CAIS in Point

My mother was quite excited. The last time my name had appeared in The St. Catharines Standard was in 1970 during the world rowing championships, and thirty-seven years is a bit of a dry spell! The occasion this time was a discussion of the changes in the federal regulations to remove the tax burden for scholarships and bursaries. The tact taken by the Canadian Press was to view this as a boon for “wealthy families” and “elite schools”. While I understood their “hook”, the reality of course is quite different. Clearly, this action by the federal government is about helping deserving kids, not supporting “elite” schools. By eliminating the tax bite on scholarships and bursaries to all schools (public, independent, parochial, etc.) a barrier was removed that had prevented some of our best and brightest students from taking advantage of an opportunity to attend the school of their choice. For some of them, even a full scholarship came with tax implications that effectively priced acceptance out of their reach. For those deserving students, the new regulations open doors and present a wider range of options. What does all of this mean for our schools? To begin with, there are only a limited number of schools with endowments sufficient to support a comprehensive bursary and scholarship programme. For the rest, financial assistance usually means either ear-marking part of the operations budget, or providing tuition discounts. However the support is generated, the result is that we have an enhanced ability to attract mission appropriate students regardless of their ability to pay, and the opportunity to establish a greater socio-economic diversity of learners in our schools. Critics say that it takes money away from public education and is therefore not in society’s collective interest. To begin with, obviously federal dollars don’t end up in public schools so as a literal comment it has no meaning. Philosophically, however, what do we think of public monies supporting non-public institutions? In many provinces (B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Quebec) governments subsidize independent school tuitions through some form of grant support. This has the double benefit of reducing tuition levels in those provinces (and therefore increasing access) and actually saving public money by educating large numbers of young people for 40 – 50 percent of the cost of including them in the public system. Does this create a two-tier education system? One for the wealthy and a second-rate system for everyone else? The answer would appear to be, no. Alberta provides the greatest financial support to families and schools who wish to consider alternatives to public education. In spite of that, and in spite of the fact that there are a wide variety of excellent independent options, the level of participation in non-public schools is only about 6% - the same as in Ontario which provides no support! The reason for this appears to be that the public system has effectively risen to the challenge of a competitive marketplace and provides a wide range of programme and school options itself. No need to pay for education if there is an excellent alternative available for free! Independent schools can provide an excellent benchmark by which the public system can measure itself. At the same time, a healthy and vibrant public system ensures that independent and other non-public schools have to stay on top of current research and provide effective and innovative programmes and services. In such a climate, everyone benefits. Seven or eight years ago I was speaking to the Board of Governors of one of our member schools about endowment building strategies. As part of the discussion, the question was posed as to what the real purpose was behind the building of endowments in our schools. The Head, who is someone that I greatly respect, commented that his goal was that someday the school’s endowment would be high enough that every student could attend tuition free. The recent changes to the tax regulations is a small step along that lofty path. Jim Dr. James Christopher Executive Director, CAIS

CAIS Technology - GroupMail

People tend to respond to things that are aimed at them directly, and are not generic. In the CAIS office, we saw response rates increase to our mass e-mails to schools after we implemented GroupMail technology. Groupmail personalizes each e-mail with the recipient’s name; therefore, the message is less likely to be deleted as mass e-mail. The recipient feels that someone sent the message to them, eliciting a sense of responsibility, and track ability. It also is a more polite way of doing business. We do our best to greet people by their name when we see them, so why not when we e-mail a group?

As most of you know, the CAIS office provides a GroupMail service for our eighty schools. If you want to survey a particular group of your colleagues (i.e. Admissions Directors, English Department Heads, Student Life Heads, etc…) we will send the e-mail on your behalf and collect, and forward any responses that come back to us. We have many contact lists, and if we are missing one, we do our best to create a new list. This e-mail tool has been used by many of our groups to ask research and best practices questions of their colleagues. It has proved to be a very valuable way to initiate dialogue and learning between peers.

The GroupMail service might also be useful to some schools. Personalize messages to groups of colleagues. Or, e-mails to students can be made more personal and linked to lesson plans. If you would like to learn more about this free service visit http://www.group-mail.com/asp/common/downloads.asp

International First Aid Course

Greetings from Global Village!                    

Habitat for Humanity, Global Village is very pleased to offer a course in Travel Medicine and First Aid.  This 20 hour course will take place in Toronto on the weekend of May 25 to 27, 2007 at Royal St. George’s College.  The program will start on Friday evening at 6pm and run from 8:30am to 9pm on Saturday and 8:30am to 5:00pm on Sunday.  The course cost is $200. 

Integrated with the world renowned curriculum of Wilderness Medical Associates, this course includes such topics as:

*  Disease pathways & prevention
*  Flora & fauna specifics
*  Evaluating  medical clinic resources
*  Travel medical insurance information
*  Recommended inoculations
*  Extreme environmental conditions
*  Risk management for patient care & global evacuation

For more information or to register for the course, contact Heather Corner at 1-800-667-5137 or hcorner@habitat.ca

What Ecological Footprints are you Leaving Behind?

We do our best to reduce, reuse and recycle. We talk about the environment all the time. We say we want to protect the planet for the next generation, our children. But, ultimately it’s our children who need to understand the impact that their daily habits have on the ecology of this country. Canada is a nation rich in many natural resources so even after all the talking, and recycling, it’s difficult to imagine that our mundane daily habits can be adversely affecting the planet in the long term.

Eco Voyageurs www.ecovoyageurs.ca attempts to bring environmental awareness to students through fun characters, graphics and quizzes. Students learn more about the “ecological footprints” they are leaving behind, and what they can do to improve the way they live to consider the “greenness” of their actions.

The website offers a downloadable School Kit that includes a Teacher’s Guide to help establish themes and class projects. One benefit of the exercise is that it is all inclusive. Everybody leaves an ecological footprint, so everybody is able to participate. It’s up to the student how far they decide to continue to investigate the knowledge they gain, and what they do with their newly learned power. Because, that’s what Eco Voyageurs promotes, the power to make change, and the affect of each and every person on the future of our planet.

Stanstead opens its doors for United Nations Day

Stanstead College students shared their cultures and customs with visiting schoolchildren on Thursday, March 22 at United Nations Day. Roughly 200 Grade 6 students from Vermont and the Townships toured various pavilions located throughout the College, created and manned by Stanstead’s multicultural student body.

In Asia, for example, children made origami, had their names written in Chinese lettering and learned about traditional games, food and clothing. The smell of burning sweet grass and sage wafted out of the First Nations pavilion, where students enjoyed bannock, heard stories and saw traditional clothing and jewelry. Games and music were the highlight of the Quebec pavilion, while in Mexico students learned how the Day of the Dead is celebrated and took away spicy Mexican candy.

There were also student-run displays for Germany, France, Scotland and Australia. The visitors enjoyed performances by the school’s jazz band and choir, learned about the various clubs and community service programs, designed postage stamps, and sat down to an international lunch in the cafeteria.

To see photos from the day please visit www.stansteadcollege.com.

Source: Ross Murray, Communications Coordinator, Stanstead College, (819) 876-7891, ext. 270.

The Memory Project

On April 9, 2007, ceremonies held in Ottawa and France commemorated the 90th Anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge. Today, there remain only two living veterans from World War I and everyday the numbers of World War II veterans diminish. Fortunately, there are many veterans who are interested in telling their stories.

Created in 2001, The Memory Project is the Dominion Institute’s flagship educational programme, designed to connect veterans and students on line and in classrooms across the country.

On November 6, 2006, The Memory Project organized a very special school visit. Captain Marc Bossi and Mr. Leonard Levy spoke at Crestwood Secondary school in Toronto. Mark Bossi had recently returned from his service in Afghanistan with the 48th Highlanders of Canada. He shared stories of the rebuilding projects in which he participated and spoke of his interactions with the civilians he was assisting. Leonard Levy, who served in the Air Force during the Second World War, kept the class riveted as he described dangerous escapes in the field, as well as adventures he’d had on leave in London.

Recently, Stanley Carroll, a WWII army veteran, retired teacher and Memory Project speaker, visited students at Sandowne Public School in Waterloo. To find out more about how your classroom can benefit from learning about history from those who lived it, visit The Memory Project’s website at www.thememoryproject.com

Educator’s interested in booking one of the 1,500 veterans available to visit their classroom, are invited to request a speaker at www.thememoryproject.com/request_speaker.asp.

Superheros as Super Study Material?

It was only thirty years ago that people scoffed at the notion of teaching Film Studies as a university course. How do movies translate to academia? It turned out, quite nicely actually. Can the same be said for the study of Calvin and Hobbs, Garfield or Batman? In the March issue of University Affairs Daniel McCabe reports that comics are a legitimate area of study and are fast becoming a popular way to get, and keep, students’ attention. The medium can then be used to explore philosophical questions that might have otherwise been hard to sell as interesting, relevant and dynamic to some of the video game addicted youth of our nation.

There are a vast array of comics that most people have never been exposed to or even know exist. Besides the usual superhero fare, there are European and Asian comic franchises that explore complex issues. McCabe suggests that even the most popular brands such as Spiderman etc…can be excellent catalysts to spark discussion on heroism, race, and environmental issues. Could we use Snow White and her devoted and cleverly simply characterized seven dwarfs to debate gender and physical stereotypes? Why not? Or, the violence in many 21st century comics could make any interesting study on today’s values at home, school or on the streets. The possibilities are endless. The social studies subjects are there, ripe, like berries to be picked from a bush.

McCabe points out that when libraries add a comics section, they see their patronage grow, and new “customers” enter a place of learning that might have otherwise not have been on their daily agenda. Exposure to libraries, and to dissecting the themes of the “cool” brightly illustrated magazines that are socially accepted reading material of younger population may be exactly what some kids need to get motivated to think outside the comic strip.