I've been going to my old highschool to volunteer/teach classes under the premise that I've done a bunch of stuff that isn't "the norm", and would like to give back some of my experience in the form of education. It's not to say that I'm better than anyone else or trying to impose my views on students, but I think because of the things i've done, i've learned a number of "truths", shall we say, that might not be taught to the masses in highschool through a government designed curriculum. If students had access or were made aware of this information, they may be inspired to become more involved and/or concerned about the state of the world. at least that's my opinion.
I talked to a number of teachers to try to see what I could do. It turns out, world issues, world history and any kind of politics related classes have been cancelled due to lack of interest. (WHAT!?!??!!!!!!!!) I then talked to the phys ed teachers who are starting a unit on nutrition pretty soon. I asked them if maybe I could incorporate the issue of organic/local/multicrop or permaculture farming VS big argriculture + GMOs and they said that it was "too political". (!?!?!) Apparently if I were to talk about these topics the Grade 9's would protest "Are we here to learn about nutrition? or the politics of food??" riiiiiggghhht.
I understand that highschool kids are maybe still somewhat impressionable and teachers are not permitted to force their politics or even really discuss their political views with students because it doesn't allow them to form their own opinion. . .but I don't see how that is related to food production for one thing, and all I want to share with them is the truth of big agriculture. Tell them about Monsanto and what they are doing!
Since when is exposing the truth, political?!
There is still some hope! The international business teacher was talking about the World Bank, IMF and how many of their loan programs end up creating more debt for "developing countries" who need to take loans and showing the documentary
Life and Debt. She seemed quite excited to let me talk about something. . .maybe fairtrade or migrant workers/outsourcing of labour.
Speaking of which, I watched another good documentary this week about migrant workers in Leamington,ON. It's
El Contrato, directed by Min Sook Lee and produced by the NFB! After going to the social justice forum at Brock University last weekend and attending a seminar presented by
no one is illegal I've been a lot more interested in migrant workers and learning more about how big of an issue it is in this area. Workers come from Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados,Grenada, Antigua, Dominica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Montserrat and Mexico. They can work for up to 8 months/year, 7 days a week for 10-12 hours/day for only $7/h with no benefits, no holidays and no overtime. They are not allowed to apply for Canadian citizenship ever and almost always have dependent families (wives and children) in their home countries. If they complain about the dangerous work conditions, ill-treatment, get sick, etc, they are sent home. And we call Canada a developed country. . .we can't even treat human beings like human beings. We are so concerned with our own comfort and the cost of things, in this case food, that we turn a blind eye to this kind of injustice. . .even though we must know that it's happening, in some remote part of our mind that perhaps we don't want to think about. When the cost of everything else is rising and inflation naturally predicts that costs will go up, how can we expect that food prices will be cheaper? How can we believe that food is given to us at such a low price by just means!?
When will we start caring about human rights for everyone and show compassion and generosity for our fellow human beings instead of benefiting from their exploitation. The terms have changed, perhaps but it seems a lot like modern day slavery in my opinion.
Humans just can't seem to evolve past exploitative power hierarchies. . .
