Teachers at the former Stawamus school site now begin their day by acknowledging that they are on the traditional, ancestral territory of Squamish Nation.
On Sept. 9, principal Ryan Massey welcomed parents and students to participate in a community engagement session to steer two new programs of choice at the former elementary school site. The programs, Cultural Journeys and Learning Expeditions, are attracting attention for taking steps that set School District 48 in the direction of the global trend toward personalized learning.
The Cultural Journeys program emphasizes self-determined First Nations learning and cross-cultural collaboration. The program echoes Squamish branding in its billing as an outdoor adventure education program. The cultural immersion program focuses on language, land and culture and is the first of its kind. It was co-created by the school board, Squamish Nation and members of the former Stawamus Elementary Parent Advisory Council and is led by Massey, who is also the principal of the Sea to Sky Online and Sea to Sky Alternative schools.
Massey said he hopes to affect greater system-wide change faster by leveraging these niches of education. He wants to lead the school away from a heavy emphasis on competition and individual success and toward a value for success of the group. “When the group is doing well, we celebrate,” explained Massey.
Massey has left the walls of the Stawamus Elementary site bare and the school’s mission statement loose. He wants to build the new school with the people who are now attending it.
The small student body gathered outside under the Stawamus Chief on a sun-flooded day of late summer to answer a basic question: “What is community?” Small groups shared what each thought the new learning environment should look like, sound like and feel like.
District principal of aboriginal education Susan Leslie led a workshop designed to invite students to contribute to the vision of the school. “You have a say in what it looks like, sounds like and feels like to learn here,” Leslie called out to the students.
Squamish Nation language and culture worker Charlene Joseph was on site to teach the students traditional Squamish Nation songs and dances. She recently learned that the board has agreed to fund her as a full-time language and culture consultant for the program.
“This whole thing is a dream come true. We’ve been dreaming about this for generations.”
Joseph’s great-grandmother attended residential school and was prohibited from expressing her culture, Joseph said, adding she also had no choice in where or what she would study. Her grandmother, however, was a first-generation student of the public school system. Joseph also attended high school in Squamish and learned some culture and language at weekly sessions held in the equipment closet of the gym, which she said was more than nothing but not enough.
The pioneering programs were selected for a visit from B.C. Education Minister Mike Bernier and MLA Jordan Sturdy on Monday.
