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June 7, 2022
June 7, 2022
The morning started in a conference room in our hotel with the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa and the U.S. Consulate in Toronto along with our IREX trip coordinators. IREX is: International Research & Exchanges Board which is “an international, non-profit organization that specializes in global education and development. Fulbright and the US Department of State works with IREX to facilitate the Teachers for Global classrooms program.
General fun facts I learned during the session:
The U.S., Canadian border is the longest border in the world with 400,000 crossings everyday.
The U.S. is 10x the population size of Canada.
1/10 people are Dual Nationals
Canadians know so much more about us than we know about them-America dominates the headlines
20% of Toronto people are newcomers- huge immigrant population
Being close partners and allies... sometimes the U.S. takes the lead on progressive, justice seeking initiatives... other times we follow Canada
Canada has many "fly-in communities" where it is expensive and exhausting to reach and people have to leave to do basic things like visit a doctor
Policies the government is currently focused on are past pandemic economic recovery, diversity & inclusion, bring down barriers for underrepresented groups
"Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners. And necessity has made us allies." -JFK regarding Canadian-American relations
"Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners. And necessity has made us allies." -JFK regarding Canadian-American relations
We heard from Daniel Stewart, the cultural affairs officer who spoke about the Department of Interior's investigation after Canada learned about their buried kids at the residential schools. Also, there have been 94 calls to action by First Nation peoples due to mining, water and other extractions on indigenous lands. More people are working towards decolonization and listening to capitalized Indigenous Knowledge.
Someone mentioned that Canadians genuinely feel that if something happens in the U.S...."you're welcome here in Canada".
I learned about using the phrase "the lower 48" when talking about the States in order to distinguish that Alaska and Hawaii are there own thing. A little was shared about the Fulbright Arctic Initiative and how the dirty dozen pollutants end up in the Arctic and i affects food resources and child nutrition.
Hang Lyu from EducationUSA, Canada Advisor spoke to us at the end of the meeting to give us an overview of the school systems in Canada.
School boards = "Districts" Yes, the Catholic school boards receive public funding
English Secular
English Catholic
French Secular (Quebec)
French Catholic
French immersion schools & English/Cree schools
A grade of an A=80-100, this is designed to help even out, make differences in teacher grading more equitable
It takes 2 years to get a B.Ed- not many Master's programs for Education exist
Ontario has updated the curriculum to include
Digital Literacy, coding starting grade 1
Financial Literacy, starting in grade 4
Hybrid teaching- students have to complete 2 online courses to graduate
During morning announcements schools do land acknowledgement so that students know the past
Politics and certain politicians in office GREATLY influence and change the education system in Canada
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