One of the many things I loved about Miss Procunier, my Grade 4 teacher at Annette Street Public School, was her slightly restrained yet unwavering commitment to our musical education. Twice a week she would distribute a dog-eared booklet of song lyrics, remove her pitch pipe from its case with great care, and lead us […]

Childhood memories are funny things.  They sneak up on us at the darndest times.  Last week I was sitting in a conference room in Victoria, B.C. listening to a presentation on philanthropy when I suddenly thought of humbugs, those traditional hard-boiled British candies that magically appeared in my grandmother’s hand whenever I started to wriggle […]

A Tale of Three Dogs I have three dogs. Yes, you read that right. Three. (How that happened is a long story that my patient husband still shakes his head at.) Coco is 15½ years old, Hugo is almost five, and Haddie is just over a year. Coco is the grand dame of the household, […]

“Who cut your hair? Your dog? Just kidding!” “I love your sweater. It reminds me of something my grandma would wear. Jokes!” “That presentation you did in class was great. It really helped me catch up on sleep. JK!” Just kidding, jokes, JK – the holy trinity of deflection designed to allow not-so-well-meaning comments to […]

I don’t know if 2018 was truly the Year of the Woman as many are calling it, but it was definitely the year that saw a lot of people talking about women’s issues, thanks in part to a plethora of jaw dropping moments brought to us by President Trump, a perplexing U.S. judicial system, and […]

Dr. Leanne Foster’s Address at this year’s Holiday Dinners: Listening to the girls sing this evening, I was reminded of an article that appeared in last Monday’s Globe and Mail, entitled, “Odes to Joy:  Researchers study the uplifting power of singing.”  I think anyone who has been part of a choir can attest to that […]

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 […]