By Staff
March 13th. 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
The Halton District School Board is again hosting the Director’s Panel, as a virtual session on the issue: Building Bridges in a Polarizing World
Curtis Ennis, Director of Education for the Halton District School Board.: “These sessions provide opportunities to engage in thought-provoking discussions on how we as a community can come together and work towards a collective goal”.
Families, students, staff and community members are invited to attend an upcoming session as part of the Director’s Panel Series. Each session in the series explores issues and themes impacting students and education today.
Sessions are led by Director of Education Curtis Ennis and Human Rights & Equity Advisor Pardeep Nagra.
Panelists featured in the Director’s Panel Series may include HDSB students, parents/guardians and subject-matter experts.
The upcoming session in the series will be:
Building Bridges in a Polarizing World
Tuesday, March 19 from 6 – 7 p.m.
This will be a virtual event with the livestream linked on the HDSB website (hdsb.ca).
Registration is not required.
Building Bridges in a Polarizing World delves into the ways in which we can lead with respect and understanding as we navigate conversations around diverse perspectives.
Take this opportunity to explore how we can hold space for opposing ideas to develop mutual respect and understanding of each other as we forge a way forward together.
Joining the session as a panelist will be Dr. Steven Katz, Professor of Applied Psychology and Human Development at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. Dr. Katz has extensive expertise in the areas of cognition and learning, evidence-informed decision-making for school improvements and leadership for system change.
Those interested in attending the event can submit a question to the panel before or during the session through this Google Form: https://bit.ly/49KsYeU
Future sessions will be announced at a later date.
If we want to improve the level of public discourse let’s start by scrapping EDI programs and the federal Employment Equity Act. Then maybe we can all sit down and have mature discussions that don’t start by labelling, categorizing and shaming one another according to race, colour, gender, religion, sexual preference, historical injustices, etc.
When we start to see one another as human beings instead of “categories” that’s the moment we’ll all start to build respect and trust. But don’t expect it to emerge from a forum where the philosophical foundation and all the invited speakers are singing in unison from the same WOKE hymn book.
I usually cut the grass and do a bit of tidying up on the summer weekends it should take me no more than an hour to do the front but usually takes three, you see my house is on the route taken for the beach and splash pad; the extra time is taken up by shooting the breeze with all the people walking by; Yes the labelled, categorized and shamed of all ages and genders love to talk about gardening the weather and exchange a few stories, if you wanna waste half a day come on down it’s very heartwarming.
How about renaming it, “Polarizing the world by Building Bridges” that are not needed to cross imaginary obstacles.