Colleagues, yesterday I talked about our Youth Parliament and the great job the youth did. In keeping in the theme with some of my colleagues today, I did ask the youth person if I could do their statement in the House. Leo Ehrlich represented the Nahendeh region. Here is his statement:
Kids tend not to like school. The reason we look forward to breaks, the weekend and such, is because we don't want to spend all day, every day, in a dark room memorizing complex formulas and grammatical rules that, unless speaking to an English teacher, will most likely never get used in daytoday life. Now, I'm not saying that we should abolish the current school system or anything, but I believe that there need to be some changes. Major changes. The most important and easiest thing we can change is escape that dark classroom and take learning outside. Taking learning outside will make students more engaged, improve mental health and wellbeing, and teach new and valuable lessons. There are countless studies that show that the students tend to be in better more receptive moods outside, are more open to learning, and have boosted creativity, problem solving, and critical thinking. There are tons of things to learn from being outside and not just things like building forts, berrypicking, or climbing. Things like patience and learning to truly appreciate the beauty of life all come best from being outside on top of whatever lessons might have been planned. Many students aren't engaged enough in school, zoning out midclass, getting in the way of learning. Being outside could make learning way more engaging for most students because children like being outside, too. There're tons of physical benefits as well as, as previously mentioned, mental and emotional ones. We aren't talking about dragging kids outside when it's freezing cold, or pouring rain, but in the spring, summer and fall when it's nice. I believe that it is pivotal for the new generations to take care of the environment, and you can't care about something if you don't know about it. With the wildfires, permafrost thawing, and floods, climate change is playing a bigger part than ever in our lives but, eventually, those currently in power will be too old to fight it. That responsibility falls to the next generation, and we need them to care. The best way to get somebody to care about something is by knowing that thing. And right now, not enough kids care about the land that we live on because they don't spend enough time on the land to truly care about it. And schools without question sometimes to blame.
Being respectful of the time, I would like the rest of the statement be deemed as read.
In closing, I would like to thank Leo for being the Nahendeh representative, willing to share his speech with us today and, more importantly, I would like to wish him and his team all the best at the national debate championship in Vancouver where he is right now. Thank you.
Indigenous peoples have traditionally spent a lot of time outside. The government has been trying to blend Indigenous and new world cultures for a while, yet the school system has stayed for the most part the same as anywhere else. Only 56 percent of kids in the NWT graduate high school, and many of them drop out because they aren't engaged in their work. Taking school outside would probably boost initiative and make the kids more interested in school, because it's not the miserable slog that we know it as today.
There are countless jobs out there, and they don't all happen in cramped, stagnant offices. This is even more so the case in the NWT. The current learning style isn't doing anything to help with any of these jobs and is if anything getting in the way of people approaching any jobs that take place outside by not preparing kids for them. Changing the environment of the classroom to a more fluid one would better prepare kids for jobs that are needed in the NWT, encouraging them to stay. In short, I believe that the economy, wellbeing of students and land would all benefit greatly from taking classes outside, traditions would be better preserved, dropout rates would lessen, and kids and the adults they would grow up to be would all be better off.
Indigenous peoples have traditionally spent a lot of time outside. The government has been trying to blend Indigenous and new world cultures for a while, yet the school system has stayed for the most part the same as anywhere else. Only 56 percent of kids in the NWT graduate high school, and many of them drop out because they aren't engaged in their work. Taking school outside would probably boost initiative and make the kids more interested in school, because it's not the miserable slog that we know it as today.
There are countless jobs out there, and they don't all happen in cramped, stagnant offices. This is even more so the case in the NWT. The current learning style isn't doing anything to help with any of these jobs and is if anything getting in the way of people approaching any jobs that take place outside by not preparing kids for them. Changing the environment of the classroom to a more fluid one would better prepare kids for jobs that are needed in the NWT, encouraging them to stay.
In short, I believe that the economy, wellbeing of students and land would all benefit greatly from taking classes outside, traditions would be better preserved, dropout rates would lessen, and kids and the adults they would grow up to be would all be better off.
