Imagine Our Schools

I have a lot to say about Imagine Our Schools, the process that brought in architects from Toronto to advise the Halifax Regional School Board on its use of facilities.

One of the main tenets repeated at meeting after meeting by the consultants was that students could not learn properly in small schools. Small schools simply cannot deliver the curriculum.

Today, the Halifax Chronicle-Herald reports:

A Halifax County school has been named world literacy champion in an international reading competition.

Students at Shatford Memorial Elementary School read an average of almost 609 books each between last November and April to win the WOW Reading Challenge and claim the World Literacy Championship trophy and banner.

This would be the same Shatford Elementary that the consultants would like to see closed. Because, of course, actually looking at results was not part of their mandate. And I guess reading lots of books isn't necessarily part of the curriculum.

Stay tuned.

Tobias Beale and Paul's Hall on CBC's Maritime Magazine

My half-hour radio documentary on Tobias Beale is now online here.

Tobias is a music teacher who lives near Halifax. And he tells great, great stories.

In some ways, it's been a rough year for Tobias. He's spent 15 years devoted to teaching music, and he finds himself doing it in an environment where it really doesn't seem to be a priority.

After spending 8 years teaching band at his local junior high, Tobias found himself out of a job. Today, he's a half-time band resource teacher who travels from school to school. It's crazy and fun, but not the same. He's also bought an old church hall, and is using it to revitalize a locally focused music culture, and to provide a performance space for teens.

Bonus feature: I've posted the raw audio of the first interview I did with Tobias, when I started working on this documentary several months ago. We were chatting upstairs at Paul's Hall, while three local teen bands prepared for a show downstairs.

The file runs about 25 minutes. Click to listen, or right-click to download and listen later.

The interview covers all kinds of fascinating stuff I couldn't work into the final show. I especially like Tobias's answer when I ask him why kids need performance spaces when they all have MySpace and Facebook pages to promote their music. That comes about three quarters of the way through.

Enjoy, and please share your comments by clicking the "comments" link below.