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Kailey was first to rise, smiling shyly to her audience at Manor Park Public School.
“Welcome parents, chosen family, grandparents, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, neighbours and members of our wonderful Manor Park community.”
Then Caleb chimed in.
“Our lives are so busy and so often we forget to take a step back and recognize all those important people that help us get to school each day, help us learn and grow at home and provide us with a loving and warm place to go home when the day is done,” he said.
“You stay up late and wake up early,” added Brooke. “You come to our bedside when we’re sick, you listen to our problems and you make us laugh. … You build us up so we can grow.”
There were tears and there was laughter at a video put together by the 22 students from teacher Julie Duncan’s Grade 4 and 5 class for their roughly 80 guests this day.
Welcome to what these students have dubbed FamJam.
Kristine St-Denis gives her son Caden St-Denis, 9, a kiss while attending FamJam.
The second annual such event was held this week in Duncan’s class, situated purposefully between Mother’s Day and Father’s Day on the calendar.
It’s an occasion built for the students, that also highlights how our schools are seeing first-hand the increasingly diverse family dynamics at play in our society.
Earlier this month, controversy erupted when a Mission, B.C. school told families that Grade 1 and 2 students wouldn’t be making presents for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. It was met with outrage about the “devaluing” of parents. There was also empathy from those who recalled being left out of such celebrations themselves, as a result of a parent’s death or divorce. It turned out that one of the kids had suffered what a trustee called a “recent trauma.”
But the reaction to FamJam in Duncan’s class has been nothing but joyful.
“FamJam is a complement to Mother’s Day and Father’s Day,” Duncan said. “Leading up to Mother’s Day, we did a Mother’s Day craft, the kids made a card… If the kids chose to not to do it, that was fine as well.
“So I think it’s just opening the discussion about families being very diverse. … I think it’s just having those honest conversations.”
Tammy Murphy has a good laugh at one of the happy memories her daughter Miranda, 9, put in the special jar she made for her during a class project.
It started when Duncan noticed some kids avoiding making Mother’s Day cards last year and realized the exercise was creating a lot of anxiety for some.
“Upon further conversation, it was ‘This is really stressful — I haven’t seen my mom in three months, three years, ever; I live with my grandma.'”
So Duncan and the children brainstormed at the weekly Monday morning meeting, where kids pass around a ball, taking turns to talk about their experiences, thoughts and hopes for the week.
“We came up with the idea together, as a community, that we should celebrate all the people — the neighbours who welcome the kids home if their parents are at work, the grandparents, the aunts and uncles, the friends, chosen family,” she said. “All the people who contribute to their wellbeing here at school and outside of school.”
It’s in fact a minority of Duncan’s students who live with both parents, she says, while the rest have varying family makeups in what’s a mixed-income area straddling St. Laurent Boulevard in the city’s east end.
FamJam didn’t replace Mother’s or Father’s day. It complemented them, say those behind it.
While the latest statistics on the makeup of Canadian families from the 2016 Census won’t be released until August, Nora Spinks, CEO of the Vanier Institute of the Family, predicts that diversity in both homes and neighbourhoods will only continue to increase.
“Our communities are more diverse than ever before, our families equally so,” Spinks said. “Schools that recognize and acknowledge and respect that new reality are in a good position to facilitate student success.”
Events such as FamJam are a way that schools can show they respect all kids and families and highlight the “circles of support” — family members, older siblings, friends, neighbours, teachers — that help kids thrive.
“It’s a wonderful example of celebrating community, of recognizing the complexity of modern time, the reality of modern family life and the significance of coming together for success today but also for the future,” Spinks said.
Changing families are nothing new. A century ago, many single-parent-led families were headed by men because so many mothers had died in childbirth. After the world wars, they were more likely to be led by widowed women. In the 1970s, the number of single parents rose with pent-up demand after divorce laws were liberalized.
According to the last Census, about eight in 10 Canadian kids live with married or common-law parents but family “constellations” other than mom, dad and kids are becoming more common. One in five kids lived with a lone parent. About one in 10 lived in a step-family.
“One thing we do know from the research is that families are the most adaptable institution in society — they’re going to be the first to adjust to change,” Spinks said. “Next will come those institutions that are closest to those families — where children are involved it will be schools and child-care centres.”
FamJam is an example of that adaptation, in the same way that schools used to mark just one or two traditions’ holidays while a multicultural school today has kids celebrating dozens, she said.
“We used to celebrate only mother’s and father’s days — now we’re celebrating families in all of their diversity, we’re celebrating community and all that community brings,” Spinks said.
Julie Duncan, a teacher at Manor Park Public School, is mobbed by her students during FamJam.
Wayne Cuddington/Postmedia
A rough, unscientific timeline of families, mothers, fathers and greeting cards
Ancient times — The Greeks hold spring festivals dedicated to Rhea, the mother of the gods. The Romans celebrate mother goddess, Cybele, with offerings, parades and revelry.
Early Christianity — Goddess worship is out and Christians begin honouring the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, on the fourth Sunday of Lent. Fathers are honoured at the Feast of St. Joseph, the patron saint of fathers, on March 19, a date on which fathers are still celebrated in Italy, Portugal, Bolivia and Honduras.
1850s — West Virginia women’s organizer Ann Reeves Jarvis organizes Mother’s Day work clubs to improve sanitary conditions and reduce infant mortality, and later tended wounded soldiers on both sides of the Civil War and brought the mothers of Union and Confederate soldiers together to promote reconciliation.
1870 — American Julia Ward Howe, the composer of The Battle Hymn of the Republic, issues a popular “Mother’s Day Proclamation” urging women to promote peace.
1901 — One third of Canadian households include people who aren’t part of the immediate family, including other relatives, boarders and servants
1908 — Ann Reeves Jarvis’ 1905 death inspires her daughter, Anna, to create a day for people to honour their own mothers and the second Sunday in May is set aside as Mother’s Day in 1914. For decades, she’d zealously fight efforts by florists, greeting-card makers and confectioners to commercialize the day. We don’t know what Jarvis thought of brunch.
1908 — The first Father’s Day is held in a West Virginia church, organized by a woman who was one of more than 1,000 children left newly fatherless after the Monongah coal mine disaster, the worst in American history.
1910 — Inspired by a Mother’s Day sermon, Sonora Smart-Dodd of Washington State, one of six children raised by single father, encourages churches to institute the first Father’s Day observance. It becomes a national observance in June in 1972.
1920s — Hallmark sells its first Mother’s Day cards
1921 — One in 10 Canadian children have experienced the death of one or more parent, compared to less than one per cent in 2011
1931 — Almost the same number of children are living in single-parent families — more than one in 10 — as there will be in 1981. By 2011, one in five children will live with a lone parent.
1936 — A Winnipeg woman who had seven sons fight and two die in the First World War becomes the first Silver Cross Mother, placing a wreath on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier on behalf of all Canadian mothers who lost a child in military service.
1961 — Married couples are more than nine-in-10 Canadian families, the highest proportion in the past century. By 2011, they’ll make up two-thirds of families.
1965 — Canadian mothers have an average of 3.2 children — by 2011, it’s 1.6 children.
1968 — New divorce legislation makes it easier to dissolve a marriage without proving a”matrimonial offence” such as adultery or cruelty. The divorce rate rises from 14 per cent of marriages in 1969 to a peak of 36.2 per cent in 1987.
1971 — In a controversial move, the federal government introduces maternity leave, allowing women to claim up to 15 weeks of unemployment benefits. In 1984, leave was extended to adoptive parents and, in 1990, fathers.
1976 — Less than a third of women with children under six are employed, compared to more than two-thirds by 2012
1981 — The Census counts common-law couples, who make up six per cent of families, for the first time. Their numbers will almost triple by 2011.
1990 — Alberta is the first province to declare Family Day a holiday. Other provinces follow suit, including Ontario in 2008
2006 — Same-sex married couples are included in the Census for the first time following the 2005 federal legalization of same-sex marriage, with 7,500 of them counted, a number that nearly triples to 21,000 in 2011.
2011 — The Census starts counting foster families and step-families, finding that 13 per cent of families with children are blended families and 17,000 households contain at least one foster child.
2014 — Hallmark releases its first two-dad Father’s Day eCard
2015 — There are 1.5 million lone-parent-led families in Canada, or about one in six families.
August 2017 — Statistics Canada is set to release information on families, households and marital status based on the 2016 Census
mgillis@postmedia.com
查看原文...
“Welcome parents, chosen family, grandparents, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, neighbours and members of our wonderful Manor Park community.”
Then Caleb chimed in.
“Our lives are so busy and so often we forget to take a step back and recognize all those important people that help us get to school each day, help us learn and grow at home and provide us with a loving and warm place to go home when the day is done,” he said.
“You stay up late and wake up early,” added Brooke. “You come to our bedside when we’re sick, you listen to our problems and you make us laugh. … You build us up so we can grow.”
There were tears and there was laughter at a video put together by the 22 students from teacher Julie Duncan’s Grade 4 and 5 class for their roughly 80 guests this day.
Welcome to what these students have dubbed FamJam.
Kristine St-Denis gives her son Caden St-Denis, 9, a kiss while attending FamJam.
The second annual such event was held this week in Duncan’s class, situated purposefully between Mother’s Day and Father’s Day on the calendar.
It’s an occasion built for the students, that also highlights how our schools are seeing first-hand the increasingly diverse family dynamics at play in our society.
Earlier this month, controversy erupted when a Mission, B.C. school told families that Grade 1 and 2 students wouldn’t be making presents for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. It was met with outrage about the “devaluing” of parents. There was also empathy from those who recalled being left out of such celebrations themselves, as a result of a parent’s death or divorce. It turned out that one of the kids had suffered what a trustee called a “recent trauma.”
But the reaction to FamJam in Duncan’s class has been nothing but joyful.
“FamJam is a complement to Mother’s Day and Father’s Day,” Duncan said. “Leading up to Mother’s Day, we did a Mother’s Day craft, the kids made a card… If the kids chose to not to do it, that was fine as well.
“So I think it’s just opening the discussion about families being very diverse. … I think it’s just having those honest conversations.”
Tammy Murphy has a good laugh at one of the happy memories her daughter Miranda, 9, put in the special jar she made for her during a class project.
It started when Duncan noticed some kids avoiding making Mother’s Day cards last year and realized the exercise was creating a lot of anxiety for some.
“Upon further conversation, it was ‘This is really stressful — I haven’t seen my mom in three months, three years, ever; I live with my grandma.'”
So Duncan and the children brainstormed at the weekly Monday morning meeting, where kids pass around a ball, taking turns to talk about their experiences, thoughts and hopes for the week.
“We came up with the idea together, as a community, that we should celebrate all the people — the neighbours who welcome the kids home if their parents are at work, the grandparents, the aunts and uncles, the friends, chosen family,” she said. “All the people who contribute to their wellbeing here at school and outside of school.”
It’s in fact a minority of Duncan’s students who live with both parents, she says, while the rest have varying family makeups in what’s a mixed-income area straddling St. Laurent Boulevard in the city’s east end.
FamJam didn’t replace Mother’s or Father’s day. It complemented them, say those behind it.
While the latest statistics on the makeup of Canadian families from the 2016 Census won’t be released until August, Nora Spinks, CEO of the Vanier Institute of the Family, predicts that diversity in both homes and neighbourhoods will only continue to increase.
“Our communities are more diverse than ever before, our families equally so,” Spinks said. “Schools that recognize and acknowledge and respect that new reality are in a good position to facilitate student success.”
Events such as FamJam are a way that schools can show they respect all kids and families and highlight the “circles of support” — family members, older siblings, friends, neighbours, teachers — that help kids thrive.
“It’s a wonderful example of celebrating community, of recognizing the complexity of modern time, the reality of modern family life and the significance of coming together for success today but also for the future,” Spinks said.
Changing families are nothing new. A century ago, many single-parent-led families were headed by men because so many mothers had died in childbirth. After the world wars, they were more likely to be led by widowed women. In the 1970s, the number of single parents rose with pent-up demand after divorce laws were liberalized.
According to the last Census, about eight in 10 Canadian kids live with married or common-law parents but family “constellations” other than mom, dad and kids are becoming more common. One in five kids lived with a lone parent. About one in 10 lived in a step-family.
“One thing we do know from the research is that families are the most adaptable institution in society — they’re going to be the first to adjust to change,” Spinks said. “Next will come those institutions that are closest to those families — where children are involved it will be schools and child-care centres.”
FamJam is an example of that adaptation, in the same way that schools used to mark just one or two traditions’ holidays while a multicultural school today has kids celebrating dozens, she said.
“We used to celebrate only mother’s and father’s days — now we’re celebrating families in all of their diversity, we’re celebrating community and all that community brings,” Spinks said.
Julie Duncan, a teacher at Manor Park Public School, is mobbed by her students during FamJam.
Wayne Cuddington/Postmedia
A rough, unscientific timeline of families, mothers, fathers and greeting cards
Ancient times — The Greeks hold spring festivals dedicated to Rhea, the mother of the gods. The Romans celebrate mother goddess, Cybele, with offerings, parades and revelry.
Early Christianity — Goddess worship is out and Christians begin honouring the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, on the fourth Sunday of Lent. Fathers are honoured at the Feast of St. Joseph, the patron saint of fathers, on March 19, a date on which fathers are still celebrated in Italy, Portugal, Bolivia and Honduras.
1850s — West Virginia women’s organizer Ann Reeves Jarvis organizes Mother’s Day work clubs to improve sanitary conditions and reduce infant mortality, and later tended wounded soldiers on both sides of the Civil War and brought the mothers of Union and Confederate soldiers together to promote reconciliation.
1870 — American Julia Ward Howe, the composer of The Battle Hymn of the Republic, issues a popular “Mother’s Day Proclamation” urging women to promote peace.
1901 — One third of Canadian households include people who aren’t part of the immediate family, including other relatives, boarders and servants
1908 — Ann Reeves Jarvis’ 1905 death inspires her daughter, Anna, to create a day for people to honour their own mothers and the second Sunday in May is set aside as Mother’s Day in 1914. For decades, she’d zealously fight efforts by florists, greeting-card makers and confectioners to commercialize the day. We don’t know what Jarvis thought of brunch.
1908 — The first Father’s Day is held in a West Virginia church, organized by a woman who was one of more than 1,000 children left newly fatherless after the Monongah coal mine disaster, the worst in American history.
1910 — Inspired by a Mother’s Day sermon, Sonora Smart-Dodd of Washington State, one of six children raised by single father, encourages churches to institute the first Father’s Day observance. It becomes a national observance in June in 1972.
1920s — Hallmark sells its first Mother’s Day cards
1921 — One in 10 Canadian children have experienced the death of one or more parent, compared to less than one per cent in 2011
1931 — Almost the same number of children are living in single-parent families — more than one in 10 — as there will be in 1981. By 2011, one in five children will live with a lone parent.
1936 — A Winnipeg woman who had seven sons fight and two die in the First World War becomes the first Silver Cross Mother, placing a wreath on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier on behalf of all Canadian mothers who lost a child in military service.
1961 — Married couples are more than nine-in-10 Canadian families, the highest proportion in the past century. By 2011, they’ll make up two-thirds of families.
1965 — Canadian mothers have an average of 3.2 children — by 2011, it’s 1.6 children.
1968 — New divorce legislation makes it easier to dissolve a marriage without proving a”matrimonial offence” such as adultery or cruelty. The divorce rate rises from 14 per cent of marriages in 1969 to a peak of 36.2 per cent in 1987.
1971 — In a controversial move, the federal government introduces maternity leave, allowing women to claim up to 15 weeks of unemployment benefits. In 1984, leave was extended to adoptive parents and, in 1990, fathers.
1976 — Less than a third of women with children under six are employed, compared to more than two-thirds by 2012
1981 — The Census counts common-law couples, who make up six per cent of families, for the first time. Their numbers will almost triple by 2011.
1990 — Alberta is the first province to declare Family Day a holiday. Other provinces follow suit, including Ontario in 2008
2006 — Same-sex married couples are included in the Census for the first time following the 2005 federal legalization of same-sex marriage, with 7,500 of them counted, a number that nearly triples to 21,000 in 2011.
2011 — The Census starts counting foster families and step-families, finding that 13 per cent of families with children are blended families and 17,000 households contain at least one foster child.
2014 — Hallmark releases its first two-dad Father’s Day eCard
2015 — There are 1.5 million lone-parent-led families in Canada, or about one in six families.
August 2017 — Statistics Canada is set to release information on families, households and marital status based on the 2016 Census
mgillis@postmedia.com
查看原文...
