For Students, By Students
Psychology students would very well understand Maslow’s hierarchy. And though we may not verbalize it enough, we all know how fortunate we are that our primary concerns lay atop it. We’re thankful our safety and basic needs are met, and our greatest challenges lie with love, belonging, esteem, and living to our full potential. Without…
They trooped in after school, ostensibly, for a worksheet. And instead what followed was a delightful impromptu micro-community connection, a rap and a discourse, a back and forth. We didn’t talk about anything significant really, but talk we did. And as Owen, Ann, Kyle, Jaylen, Adrian, and Damon filed away, I marveled at the seasons…
As the school year trundles to its conclusion, optimism can be in short supply. True, the rainy, gloomy drudgery of midyear and the nervous ambiguity of university applications seem to be long and distant now, almost forgotten. Lengthy, overheated, sunny days are the norm, and the glory and grace of the ocean and the mountains…
Michael is a raconteur and a rogue. Filled with outlandish outbursts and eccentric disruptions, he singlehandedly shakes lessons askew. And yet, with disarmingly self-deprecating charm and understated charisma, he also singlehandedly captures and captivates a class or advisory with engrossing stories and laugh-out-loud observations. He holds court with easy confidence and spins yarns, and we…
Here’s how the game is played. Everyone stands up, and I say a statement. If it’s true and applies to you, then you have to sit down. As the class stood, I thought I’d start off with something easy so no one would have to sit down right away. “Sit down if you have watched…
The seemingly endless summer weather that pushed gently and deeply into the school year appeared to turn abruptly, and a morass of unfriendly murky gloominess spread in as a replacement. And it seemed, the projects and the tests and the stressors and the this and the that came riding with it, and a hunkering down,…
There was an unusual stillness in my room, the hectic and unbridled swirling milieu absent, and only patient, slotted sun rays lay across empty blue chairs. The beginning edges of September, with assignments barely assigned and quizzes yet given, yielded peace and hope, before the churn and grind of another school year descended upon us…
Here are snippets of people important to me: Ms. Cromatry, at my request, conferring with a wayward grad, encouraging but expecting more, and then moving on to deal with live goats coming to campus. Ms. Jones meeting with students who have missed weeks of school, cobbling together workable solutions with good humour and love, sealing…
Dear Graduates of ’20, ’21, and ’22, I know you know. We’re safe, we have shelter, and we have food. Our country isn’t being invaded. We have opportunities, and reasons for optimism. In the grand scheme of things, what matters of missed graduation celebrations, of lesser grandeur crossings of the stage, of a jagged and…
by Mr. Lu After school one day, Emma was working on a new WPGA sweatshirt design for the ski and snowboard team. She was asking my opinion about the design and layout, and I let her know she did a good job on it. You can see students wearing it today. But what bothered me…