Posts tagged with reading.

Was two weeks off for the Olympics worth it?

Bryce Warnes, March 2, 2010 at 4:29 PM

 

Off in the distance, people were cheering and honking horns. And in downtown Vancouver there were thousands of Canadian hockey fans starting the evening's celebrations, though it was only 3:30 in the afternoon.

 

Even before the gold medal match between Canada and the U.S.A., the streets were filled with a spontaneous, constantly-moving party. The undulations of the red and white masses made it difficult to walk, and the co-mingled tunes of street performances and the national anthem made it impossible to converse.

 

The Olympics have brought a lot of action to Vancouver, from protests to anti-protests to after-parties to pre-parties. And for a lot of students at UBC, they've completely derailed the academic semester.

 

This year's reading break is two weeks long instead of one, specifically because of the Olympics.

 

"Reading" break is already a misnomer for many students and informal polling suggests that most of my fellow students are going into March ill-equipped for the next four weeks, as classes draw to a close and exams begin.

 

There's no doubt that our extra-long break has shaved away class hours for the sake of Vancouver's Winter carnival, but reading break - for many, a fourteen-day binge in a city straining to contain the Olympic enthusiasm of its inhabitants - will have ramifications that stretch beyond a few missed lectures.

 

Normally, it would be easy to blame a lack of academic effort over a reading break on  the student: a lack of discipline, an inability (or unwillingness) to plan for the long-term and understand the repercussions of actions.

 

But in this case, the last two weeks of celebration, libation, and wanton cheering have been culturally sanctioned. The emphasis on these Games, from media and peers, has been their historical significance. They were heralded as the first "green" Olympics, and as an opportunity for Vancouver to show itself off to the world. Later, they yielded the first Canadian gold medal ever won on home soil. And, because it's important - a part of history - it needs to be experienced.

 

Imagine the conflict. On the one hand, you have a semester's worth of school work and studying that can easily be thrown off-kilter by a spring break flushed down the toilet like so many late-night regrets. On the other, you have the opportunity - perhaps the only opportunity you will ever have - to experience the frenzy of the Olympic Games on a local level, and to show support for your nation.

 

Experiencing the Olympics doesn't necessarily entail getting uncontrollably inebriated every night, but even when it doesn't (though with students, it realistically often does), it doesn't necessarily mean studying.

 

And when it's officially sanctioned by the university with a two-week break, it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone involved in the scholastic process when students with respectable averages can't get their game together for this semester's midterms or, worse, exams.

 

Athletes from around the globe showed us at these Games they were capable of great feats. They drew on years of practice, discipline, and passion in order to enter the Olympics and win a medal.

 

The fact that the spectacle of their performance could draw so many people away from their own goals for two weeks carries some irony.

 

It also shows how easily an individual can get caught up in the excitement of peers. Our eyes can slip from the gold when we pause to watch others shine. 

Tagged with week, reading, olympics | Comments (17) |

A reading week eye opener

Ian Wylie, February 26, 2009 at 4:30 PM

Over reading week*, I had the opportunity to visit six First Nations communities in Central Ontario. I met with Chiefs, listened to Elders and spoke with youth. Along with 18 other university students from across Ontario, I was one of the first participants in a new initiative called the Canadian Roots Exchange program.

 

The program, led by student-run charity Operation Groundswell, aims to break the traditional stereotypes that so often surround Native communities. Stereotypes that either generate pity or hate and certainly inhibit dialogue and understanding.

 

In every community we were welcomed with potlatches and stories - some traditional, others modern - relating social challenges, especially disparities in funding between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal schools.

 

The experience was difficult for most participants, not because of what we saw in the communities but what we saw in ourselves: a fundamental ignorance of indigenous people and the way the Canadian government (and Canadians) treat them.

 

We were angry that our education on Indian Residential Schools did not mention the last one closed in 1996, or of the enormous intergenerational impacts the schools continue to have. Or that the schools were established, as one head of Indian Affairs put it, to "kill the Indian in the child."

 

We were angry how in every school we visited, administrators like Principal Steve Styres of Wausuaksing School explained how they received between two-thirds and half the funding for their students than students in the non-reserve school in Parry Sound.

 

How come our country continues to employ systems like that, which promote discrimination? How come stereotypes continue to impede understanding in a country that places an enormous value on truth and education? (This sets some of the myths straight.)

 

On our last day, we visited the Museum of Civilization in Ottawa. In what was an ironic conclusion to the past seven days, we noticed the museum had dedicated only a few lines to residential schools: a footnote and an afterthought that framed the schools in a largely positive light. The paragraph mentioned "good intentions and practices"  (like forcibly removing children from their families, I suppose) and some unfortunate instances of abuse and murder.

 

Seeing that written in Canada's national museum reminded me of what Chief Isadore Day of Serpent River said on our first day, that we learn in silos. Far from broadening our minds, the institutions created for our education can trap us into patterns of thinking. We must challenge our beliefs and the institutions that shape them. That's a message every university student should hear.

 

*Reading Week, for those who don't know, is a mid-term break instituted by universities to prevent students from going loony in the long second semester.

Tagged with week, aboriginals, operation, reading, groundswell | Comments (34) |