Hello everyone! Congratulations to all the winners of the municipal election! May you celebrate and enjoy your success! And a congratulations too to *all* those who participated in running! You all took a chance to put yourself out there to participate in our democracy, and that is something deserving of recognition also. 

 

Wanting to share that for personal reasons I was not able to campaign for Waterloo Region Public School Board Trustee during this election. I still wanted to get my ideas out though, and you can check them out below.

*** 

As a long-time homeschooler and community gardener, I recommend the following changes be made to our educational system:
 

1. Create opportunities for children to work in school gardens, where they can feel the connection to the Earth through the dirt between their fingers and toes.

2. Enable schoolchildren to cook healthy fresh foods, using produce that they themselves grew.

3. Strongly promote nature connection opportunities in schools, which is critical given how exposure to nature is essential for healthy childhood development—physically, emotionally, and spiritually (see Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv).

4. Launch as pilot projects at least one, if not a few, community-based “one room schoolhouses” where the class sizes are smaller and children of all ages learn together. The older children can learn how to teach the younger ones and the younger children can work to keep up with the older ones. 

5. Provide parents/guardians who choose not to send their children to public school with at least some funding to the cover costs of educating their children. This would increase the fairness of the current educational taxation system, since otherwise these parents are left to pay these costs in addition to paying public school taxes. Helping cover these costs would allow educational programs to be better customized according to the needs of each child.
    

Our children need our help to make these changes! Join me in advocating for them!