First the good news.  Girls collaborate better than boys, in every country.  Well, at least in every country that participates in PISA[1] testing.  This is the finding from the PISA 2015 Collaborative Problem Solving Assessment[2].  Girls outperform boys, and girls in Canada rank 5th in the world, following only Singapore, Japan, Finland and South Korea, […]

“Hey, what’s up?” (me) Cautious stares. (girls) “Wanna chat?” (me) Careful nods. (girls) “Then let’s go catch up.” (me) Tentative steps to my office across the hall. (girls follow me) It was late after school on a Friday. The Common Room was empty except for two students. One sat in a wing chair, slouched forward, […]

I’m having trouble finding a way into this blog. No catchy first sentence. No “gotcha” line to keep you reading. No, none of that. This one is tough because I’m struggling with how to write it or even whether to write it. So bear with me, dear reader, and if you’ve hung in thus far, […]

“They shared the weight of memory. They took up what others could no longer bear. Often, they carried each other, the wounded or weak.” – The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, I stood at The Cenotaph, together with our Head Girl. I […]

Lala arrived last year.  Nervous, excited, tentative, wide-eyed.  Zena arrived this year, equally nervous but able to benefit from Lala’s reassuring presence.  Lala comes from Tajikistan.  Zena comes from Syria.  Two very different girls from very different countries. But both girls are now part of the Trafalgar Castle sisterhood. We launched our World of Difference […]

They came by the hundreds, creating a long, snaking line of visitors – a line so long that it wrapped around the front of the Castle and edged towards the main gates.  Over 900 people waited in groups for more than an hour at a time, packed inside a hot, crowded dining hall, all to […]

Oh, yes she did! Last Sunday, Taylor Swift tweeted out her intention to vote democrat, urging her 112 million followers – yes, you read that number right – to register to vote in the upcoming U.S. midterm election. In the 24-hour period following that tweet, more than 65,000 young Americans (ages 18 to 29) had […]

This weekend, I will host my family and loved ones for a Thanksgiving meal. It will be a lively and loving affair, slightly dysfunctional by all normal family standards, and together, we will create another collective and cherished memory. Growing up in the Salvation Army, my introduction to Thanksgiving was as a Christian holiday. I […]

“Love and compassion are necessities not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive” – Dali Lama The white T-shirts are for the supporters – family, friends, colleagues, anyone who feels a desire to help.  The pink T-shirts are for the survivors – those still in treatment, those finished treatment, those whose hope grows with every day […]

The phone rang at 11:30 p.m.  I’m not exactly sure how my daughter, who was nine at the time, snuck out of the cabin, past the supposedly watchful eye of the camp counsellor.  Who knew she had the wherewithal to make a collect call.  But there she was, standing at a payphone, tearful, homesick, and […]