Tag Archives: Land based learning

Education, Indigenous Nations

Land-based learning: These schools spotlight culturally immersive education

By Mina Kerr-Lazenby, North Shore News, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Pen? Check. Paper? Check. Fishing rod, canoe paddle, and weaving wool? Check, check, check. For the students of land-based learning schools, education facilities that bring culture to the classroom, school supplies extend beyond the classic pencil case, binders and backpack.

Run by educators who believe schools should nurture the innate needs and wants of young people, rather than put them into a cookie cutter student mould, you would be hard pressed to find a youth hunched over their desk, scribbling notes monotonously from a whiteboard.

“Kids need to move. If they move, they are learning,” says Tanya O’Neill, principal of siʔáḿθɘt, a K-12 Tsleil-Waututh Nation school in North Vancouver.

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Education

Rewilding a school wetland is a lesson in climate resilience

Editor’s note: the Miranda Cross mentioned in this article is a Cortes Island resident and Project Manager for the Dillon Creek Wetlands Restoration project.

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Quadra Elementary’s kindergarten students tried their best to follow instructions and stay seated on tarps that were spread out on the school field in an attempt to keep them clean.

But the lucky kids near the edges of the blue plastic matting already had their hands in the dirt. 

The 60-plus children recently gathered with members of the We Wai Kai Nation, Quadra Island school and community leaders and the B.C. Wildlife Federation to celebrate their new wetland restoration project by planting a selection of native trees and shrubs. 

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