It has been just over one week since Canada lost one of its greatest icons, Gord Downie. In the time since his passing, people have remembered Gord for his music, his tireless energy when performing on stage, and his latest film, Long Time Running, which highlights the Tragically Hip’s final farewell tour after sharing the news of Gord’s terminal brain tumour with the world. While Gord is being remembered for his music, he is also being remembered for his important work involving the reconciliation of Indigenous people.
Prior to his death, Gord said, “There is no higher power than helping people,” (as quoted by Pat Downie, 2017, CBC Radio) and despite battling a terminal illness, he did just that. Through poetry and song, Gord brought the shocking history surrounding residential schools to the world stage, and started on the path of bringing truth and reconciliation to the Indigenous families of our country. Despite the fact that he is no longer on this Earth, Gord’s legacy should continue to act as inspiration to us all. We should be asking ourselves what role we can play not only in Indigenous reconciliation, but with other issues that are important to us as individuals, as a country or as an entire world. As teachers, we have the power to bring these important conversations into the classroom. We can have honest discussions with our students about the history of Canada, and what being Canadian truly means. Our goal as educators should be to develop world-class students, which requires us to reflect on our nation’s past in the hopes of building a better and brighter future for all.
It’s so easy for our students to think, “But I’m just one person, what can I really do?” and we need to shift them away from that mindset. Education is one of the most powerful tools available to us, and through education we can begin to ask those tough questions as opposed to accepting things as status quo. In doing so, we give students a voice to begin sticking up for, and finding solutions to the issues they are most passionate about. After all, Gord Downie was just one person, and he got an entire nation to start talking.
Thanks for this inspiring post. It is something that I have been thinking deeply about lately. When I read your post, I hear two different things: we should be sticking up for others and for what we believe in; and, we should be listening and starting to talk.
As I think more and read more about this important work, I am discovering this field of work is much more complex and nuanced than I had ever imagined. The work of the organization “Where There Be Dragons” and learningservice.org are starting a divergent dialogue that turns Service Learning on its head. I’d love to chat more about this with you, and how it really goes deeply into the ’empathzie’ phase of design thinking.