weblog advocating for the Bayne family reunion and suggesting potential corrections to B.C. child welfare." The comments on many of these blog posts have lead me to conclude that British Columbians despise social workers.

I, however, would like to distinguish between social workers and child protection workers. Social Workers in BC are governed by the Social Workers Act, unless they are employed by a government or its agency, a school or a band (um, that's a LOT of exceptions!). Despite Judge Gove's reccomendation that child protection social workers actually be social workers (pretty radical, I know!), child protection workers are not required to have a degree in social work, nor are they required to be registered. They can hold a degree in Child and Youth Care (or they can hold a Masters in Clinical Psychology or an M.Ed. in Counselling).

Regardless, as Pivot (2008) points out, "apprehensions are generally the result of a parent’s struggle with poverty, addiction, mental health issues or family violence. The government’s lack of commitment to providing publicly funded services has severely undermined the ability of [MCFD] to take a preventative approach to child protection issues."

I believe social work education, which is highly anti-oppressive, which requires continual deconstruction of the current and historical political ideologies which inform social policy, which insists that all knowledge is socially constructed to benefit a small minority of citizens, can effectively train workers to treat all clients with dignity and respect. It is a social worker's job to look for the structural, systemic causes of a parent's "bad behaviour" rather than blaming individual pathology. We consider the person in his/her environment. We stand with our clients, in solidarity. Our mandate is social change, social and economic justice for all citizens, not just for the "good" ones.

I just have to keep reminding myself of my mandate as a social worker (as described, above), not as a child protection worker (whose mandate is contradictory, to keep children safe from parental maltreatment while maintaining the family home as the ideal place for children). I have to keep reminding myself that I chose this profession out of my stand for social justice for all, especially the most marginalized; that I chose social work out of an ethical responsibility I feel to children. Otherwise, all those commenters who write that child protection workers are evil, could lead me to despair, lead me to think child protection is a pointless career, characterized by burnout, not appreciated by anyone. And we can't have that!

New beginnings

Big changes are afoot in my household. Today was my practicum interview with MCFD. I think it went quite well. Also, today I contacted the public elementary school I'd like my boys to attend for the remainder of the school year.

The boys have been home with me for the last few months, homeschooling through Self Design, an online publicly funded private ("distributed learning") school. We chose this based on the upheavals and transitions in our lives as we moved, for the first time in 6 years, from South Surrey/White Rock to north Surrey/Bolivar Heights. I felt that I couldn't manage finding a new school and a new childcare provider (we've been with ours for 5 years) on top of the move and the new semester. As well, we chose homeschooling because the boys were HATING school, the structure, the repetition, the endless worksheets. I was having to force them to go every day (not physically, they did comply when I said they had to go), which does not represent who I say I am as a professional, as an anti-oppressive practitioner, as an advocate for social justice.

However, my practicum will be from 8:30am to 4:30pm, Monday through Thursday, for 16 weeks. I don't have the funds to pay for the childcare required to cover those hours, and I don't have the family support to get those hours covered for free AND have their learning supported. Thus, the boys will be returning to school.

The program I am looking at for them, however, is not mainstream. The school is a "choice" program, with a district-wide catchment. They have less than 90 students. There is a gr K/1 class, a gr 1/2/3, and a gr 4-7 class. They work to foster a strong sense of community in a non-competitive environment. I think this will be such a good fit for my son!

(Last May, I went to our old school's Sports Day. The school was divided up into 4 teams, and earned points for each event. At the end, the scores were tallied, and ribbons were handed out, from 1st to 4th place. My son's team came in 3rd, as they did the previous year. My son was devastated, sobbing, and refused to take a ribbon. I carried him off the field and into the classroom to pick up his backpack. I think this is damaging. I think primary aged children are not developmentally ready to be designated winners and losers.)

I've also sent off an email to the local community services agency's (MCFD funded) child care referral program. I'm nervous and excited about the prospect of finding a new caregiver. We've been with our current provider for 5 years. Before that, I had 5 different arrangements over 2 years. It was too much, and I was feeling overwhelmed and desperate, and was so happy to find a provider who got my son.

We are attending a fall fair at the new elementary school tomorrow so that the boys can have a look around the school. I'll get a phone call from the principal on Monday. I'm starting to feel that fresh, new year vibe.

I love new beginnings :)

Interview w/MCFD

After a couple of weeks of waiting, I finally have an interview scheduled with TWO Team Leaders from MCFD Aboriginal Services, the Intake and Investigation team and the Family Services team.

I'm so super excited! I really see myself working in this area. It just kills me how many Aboriginal children are in care. The other night we were watching the news on APTN, who stated that, nationally, the population of Aboriginal peoples in Canada is about 3-4%. However, about 60% of Aboriginal children are in care. Excuse my language, but W.T.F??

All I can say is that this is continuing colonialism...
but, then, what is it for the mainstream (white people?), for immigrants? Perhaps still colonization?

I know this isn't the accepted way to think about the oppression of poor white people, but bear with me for a minute...
Who are the people from the mainstream culture who have children in care? Poor people, drug users, people with mental illnesses. People who aren't coping well with the mainstream culture. People who maybe don't identify with "middle class values." People who need to be brought into line...
Sounds like colonization to me.
Reminds me of the terms of the Indian Act, once upon a (not so distant) time, when Aboriginals (men) could be enfranchised, could earn the right to vote, if they gave up any claim to their culture (if they STOPPED being 'Indians').
Pretty oppressive, no?

I don't think child protection workers are any less oppressive, despite Judge Gove's insistence that child protection workers hired by MCFD should be social workers, with a degree. Social Work education is HIGHLY anti-oppressive. Almost every class we take is centered around a social constructionist framework, around discourse analysis. This means continually looking for systemic, structural answers to individual problems seen through the lens of pathology by most other helping professionals.

A social worker stands with her client. A social worker starts where the client is. A social worker is a social change agent, is committed to professional ethical values such as social justice for all.

Especially for Aboriginal women and their children.

4th year practicum, coming up!

I had my first interview with MCFD a couple of weeks ago. Interview Number Two is with the actual team I'll (may possibly) be working with for 16 weeks pre-graduation.

This interview is not yet scheduled, but I spoke with the intake team lead, who wants to set up a concurrent interview with the family services team lead.

Oh, and did I mention, this is with Aboriginal Services? Yay, just what I asked for!

I'm pretty excited...

...and maybe even more excited by the possibility of a PAYING JOB?! Maybe even in the Lower Mainland?! Double yay!

Vengeance?

I just saw this post on Facebook, by my sister in law: "Fxck!ng b!tch that makes my daughter upset better watch out!!!!!!!" That was 7 exclamation marks. I counted. All I can think is, "oh, dear!" (and I added the symbols in the swears) Well, that and, be SUPER sarcastically glad to have all these new family members in my life. Seriously, though, her daughter is in first grade. Is this another first grader my SIL is referring to? Or an older child? Is it an adult, rather than a child? I suppose if this were the case, I could understand the sentiment, but if it's another 6 year old?!? What kind of message is my niece picking up from her mother?

I am currently taking a 4th year social work class titled Family Centred Practice, with a textbook titled Family Therapy: Concepts and Methods. Last week we handed in a 12 plus page paper where we were to make a genogram of 3 to 4 generations of our family, then analyze our families using Family Therapy concepts. Maybe I should've analyzed my in laws? Yikes.

I want to leave a comment, be something of a voice of reason, but I have no idea what to say. It'd have to be something pithy (well, maybe short and sweet, rather than concise and forceful).

Vengeance is not something I hope my children learn from me. In fact, last night while driving home from my mother's house, stepson was having a conversation with son. He was talking about some (made up) person who was "sucky" at a video game. I couldn't let it pass, and asked exactly what that meant. At first, they said "never mind," (I guess recognizing my tone?) but I wouldn't let them off the hook. So they said that it meant he was bad, meaning he wasn't skilled at playing the particular video game.

I then talked about the difference between who we ARE and what we DO, or our behaviour. This is a crucial concept in Child Welfare, my particular social work major. We need to distinguish between poor parenting and "bad mothers." Anyone can overcome bad behaviour, but if someone is a bad person, is there even a hope of redemption for that person? We cannot write people off because of something bad that they DO, this, to my mind, is oppression.

I'm sure my children are used to my moral lectures, but my sister in law is not, and would likely not take kindly to it. Thus, those of you who read this blog get to read my rantings. 

Did I mention I'm miserably sick? Perhaps I'm a bit short-tempered as a result :S

what are we eating these days?

I've been thinking about food a lot lately.

Hubby and I have been canning. My dad gave us a 20lb box of tomatoes from Keremeos, in the southern Okanagan Valley. (Dad works in Penticton and lives in Mission, so he drives the Crowsnest Hwy twice a week, usually.) We roasted three panfulls, removed as much skin as we could, and then canned them in a hot water bath - 35 minutes!! Much too long... a pressure canner takes 10. So we're thinking of buying a pressure canner as an early Christmas present to one another. They're about 100 bucks :)

Investing in a canner would allow us to can pretty much ANYTHING, including salmon (yum!), without fear of nasty organisms. I could even can jars of broth instead of freezing them in plastic containers - like the massive amounts of broth I made out of my aunt's Thanksgiving turkey carcass. We might also be able to manage a bulk meat order, like, say from a local beef producer (1/2 a cow, anyone?).

Once upon a time, I lived in the Mainland Inlets (specifically Knight Inlet), near the north end of Vancouver Island (around Alert Bay and Pt McNeill), on a float house. My partner hunted deer meat, and we canned it. That was the easiest stew starter I've ever had. Nowadays, when I want stew, it usually means defrosting something first - almost a 2 day process for this busy lady. One pressure canner batch of gristly meat could make a winter's worth of 'stew starter'. The possibilities are endless :)

However, this doesn't get at the heart of my food concerns - I mostly wonder about the grain products we consume, such as cereal, crackers, corn chips, bread tortillas, muffins... I've even recently become concerned about the SUGAR in juices labeled 'unsweetened' - I read on a Yahoo homeschooling list that Health Canada thinks of the sugar in juice as a PROCESS, not an INGREDIENT. WTH?!

Add to this the fact that most sugar is now produced from genetically modified sugar beets... how on Earth is a person with a limited budget supposed to stay on top of this?

Running to stand still

That is the title to one of my favorite songs off of U2's 1987 album, The Joshua Tree...

You got to cry without weeping
Talk without speaking
Scream without raising your voice

 ...and those were some of my favorite lyrics from the song.
Sometimes I want to scream, but I don't because I don't want to disturb the peace... do something illegal? Cause civil disruption? Is that part of the social construction of my identity as middle class? a citizen? a woman?

The title, Running to Stand Still, describes how I feel these days. The beginning of the semester eases into midterms and I'm on the hamster wheel again. It hasn't been as crazy as last year, when I got married and when my stepson, age 6, moved in. We did move this September, but I've finally taken the plunge, trusted, and we're homeschooling, and I'm happier.

But I have no time.
(Can I use but like that? Or do I have to say something like however? Are there any English majors out there?)

I have no time, and today I got cranky, because I had a paper due and I hadn't finished the rough draft. I was also late reporting for the distributed learning school. Being late is my Achilles heel.

I got mad at Stepson when he wouldn't, or couldn't focus on our "Observation for Learning (O4L)." We do this every week, and I always ask him to talk about the last week and I help him by prompting and reminding him, but today he couldn't come up with anything to say, and I was just putting words in his mouth. So I raised my voice and told him we had a two week trial period and failure meant public school. Did I mean that? I don't know...

Regardless, I'll have to apologise for yelling, and I guess we'll try discussing what's working and what's not working about homeschooling. Then what? Can you talk with almost 8 year olds about wants and needs in relationships? Maybe son will get it, but it's over stepson's head.

Son is verbal, Stepson, not so much. Rather he's full on kinetic; half the time you've got to hold both his hands and bend down to his eye level to be sure he's processing what you're saying. Son can be quite protective and supportive of his stepbrother, and this is often a help, but neither remember routine tasks well. What can I say, they're still 7. As well, I have noticed an improvement in their listening over the past few weeks, however, their improved behaviour doesn't coincide with my poor behaviour, of course :S

To conclude, I've had the Grateful Dead's Box of Rain stuck in my head for two weeks, now.

Look out of any window
any morning, any evening, any day
Maybe the sun is shining
birds are winging or
rain is falling from a heavy sky -
What do you want me to do,
to do for you to see you through?
this is all a dream we dreamed 
one afternoon long ago 
Walk out of any doorway
feel your way, feel your way
like the day before
Maybe you'll find direction
around some corner
where it's been waiting to meet you -
What do you want me to do,
to watch for you while you're sleeping?
Well please don't be surprised
when you find me dreaming too

Look into any eyes
you find by you, you can see 
clear through to another day
I know it's been seen before 
through other eyes on other days 
while going home --
What do you want me to do,
to do for you to see you through?
It's all a dream we dreamed 
one afternoon long ago

Walk into splintered sunlight
Inch your way through dead dreams
to another land
Maybe you're tired and broken
Your tongue is twisted
with words half spoken 
and thoughts unclear
What do you want me to do
to do for you to see you through
A box of rain will ease the pain 
and love will see you through

Just a box of rain -
wind and water -
Believe it if you need it,
if you don't just pass it on
Sun and shower -
Wind and rain -
in and out the window
like a moth before a flame

It's just a box of rain
I don't know who put it there
Believe it if you need it
or leave it if you dare
But it's just a box of rain
or a ribbon for your hair
Such a long long time to be gone 
and a short time to be there 

Writing Centre awards ceremony

Yesterday was UFV's first ever Writing Prize awards ceremony, where I received my certificate and spoke about my paper, An Anti-Racist Critique of Avatar (this link is provided by the Writing Centre at UFV). I won one of 12 total awards, as did another student from the BSW program. My category was Upper Level Discourse Analysis, and Christina, my fellow BSW student, won in the Upper Level Process/Policy Analysis. Social Workers are smart cookies :) Way to represent, School of Social Work and Human Services!

back online...

...well, I have been online for about a week and a half, but that time has just whizzed by!

Moving was successfully accomplished, although we moved most of the garden slowly over the course of the month, then insuring my sister's truck this past weekend to bring over some of the numerous tractor scoops of garden mix we've purchased over the years.

Yesterday was also a marathon canning session, finishing off the last of the 40 pounds of peaches my father has gifted me recently (Dad works in Penticton Mon-Thurs, and from home in Mission on Fri, so he often drives through Keremeos). We canned a dozen pints and 3 quarts of peaches, and hubby made both peach and peach-plum jam, also canned.

Apples are next, the main crop is just starting to come in. Dad gave me a half a box with the last box of peaches, and he says he'll keep buying for me as he goes by the stands every Thursday evening. I'm seeing yummy jars filled with spicy apple sauce, sweet apple juice and thick apple butter.

We've also yanked all the tomato plants out of the garden at the old house - two Tiny Tim plants, two other varieties of cherry, a Russian heritage, two Brandywines and two Roma/paste tomatoes. My cupboards are crammed with green tomatoes! I'm envisioning salsa galore! I'm also planning to try several interesting green tomato recipes - pickled, salsa, relish, even green tomato mincemeat.

The semester is really heating up, with papers and presentations and reams of reading.This is my last academic semester of my degree, and I am filled with both excitement and trepidation - will I actually like Child Protection? Will I find a job with MCFD? If not, will one of the delegated Aboriginal agencies hire me? Will I have to move out of the Fraser Valley to find a job?

Oh, yes, and I won that writing competition I wrote about back in May :) First place in my category, Upper Level Discourse Analysis, and $100. There is an awards ceremony tomorrow, and I get to speak about my paper for 3 to 5 minutes... off to write that speech!

Moving day anxiety

Tomorrow is moving day. Correction, today is moving day, being that it is now 12:52 am. I can't sleep. I have been laying in bed for almost 2 hours, trying to sleep, but I can't.

There is so much to do! We have been packing for days! We've used up 4 batches of boxes and we could still use more. We have so much stuff! I'm beginning to wonder if we're hoarders?! Well, I'm pretty sure I'm not, having been on and off the Flylady bandwagon for at least 8 years, but still...

My husband has been hoarding empties for almost a year, now. He finally HAD to deal with them. There were at least 10 garbage bags full. He got over 60 bucks at the bottle depot.

We also filled up the box of my sister's "lady truck" with stuff for the Sally Ann, and I'm sure once we're done unpacking, we'll have another truck-bed's worth. Mind you, much of that was composed of kids clothing, a lot of which was given to us when they should've taken the clothes to the Sally Ann... but I did get some useful stuff for my ever-growing boys, so, oh well :)

I hope I can sleep.

back to school bru-ha-ha

I have an old friend who lives in Texas; her son is back to school this week. Gosh, here in BC, we still have another two full weeks of summer vacation, which includes the Labour Day long weekend. Poor kidlets.

And, of course, my boys will not be going back to school, at least not to a bricks and mortar school. We have finally been chosen by a learning consultant, so now I wonder how we arrange to meet? Will she send me an email? We shall see. Regardless, we will be picking up a bunch of fun school supplies. We will be able to get whatever the boys want, there will be no lists to check.

I remember at this time last year, I was shopping for two children for the first time in my parenting career. Not to mention, my wedding fell two weeks after school started, so I felt as though I was frantically throwing money all over the place. (I was my own private stimulus package, groan!) New coats, new backpacks, two new pairs of shoes each. Plus new pants and shirts and hoodies - I spent over $300 on them in the first week of school. I felt like a consumption machine.

This year will be such a relief from all of that! Of course, I'm moving, with all those attendant costs. However, I won't need to buy indoor shoes for school. As well, I'll be getting education money to buy books and supplies, even curriculum, if I'd like. Or, I can use it towards our internet connection, maybe even swimming lessons.

I feel so relaxed. Maybe we won't start right on Sept 7th, maybe we will have a not back to school picnic :)

On the importance of understanding research in context

An old friend of mine has a mommy blog. She professes to believe in 'guilt-free' parenting, which I think is amazingly healthy, as well as beyond my capabilities and my anxiety disorder :)

Recently she wrote about an article her husband showed her from the Globe and Mail, titled Coddle or let the kid cry? New research awakens the sleep-training debate. My friend's opinion is that the parenting 'experts' should leave parenting to the actual parents, and stop trying to guilt new mommies into feeling they have to be available for their babies every second of the day and night. Her concern is babies who wake up in the middle of the night but won't go to sleep without the breast, even when they aren't hungry.

While I agree with that, I also agree with the 3 'experts' written about in the Globe article. I just think the reporter takes their research and their professional opinions out of context, and presents the research data as a debate, a fight, instead of as scientific evidence carried out in a rigorous manner with the intention of furthering knowledge. The reporter actually talks about sleep deprived parents being "stuck in the middle" between the 'experts' and other equally offensive (to me) statements pitting 'experts' against 'experts' against parents.

I have recently studied research methods in the social sciences; as well, I have designed and conducted research. So I find the reporter's statements offensive because the point of social science research is NOT to be an 'expert' and tell people what to do. The point is to make sure current practices are evidence based, NOT based on ideology, or a particular sub-set of society's values (as in the tyranny of the minority).

Thus, I felt obligated to look at the actual research (I have access to several electronic databases through my university's library) to see what the researchers were actually studying. The article mentions 3 'experts.' The first is Penn State researcher Dr. Teti, the second, the famous Dr. Ferber, and the third is "British parenting guru" Penelope Leach, whose credentials as a child development psychologist the journalist recognizes only later. I have only looked up one source document to compare to the article. This is Dr. Teti and colleagues' Penn State research, titled Maternal emotional availability at bedtime predicts infant sleep quality (Teti, Kim, Mayer & Countermine, 2010). 

My friend read the article and wrote about sleep-training as necessary when baby is waking up all night long, even when not hungry, and wanting the breast to soothe baby back to sleep. My friend feels waking up at 1am and 3am and 5am is bad for mommy. I agree. But I was a co-sleeper, so I didn't have to wake up to give baby the breast. He fussed, I rolled over in my half asleep, half conscious state, baby latched on, I went back to sleep. No problem. (I'm guessing my friend is not a co-sleeper.)

My friend's blog post also talks about the Globe article's mention of the detrimental effect of cortisol, a stress hormone, on baby's developing brain. She hears, "mommy should never leave baby, even if that means mommy gets postpartum depression." The Globe article concludes with parents who tried 'crying it out' but won't talk about it with their friends, for fear of criticism. I personally think all this criticism comes from popular media such as this newspaper reporter, NOT the actual 'experts.'

If you need to let your baby cry it out alone because you fear you're going to shake that baby, then I'm fairly certain the experts would say, "go for it" - this opinion is based on reading hundreds of articles by 'experts' on attachment theory and the neuroscience research that is backing up the theory (initially developed in the 40's). Much of this research shows that it's best for baby to be with mommy (or alternate primary caregivers), unless mommy is too stressed out, whether by poverty, or relationship circumstances, or what have you. Then baby is better off in daycare, or with grandma, or whatever, for part of the day, because mommy needs that time and support to be the best mommy she can be in the circumstances.

In reading the abstract and skimming the research report Dr. Teti and colleagues published, I noticed that they were concerned with chronic sleep disruption as the clinical research problem, which is associated with "daytime externalizing and internalizing behavioral problems, sleepiness and attention problems, and poor academic performance, and plays a critical role in the regulation of neurocognitive and neuroaffective systems in children and adults." So they are interested in sleep problems which are approaching the clinical level, and not just regular sleep. They are also as concerned with the risk to parents as they are to children.

Teti's study looked at previous research, which highlighted the importance of consistent bedtime routines, without actual observations of parenting in the home. The study's authors note that where research does make actual home observations, the focus was again on parenting practices. The current study felt there was a gap in the research, in that no one had looked at the emotional quality of these routines. Teti et al. though this gap is noteworthy, considering the vast literature linking parental sensitivity, etc., with socioemotional and cognitive outcomes in children.

So Teti et al weren't saying sleep training will damage the parent-child relationship (the conclusion my friend believed the 'experts' came to based on the Globe's reporting). What they were saying was the following (straight from the Discussion section of their paper):

Results suggest that what mothers do with their infants at bedtime (e.g., whether they make use of close physical parent–infant contact, quiet bedtime activities) may be less important than the emotional quality that underlies bedtime activities in promoting quality sleep in infants. Specifically, maternal EA was inversely associated with the frequency with which mothers had to return to their infants at bedtime, the frequency of infant night waking, and mothers’ ratings of whether their infants had a sleep difficulty. By contrast, no linkages were obtained between specific bedtime practices and infant sleep disruption.

My conclusion is that I feel it's vital for the average person to have a basic understanding of research methods and the interpretation and dissemination of research findings so that the media isn't able to spin science in such a manner. Context is everything. My friend is an excellent mommy, because, regardless of her parenting practices (what she does, such as sleep-training), she is an emotionally available mommy. And THAT, my friends, is what Dr. Teti and colleagues were writing about.

We are moving

This stresses me out, and I struggle to deal with my anxious feelings almost hourly.

We are still in the process of looking: searching through ads, trying to get a look at places on google maps, considering neighbourhoods vs. commutes, yard sizes, square footage, and monthly cost. My sister would like to move by the first of September (our current rental has both a leaky roof and foundation, neither of which the landlord deems worth fixing), but that's not set in stone: the landlord won't mind us staying until Oct 1 (it's not like she'll get another tenant, and the market hasn't quite rebounded to her benefit).

I am hoping to find a place close to our current neighbourhood, but nothing in our price range is available; it's an expensive town (think ads for 'executive' suites). I'd really like to find an older house on a larger property that is being rented out while waiting to be developed - that would fit my price range and my desire to garden and keep laying hens.

All of this is uncomfortable for me, mainly because of having to face the unknown. The fact that September is already a month of new beginnings for me and my kids makes it even more challenging. Add to that the thought of moving a 1/2 hours' drive from our current neighbourhood (45 minutes in traffic, yuck), into the heart of Surrey (not the most up-scale area), and I worry I'll be moving my kids into a crime-infested area where we're living cheek by jowl to our neighbours.

I'll certainly miss the privacy of our current yard, as well as the access to my childcare provider for the past 3 years. Not to mention my mother, who is only 5 minutes away in White Rock, and often provides free daycare.

As well, there's all that packing to contend with. We'll have to rent a truck, because we have a piano. And, of course, there are two outdoor cats to move and get acclimatized to a new neighbourhood and new neighbour cats to fight. Finally, there's our garden - how does one move a garden?! We'll be dividing, potting up, harvesting all sorts of veggies and ornamental plants, not to mention the five 7' x 7' raised beds to dismantle. We'll try to bring some of our trucked in soil as well. Sigh. This is going to be just as big a job as moving the contents of the house.

We're going to look at a place in about an hour. Hope it's not too ghetto.

August happenings

I am finally finished my coursework for this semester - my 11th of the total 13 semesters I will take to earn my degree. I began waaay back in the fall of 2006, and I have now completed 4 years of part time schooling. Two more semesters to go, thank goodness!
I still haven't heard anything from SelfDesign, but I am looking forward to the fall, especially since all those back to school commercials don't apply to our family. Gosh, they're offensive - "It's the most wonderful time of the year!" playing in the background as dad drags a couch through Staples. Why does our culture think it's so important for parents and teens to be on opposite sides of some argument or fight?
This makes me think of a book I read recently, "Hold onto your Kids" by Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Mate. [One of Mate's sons is a friend of mine, so I have quite the collection of his books, all free copies :)] In this book, they focus on the attachment relationship between parents and teens, but argue that it applies to all inter-generational family relationships. They talk about adults and seniors being segregated by age group as well, and argue for the resurgence of attachment communities (or villages? forget which term they chose). I agree :)
August is shaping up to be a busy month of birthday parties and bbq's. We had planned for hubby to take a week off work so we could do some family camping or something, but we may just need to use the time for all these parties! Living in the lower mainland, our community is so spread out - I'm in Surrey, my Dad and little sibs are in Mission, my hubby's sibs are all over, from Chilliwack to Surrey to Coquitlam, his friends are in Burnaby, and mine are in Surrey, Abbotsford, Maple Ridge and Port Coquitlam. They're all very close, the furthest being an hour's drive, tops, but there's just so much traffic to contend with!
Maybe we should plan a "not back to school" camping trip for the family? Except I'm going back to school :( so we'll have to plan it around my classes (not too hard, they're Tuesday evening, and Wednesday afternoon and evening, fairly compact schedule).
Let the "relaxing" begin!

on choosing a Learning Consultant

I'm in the process of choosing my SelfDesign Learning Consultant for the next school year. Or actually, I've chosen 4 Learning Consultants, and I am now in the process of waiting to see who chooses me.

The school recommends meeting your Learning Consultant as early in the school year as your schedules permit, stating this "provides an excellent context" for the learning plan. SelfDesign also states this creates an excellent context to "build a relationship." It's not stated with who the Learning Consultant will build a relationship, either with my kids, or with me. In my public school experience, the relationship is student to teacher and as the parent, I've felt left out, separate from that relationship. But in a digital reporting medium, is the relationship really going to be parent to teacher?

I wonder who will pick us?

I love my garden :)

So it seems I've given up on my gardening blog :S
We've recently had a "heat wave" which, in the Pacific Northwest, means about 2 days of temperatures above 25 degrees Celsius. Those days were Tuesday and Wednesday, and in those two days, our corn plants doubled  in size (Seriously. It could have been more than double!). Everything else is exploding, too. The squash, peppers and tomatoes love it in particular. It's so great, because just the week before it was still cold. Finally, my peas are producing! I started them in April!
Of course, now that the heat is finally here, the lettuce is starting to bolt. So we have blessed a lot of people with fresh garden lettuce. It feels nice to be able to be generous - a student's income doesn't allow for that a lot :)

campout in the yard!

We are moving soon, so I have been packing and sorting and tidying. Well, I've been doing a bit of sorting and tidying... and today my boys and I packed two whole boxes! Box number one was this past year's leftover school supplies, as well as notebooks and scrapbooks of work. Box number two was books the boys read only seldomly, chosen by them.

I also decided to tackle the downstairs closet, which holds our seasonal storage: Christmas decorations and wrappings, sports gear and camping supplies. We pulled out both of the tents and chose to set up the smaller, "2 man" tent. It fits two 7 year old boys and several mounds of blankets and pillows quite nicely, and it has a door on each side, nicely taking advantage of the breeze.

The weather has been hot and muggy lately, which is typical summer, I know, but quite rare for the Pacific Northwest. So the boys have decided to take advantage of the heat and sleep outside!

I, however, will sleep inside, on my nice, new King-sized pillow-top mattress. This bed is my therapy. I'm not kidding! We've had it for a year (already?!) and every night, I lay flat on my stomach and stretch my hips. It's delightful.

Besides, we're all going camping next weekend, me and the boys to my family's annual All-Girls' Camp-out, and hubby off with his high school buddies. I'll get lots of sleeping on the ground in that weekend, thank you very much!

My first unschooling moment has arrived

Just 10 minutes ago, after a marathon Nintendo session consisting of one Wii console, two DS Lites, and 5 1/2 days of non-stop playing, the boys dressed themselves (one in regular clothing, the other in last Halloween's Yoshi costume), picked up their plastic light sabers, and WENT OUTSIDE. I had nothing to do with it, swear to G-d. They are now back inside, playing Nintendo again, but it HAPPENED!

Action on Poverty in Canada: Write your Elected Official

So I'm starting another new blog :)
It is currently titled Write your Elected Official and it is my term project for my Advocacy Writing course.

The goal is to make it easy for people like me to take action on subjects near and dear to their social justice bleeding hearts. The way I see it, easing the pathway to political action will leave people feeling involved and good about themselves. I am quite aware that my recent swoop towards the depths of depression was partially brought about by overwhelm at situational problems, but more significantly, was triggered by over-exposure to social injustice on several fronts - local and global, affecting children, women, and traditionally marginalized groups such as people with disabilities and different sexualities and racialized others.

What has brought me from the brink, and is getting me through, is taking each day as it comes, focusing on maintaining hope and optimism, and focusing on campaigns which leave me feeling empowered. Thus, I plan to avoid issues such as violence against women and prostitution/sex workers legal/constitutional rights. These issues leave me feeling vulnerable and exposed, and unable to articulate or argue my point of view. I plan to stick with universal, individual rights we have as Canadian citizens. I intend to start with poverty reduction.

Writing letter templates on social justice issues will be a challenge for me as an academic writer. The object is to keep the message simple, clear, concise. No big words. Describe all terms that may be construed as jargon repeatedly. Make a request, suggest a pathway to action, to policy change. Couch it in terms of mutual benefits - how will those currently opposed see potential change as a benefit to themselves as well as to people living in poverty?

I'd like to write about 5 or 6 templates to start, over the next two weeks. The project is due at the end of the month, and it'd be nice to have 8 to 10 done by then. They'll only be a page long each :)

looking up

yes, things definitely started looking up for me the moment I wrote my last post :)
Now it's time to get it off the top of my page!!

Hubby has been focusing on positive interactions with the kids (he taught them a bit of backgammon) and I've been focusing on happy family time (ice cream cones and a walk on the beach after dinner). We have been being deliberately kind to each other (he made me coffee without asking how).

And...
It's summer vacation!!
and maybe it's more than school's out for summer, maybe, for our kiddos, it's "school's out for evah!"

sometimes in my tears I drown...

My depression and anxiety seem worse, lately, although neither have ever been at clinical levels. I'm not coping overly well, ignoring and avoiding things. But I'm coping, obviously, as I'm not experiencing clinical symptoms... or, my symptoms aren't up to clinical frequencies? Regardless, it's all a spectrum in my mind. The volume on my happy dial has been turned down low, and the volume on cranky-resentful, anxiety-panic-attack and sad-lie-in-bed-all-day are turned up high. I'm not interested in seeing my doctor about it, though, so I've got to focus on getting my needs met :) Elementary school is almost over for the year, so that will turn the anxiety-panic-attack knob down at least half-way, I'm sure. (Cue soundtrack: Alice Cooper's School's out for Summer!)

We attended a meeting of Home Learners South of the Fraser on Monday. It being June, not too many were there. The host explained to me that many families "take off early" for their summer vacations. There were the hosts 4 teenage daughters, who were doing their own things, my boys, and 10 year old twin boys. Later another two girls came, one a teen, one younger. Mostly the boys watched one of the host's daughters play a video game and the moms chatted. Kinda boring, but it's the last meeting until September, so I suppose it's not a typical meeting?

I have a concern that I'm focusing too much on the kids and their school as the "solution" to my anxiousness-purposelessness. There's also money, and hubby, and my school. We're going to move soon. There's other people's opinions about all of that - people are very free with their opinions. I've also been feeling a deep, deep sadness at the state of world affairs and the global lack of social justice. Much of my recent course work has focused on violence against women, and I feel a deep despair about that, as well as an inability to express my opinions and stance without people wanting to argue facts that have been studied enough by academics in a systematic, empirical way, that I see them as a given, and a waste of time to debate.

I've been looking at blogs and videos about hooping recently, especially The Happy Hoop, where I watched a video which used the song One Day by Matisyahu, which inspired the title for this post. That line especially unlocks my sadness, because I seem to be letting it get me down.

I think about Paolo Friere, and about Hegel's master-slave dialectic. Friere says that the act of oppression, the refusal to see those we oppress as human, causes us to lose our humanity. Hegel says the master needs the acknowledgment of the slave, however, Glen Coulthard, a Dene and a political scientist from UBC, says the colonial master doesn't care about or require such recognition. Friere says the oppressor cannot free himself, that the oppressed must use their humanity to do so. It seems like such an insurmountable task.

my last post was May 4th?!

yeah, I don't blog anymore...
today was Sports Day at the elementary school.
I've talked to a few people about home schooling next year. No one thinks it's a good idea. Several have said there are some things you just have to do in life... (I thought only death and taxes were inevitable?)
Life is harder when you're poor. We live below the unofficial Canadian poverty line - Statistics Canada's Low Income Cut-Off. Yet recently the provincial government significantly reduced my access to Childcare Subsidy. They've told me my income went up. Actually, they've just started counting my federal student loan grants for low income families as income. I've been getting both for at least 2 years. So now life is a little harder than before. I just really need a break, y'know?

Choosing unschooling

... does this mean deschooling for life?
;)

I guess the above statement refers more to myself than to my kids, who are both just 7 years old, and, so by the general deschooling 'rule of thumb' should need about 2 to 3 months of deschooling (they are currently in 1st and 2nd grades). I, however, was in public school for 13.5 years, and I have attended enough part time semesters of university to equal at least 7 years (of my time, not credit time), so we're talking 2 years of deschooling for this gal! And still 3 more academic semesters (and 27 credits) left of my Bachelor of Social Work degree, plus becoming 'designated' as a government child protection officer, before I'm done with this bout of schooling... and I'm pretty certain I want to pursue a graduate degree.

Currently, I am on a two week semester break. I had grand plans for how I was going to spend that time. I was going to clean and organize all the spaces in my house, from the mountains of laundry in my bedroom (clean and dirty, no one likes to fold or hang up clothes in this house) to the spare bedroom downstairs that the kids have littered with tiny Lego pieces, Bakugan's, Pokemon cards and figurines, knights, police guys, etc, ad nauseum, infinitum... I was going to work like crazy in my garden and with my seed starts inside (set up grow lights on timer, transplant to bigger pots, thin out the tomatoes...). Heck, I was even going to do my taxes, and submit that A+ paper to the University's writing competition... yeah, still haven't done that. Heck, I haven't done much of anything, except sit on the computer, surfing the net. I've been immersed in unschooling yahoo lists, reading posts for hours, following links, googling ideas and people and blogs and conferences. I came across the following quote on one of those lists:

unschooling is about more than education. It's a radical shift in how one lives life, seeing value in all things and being joyful and not succumbing to societal expectations of what is valuable and necessary and cool and acceptable. It's about showing respect and love. It's about honoring others and their needs. And that's just the tip of the unschooling iceberg.

 Um, yeah, SO not me these days! I've been super tired and cranky and downright mean to my family. I am just plain ol' angry and resentful. I've probably been recovering from burnout, and I've recently realized I've definitely been deschooling. I'm also realizing it's a process, and I've got to trust the process.

A list of the things I've been doing in the last few weeks to support my journey to becoming an unschooling mama:

• joined AlwaysLearning,  Unschooling_Canada, and unschoolingbasics lists on Yahoo
• contacted SelfDesign (an unschooling friendly Distributed Learning school) and put the kids on the list for next year
• contacted HLSF, a local group of homelearners who have monthly meetings and a weblist, who suggested I join HS-Van, a list with homeschooling resources, etc, in the Greater Vancouver area
• found all the unschooling related books at my local library, and requested a bunch, including a few by John Holt (just got an email that How Children Learn is available for pick up!)
• currently reading Deschooling our Lives and The Unschooling Handbook
• found the Journal of Unschooling and Alternative Education (JUAL), edited by Carlo Ricci, PhD, and instructor in the faculty of education's graduate program at Nipissing University
• joined the Radical Unschooling Info facebook group
• talked with the kids about homeschooling (they're excited. they hate school. they want to learn more about math when we homeschool. we started skip counting right then and there)
• talked with my mom about homeschooling the kids next year, and having her be with them on Fridays, one of her days off of work, while I take classes, study, have practicum, etc.
• talked with mom about her concerns with unschooling (she wants to be sure they learn math. they love math, no worries, I couldn't stop them if I wanted to)
• talked with hubby about him being the homeschooling parent one day per week

So far, so good, except for my crabby, resentful mood. Poor hubby, of course, bears the brunt of it :( And it's pretty tough to work on non-coercive parenting skills with him when I'm being so nasty... but when I'm feeling more generous, I can gently question his way of relating to them. Often it's based on his own (not so awesome) childhood. Like, when stepson (his bio son) doesn't eat his school lunch, and hubby gets mad, he'll say something to me along the lines of how he was lucky to go to school with any lunch at all, and stepson should appreciate the food he has. The only way to constructively respond to that is with empathy for hubby as a child :(

"Reel Injun," a documentary

A few weeks back I saw an ad on CBC for their show, The Passionate Eye, which would be airing a version of Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond's documentary, Reel Injun, described as follows:

Hollywood has made over 4000 films about Native people; over 100 years of movies defining how Indians are seen by the world. Reel Injun takes an entertaining and insightful look at the Hollywood Indian, exploring the portrayal of North American Natives through the history of cinema (from http://www.reelinjunthemovie.com).

I missed the CBC airing (March 28th), but I watched the version posted on their website. I thought it was excellent! Now I want to see the whole thing, on the big screen! Unfortunately, it played @Tinseltown in February, well before I was aware of the film. So I joined their facebook group, and I'm waiting for more dates in Vancouver :(

Today I received a facebook email from that group, announcing 4 showings across Canada this week, as well as dates in Ottawa in May. I thought I'd share that information in solidarity with indigenous peoples across the globe.

----

Greetings, Reel Injun-ites!

I just wanted to let you know about 4 big Reel Injun screenings happening this week across Canada.

First up is Port Alberni, BC where we will be playing at 7PM on Wednesday, April 21st at the Capitol Theatre.

Also on April 21st we are playing the Victoria Event Centre in Victoria, BC as part of Open Cinema's 7th Season Finale. Reel Injun director Neil Diamond will be doing an introduction via Skype, so be sure to check it out! Doors open at 5:30, show starts at 7:00.

On April 22nd @ 12:10PM we are playing Toronto's Sheppard Grande Cinema 7 as part of the annual Sprockets: Toronto International Film Festival For Children

Our final big screening this week is also on April 22nd in Halifax, NS for the Viewfinders: International Film Festival For Youth. Showtime is 12:00PM. This screening is extra special, because Neil Diamond will attend the screening and perform a Q+A! Be sure to ditch work, school or whatever else to see Neil in the flesh!

In other big Reel Injun news we have booked 2 dates at the ByTowne Theatre in Ottawa. Join as May 12th and 13th @ 4:30PM for two very special screenings in the Nation's capital! A good showing will help us out a bunch, so make sure you don't miss it!

Be sure to check out our official website: http://www.reelinjunthemovie.com

and to follow us on twitter @reelinjun

Thanks so much for all your support and interest,

One love,

Justin

----

Also, here's the trailer:



And now back to your regularly scheduled programming :)

in other news...

...family news...

I'm feeling a little more settled in my newly expanded family these last few months. Granted, it's not all smooth sailing, but my stepson and I are starting to connect a little more than we initially did. That was when he moved from Kelowna to live with us, back in August, less than a month before his dad an I got married and only 2 weeks before school started and I officially entered my BSW program.

We had a bit of a rough patch over Spring Break in March. I took my stepson to stay with his mom in Kelowna for a weekend, and he was pretty cranky for a week after. He also had a virus that hung around for just over a week, which didn't help. And then his mom and her husband and their toddler and baby came to Vancouver over the Easter weekend, so he spent 24 hours with them, and he was crabby for another week following. But lately he's been wanting me to pin him down and tickle him. He's not always one for physical contact with me, he can be surly about it, like I'm intentionally hurting him if I give him a playful poke. This creating attachment from nothing with a 7 year old is not an easy task!

Other than our struggles to develop our attachment bond, I've had the joy of having to explain another person's poor parenting choice to my stepson's community. While he was in Kelowna over Spring Break, he told his mom he'd like to have blue hair. So she bleached his brown hair and dyed it bright green (using blue dye - the colour didn't come out quite right). Can I repeat, she bleached a barely 7 year old's hair!!! Sure, there's no lasting physical damage to the kid, but, come on! Why would that be considered appropriate? Then, over Easter weekend, she brought me the extra blue dye so I could touch it up!!  His mom isn't the most mentally stable, and is a little touchy. As well, there's no generosity in her relationship with my husband; he is incompetent and unworthy in her eyes. I haven't had the words to respond to this in a tactful way, so I've just bit my tongue. But I'm embarrassed!

On a more positive note, I put my family on the list for SelfDesign for next fall, a distributed learning school that is unschooling-friendly. I looked through some of the profiles of the learning consultants (teachers), and can see myself working with several from the Vancouver/Lower Mainland area alone  :)

The kids are excited. I am, too! But I'm also a little scared...

my prof wants me to enter my paper in a writing competition!

I wrote and anti-racist critique of Avatar for my Anti-Racist and Cross-Cultural Social Work Practice class. It was a 12 to 13 page research paper, and the assignment was very open to interpretation, as long as I included a section on implications for social work practice. My instructor commented that my paper was a nuanced, multi-layered analysis, and she'd like me to consider submitting it to the competition. Yay!!

I posted an update on Facebook about this, and 3 of my fellow students, as well as an old high school friend who is also an academic, are interested in reading it! I'm excited and honoured and... overwhelmed... The paper was a first draft. I didn't re-read it or edit it a bit before submitting it 2 days late... in some ways I feel I don't deserve the recognition because I didn't to it the "right way"... methinks we need a little more deschooling around this joint! I couldn't even graciously accept my instructor's compliment! I'm also thinking it's time to take a Landmark seminar... get a bit more aligned to 'what's so' rather than my fantasy or interpretation about how it should look :)

So, once again, yay me!!

modern colonial oppression

I haven't been posting much lately, this has been a very difficult semester for me :) I've been out in the community on practicum, and have found the experience to be overwhelming... not to mention the lack of finances being overwhelming - I haven't been able to do any paid work this semester, and I'm really feeling it, anxiety-wise.

Regardless, it's been a fascinating and rewarding semester, academically. I took a course on anti-racist social work practice and a course on community development, where my group was involved with an event marking the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. I've learned a lot about white privilege, and the unseen effects of subtle, unconscious racism in entertainment media. I developed an anti-racist critique of the movie Avatar which I was privileged to present at the event, and for which I received much praise from a few professors!

Overall, I've really developed my critical ideas about race and racism, as well as about oppression in general (racial discrimination being only one face of oppression). I've been studying these critical theories for several semesters, now, but each time I engage with them, my understanding (and outrage) deepens.

I recently saw this article about the lack of anyone considered "Israeli" in the state of Israel - people are classified as either Jewish or Arab, unless the Rabbinate  decide you're not Jewish enough, then you'll be classified by your nationality of emigration. A liguistics professor from an Israeli university is challenging this in court.

This is so interesting that I'm going to post the text of the article here:

Citizens Classed as Jewish or Arab Nationals

by Jonathan Cook / April 6th, 2010

A group of Jews and Arabs are fighting in the Israeli courts to be recognised as “Israelis”, a nationality currently denied them, in a case that officials fear may threaten the country’s self- declared status as a Jewish state.

Israel refused to recognise an Israeli nationality at the country’s establishment in 1948, making an unusual distinction between “citizenship” and “nationality”. Although all Israelis qualify as “citizens of Israel”, the state is defined as belonging to the “Jewish nation”, meaning not only the 5.6 million Israeli Jews but also more than seven million Jews in the diaspora.

Critics say the special status of Jewish nationality has been a way to undermine the citizenship rights of non-Jews in Israel, especially the fifth of the population who are Arab. Some 30 laws in Israel specifically privilege Jews, including in the areas of immigration rights, naturalisation, access to land and employment.

Arab leaders have also long complained that indications of “Arab” nationality on ID cards make it easy for police and government officials to target Arab citizens for harsher treatment.

The interior ministry has adopted more than 130 possible nationalities for Israeli citizens, most of them defined in religious or ethnic terms, with “Jewish” and “Arab” being the main categories.

The group’s legal case is being heard by the supreme court after a district judge rejected their petition two years ago, backing the state’s position that there is no Israeli nation.

The head of the campaign for Israeli nationality, Uzi Ornan, a retired linguistics professor, said: “It is absurd that Israel, which recognises dozens of different nationalities, refuses to recognise the one nationality it is supposed to represent.”

The government opposes the case, claiming that the campaign’s real goal is to “undermine the state’s infrastructure” — a presumed reference to laws and official institutions that ensure Jewish citizens enjoy a privileged status in Israel.

Mr Ornan, 86, said that denying a common Israeli nationality was the linchpin of state- sanctioned discrimination against the Arab population.

“There are even two laws — the Law of Return for Jews and the Citizenship Law for Arabs — that determine how you belong to the state,” he said. “What kind of democracy divides its citizens into two kinds?”

Yoel Harshefi, a lawyer supporting Mr Ornan, said the interior ministry had resorted to creating national groups with no legal recognition outside Israel, such as “Arab” or “unknown”, to avoid recognising an Israeli nationality.

In official documents most Israelis are classified as “Jewish” or “Arab”, but immigrants whose status as Jews is questioned by the Israeli rabbinate, including more than 300,000 arrivals from the former Soviet Union, are typically registered according to their country of origin.

“Imagine the uproar in Jewish communities in the United States, Britain or France, if the authorities there tried to classify their citizens as “Jewish” or “Christian”,” said Mr Ornan.

The professor, who lives close to Haifa, launched his legal action after the interior ministry refused to change his nationality to “Israeli” in 2000. An online petition declaring “I am an Israeli” has attracted several thousand signatures.

Mr Ornan has been joined in his action by 20 other public figures, including former government minister Shulamit Aloni. Several members have been registered with unusual nationalities such as “Russian”, “Buddhist”, “Georgian” and “Burmese”.

Two Arabs are party to the case, including Adel Kadaan, who courted controversy in the 1990s by waging a lengthy legal action to be allowed to live in one of several hundred communities in Israel open only to Jews.

Uri Avnery, a peace activist and former member of the parliament, said the current nationality system gave Jews living abroad a far greater stake in Israel than its 1.3 million Arab citizens.

“The State of Israel cannot recognise an ‘Israeli’ nation because it is the state of the ‘Jewish’ nation … it belongs to the Jews of Brooklyn, Budapest and Buenos Aires, even though these consider themselves as belonging to the American, Hungarian or Argentine nations.”

International Zionist organisations representing the diaspora, such as the Jewish National Fund and the Jewish Agency, are given in Israeli law a special, quasi-governmental role, especially in relation to immigration and control over large areas of Israeli territory for the settlement of Jews only.

Mr Ornan said the lack of a common nationality violated Israel’s Declaration of Independence, which says the state will “uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens, without distinction of religion, race or sex”.

Indications of nationality on ID cards carried by Israelis made it easy for officials to discriminate against Arab citizens, he added.

The government has countered that the nationality section on ID cards was phased out from 2000 — after the interior ministry, which was run by a religious party at the time, objected to a court order requiring it to identify non-Orthodox Jews as “Jewish” on the cards.

However, Mr Ornan said any official could instantly tell if he was looking at the card of a Jew or Arab because the date of birth on the IDs of Jews was given according to the Hebrew calendar. In addition, the ID of an Arab, unlike a Jew, included the grandfather’s name.

“Flash your ID card and whatever government clerk is sitting across from you immediately knows which ‘clan’ you belong to, and can refer you to those best suited to ‘handle your kind’,” Mr Ornan said.

The distinction between Jewish and Arab nationalities is also shown on interior ministry records used to make important decisions about personal status issues such as marriage, divorce and death, which are dealt with on entirely sectarian terms.

Only Israelis from the same religious group, for example, are allowed to marry inside Israel — otherwise they are forced to wed abroad — and cemeteries are separated according to religious belonging.

Some of those who have joined the campaign complain that it has damaged their business interests. One Druze member, Carmel Wahaba, said he had lost the chance to establish an import-export company in France because officials there refused to accept documents stating his nationality as “Druze” rather than “Israeli”.

The group also said it hoped to expose a verbal sleight of hand that intentionally mistranslates the Hebrew term “Israeli citizenship” on the country’s passports as “Israeli nationality” in English to avoid problems with foreign border officials.

B Michael, a commentator for Yedioth Aharonoth, Israel’s most popular newspaper, has observed: “We are all Israeli nationals — but only abroad.”

The campaign, however, is likely to face an uphill struggle in the courts.

A similar legal suit brought by a Tel Aviv psychologist, George Tamrin, failed in 1970. Shimon Agranat, head of the supreme court at the time, ruled: “There is no Israeli nation separate from the Jewish people. … The Jewish people is composed not only of those residing in Israel but also of diaspora Jewries.”

That view was echoed by the district court in 2008 when it heard Mr Ornan’s case.

The judges in the supreme court, which held the first appeal hearing last month, indicated that they too were likely to be unsympathetic. Justice Uzi Fogelman said: “The question is whether or not the court is the right place to solve this problem.”

Two quotes I'd like to re-iterate are:

“What kind of democracy divides its citizens into two kinds?”

and:

"the current nationality system gave Jews living abroad a far greater stake in Israel than its 1.3 million Arab citizens." 

Oy

Yet Another TED.com talk

This one is by Daniel Pink, a career analyst, who "examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don't: Traditional rewards aren't always as effective as we think. Listen for illuminating stories -- and maybe, a way forward."
 
I loved the beginning of the talk, where he gets into research by behavioural psychologists. About 12 minutes in, he talks about intrinsic motivation, which he describes as a "new operating system which revolves around three elements" which are:

• Autonomy: "the urge to direct our own lives"
• Mastery: "the desire to get better and better at something that matters"
• Purpose: "the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves"

I love TED.com  :)

Sir Ken Robinson: Why teaching is 'not like making motorcars'

I seem to be the queen of posting videos these days :) Here's a great one from CNN about how our education systems are failing our children:

(CNN) -- Sir Ken Robinson says our education system works like a factory. It's based on models of mass production and conformity that actually prevent kids from finding their passions and succeeding, he said.
"The problem is that educating young people is not like making motorcars -- at all," the author and educator said in a recent interview. "And one key difference is that motorcars have no interest in how they're made, and young people do."
Robinson, author of "The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything," spoke to CNN after a recent lecture at the TED Conference in Long Beach, California.

Schools today are "preoccupied with certain types of ability," he said.
Instead of trying to mass-produce children who are good at taking tests and memorizing things, schools should emphasize personal development, Robinson said. Not all kids are good at the same things, and the education system shouldn't pretend they should all turn out the same, he said.
"We can't just improve [schools]," he said. "We have to radically transform them."

More from TED.com

Here's another great TED.com video, this one recommended on an unschooling discussion list.

Reality is broken, says Jane McGonigal, and we need to make it work more like a game. Her work shows us how. Games like World of Warcraft give players the means to save worlds, and incentive to learn the habits of heroes. What if we could harness this gamer power to solve real-world problems? Jane McGonigal says we can, and explains how.

Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of a single story

My Anti-Racist Social Work Practice instructor showed us this great Ted.com video in class on Monday, and I've been thinking about it ever since, so I decided to post it here :)