Working in Education through the Language Lens

I've been meaning to take a picture of a creek near my house - for well, way before the snow even fell. It's a perfectly meandering creek that seems to take the longest winding way to get to it's destination. I remember learning all about this in geography class in high school (yea, a few decades ago). It fascinated me then and still does today. I love this short animated video to explain why this happens:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a3r-cG8Wic "...the meandering rivers may seem tame and lazy.... but out on the open plains those stony walls give way to soft soil allowing rivers to shift their banks and set their own ever changing courses to the sea. Courses that almost never run straight " What poetic language to describe the flow of water! And boy does it resonate! I feel like that meandering river out on the open plain this year. Not that I'm on soft soil, in fact my foundation has never been more set. It's just that as roadblocks/obstruct...

TOLERANCE: A permissive attitude towards those who differ from our own? "to put up with" These are a few of the definitions of 'tolerance'. I refuse to merely 'put up with' someone who is different than me. What a slap in the face! By saying: "I'll 'tolerate' your beliefs" in my humble opinion comes from a place of bias/prejudice that believes the OTHER is of less value/importance. I don't teach tolerance. I teach acceptance, and I teach advocacy. If someone is doing harm to another - would you put up with it? Would you tolerate watching a group of kids kicking a dog - bullying a student - harassing a stranger. I doubt it ! So can you tolerate inequality in your child's education, or in the services they should receive? Ok so now that I have your attention and I meant every word above - I want to use this blog space to talk about a few critical conversations, I've been having with myself this past week. Culture ...