1 Corinthians 13: 4-8
“Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”
I hope the perspective shared that follows is, in some way, reflective of the verse on love, trust, hope, perseverance and truth.
In the elementary school, our students are exposed to and encouraged to learn and model these exemplars every day and in every moment. Our staff is very good at loving their roles and even more so their students. Even, or especially, the challenging ones! They are great at patience and perseverance.
At the secondary school, the building and our daily practice continue to support these qualities beyond the elementary experience.
You may have noticed “breakout rooms” and other curious but inviting spaces including smaller classrooms with garage doors and larger ones with moveable centre walls and larger student commons areas.
All of these presume some level of trust and authentic hope that our students will conduct themselves well in these spaces. When you walk through the building students will be seen in small glassed in rooms or well defined open spaces working happily and busily with a minimum of teacher supervision. Nevertheless our teachers do hold students fully accountable for their conduct.
While some schools encourage the unrestricted use of device based technology throughout the day, others completely restrict any use at all other than periodic access to computers during class.
John Knox Secondary lands somewhere in the middle.
Students can be observed on various devices during lunch and breaks. On close inspection, many are actually doing school work while others are in small groups engaged in vibrant social interaction. Are students self isolating as well? Some certainly are but may do so with or without a computer or cell phone.
In light of the Corinthians verse, it may be more important to teach positive digital citizenship and practice, rather than rules. Exercise trust rather than control, anticipate hope that emerges from teaching responsibility and perseverance in instruction that could lead to authentic and positive change.
In the end, we will love our students as we walk beside them towards the truth of our faith and with Christ we never fail.
Paul Tigchelaar, Principal