Mental Health Week

Perfect Attendance Award Assembly - May 9.

The week of May 6 - 10 was short for students because teachers had two In-Service days on May 7 & 8.  An In-Service is similar to a Professional Development (PD) Day down south where classes are cancelled but teachers are at school participating in workshops.  The workshops can range from being just informative to learning new administrative and/or teaching skills.  For high school teachers, the In-Service was about the implementation of the new Nunavut high school curriculum.

            

Kindergarten teacher Abigail receives
a plaque for her contributions to Nunavut
education.

Multiple Graduation Options (aka Multiple Options) has been in development since the creation of Nunavut in April 1999.  Currently, Nunavut schools follow the Alberta curriculum with a few added Inuit-centered courses (Inuktitut, sewing, carving, iglu building, etc).  The Nunavut Government (GN) wants to have its own curriculum that better reflects Inuit culture and motivates Inuit students to finish high school.  With the new Multiple Options system, students still have to take the core courses but can also major in one of six areas: Trades & Technology; History, Heritage, & Culture; Community Care Giving & Family Studies; Entrepreneurship; Fine Arts & Crafts; and Information Technology. 

            

Grade 2 students get their picture
taken after receiving perfect attendance
certificates.

The informative workshop was hosted by a lady from the Department of Education.  Multiple Options was supposed to be implemented in the fall of 2013 but has been pushed back until August 2014.  It was decided that the program needed more modifications and schools wanted extra time to decide which areas of study they will offer to senior students.  Unfortunately, many Nunavut schools are not equipped to offer all six areas of study.  High school teachers were given a brief review of the program, what it has to offer to students, and how it will be implemented in the coming year. 

            

Grade 4 students having their picture taken while holding their perfect attendance certificates.

For the last day of the in-service, members of the community (elders, parents, students, social workers, etc) were invited to participate in round-table discussions on what resources could be used to make Multiple Options work.  Mishak Allurut translated questions and comments in Inuktitut and English.  Overall, the discussions produced many great ideas but also concerns about the program's effectiveness and main goal of producing more Inuit graduates. Today, 75% of Inuit youth do not finish high school.  On average, they also miss 3 years of secondary education, a large amount of time accumulated over several years.  The causes of this are many, for example, lack of attendance, not enough sleep, family land trips, looking after young children, moving between communities, and problems at home.  My main concern about Multiple Options was that only a few post-secondary institutions (I forget which ones) down south will recognize it.  That could seriously limit the options of an Inuk student wanting to pursue post-secondary education.  Hopefully that won't be the case in 2014. 

            

Grade 6 students pose with their perfect
attendance certificates.

On Thursday, May 9, a perfect attendance awards assembly for the month of April was held in the school's gym after lunch.  The format of the assembly was very similar to the one held on April 15 with one exception.  Three Inuit teachers, Iga, Abigail, and Eunice, were recognized for their many years of teaching, receiving plaques for being successful educators for 5, 10, and 15 years.  Out of a student population of 235, around 30 students from K - 12 received certificates for perfect attendance and gift certificates from the local Northern Store.  One visual feature that stood out in the assembly was the green clothing that many students and teachers wore for Mental Health Week.

            

Iga leading the Mental Health Assembly. 

The World Health Organization defines mental health as "a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community."  More than 450 million people worldwide suffer from mental health disorders, for example, anger & violent behaviours, suicidal thoughts, bipolar disorder, drug & alcohol abuse, anxiety, schizophrenia, PTSD, depression, and trauma.  None are foreign to the northern territories. 

            

The term 'mental health' has been in heavy use in the north in recent years because it has become a serious political and social issue.  The suicide rate for Inuit is 11 times higher than the national average; twenty-eight times higher for young Inuit men.  It is well-known in health circles that alcohol & drug abuse, domestic violence, and child abuse are serious problems in northern communities.  On top of that, there are many Inuit children who suffer from malnutrition, ADD, ADHD, and FASD.  Mental health services are available, except more resources are needed to lower wait times and improve accessibility to all the northern communities. 

            

The Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) started Mental Health Week back in 1951 to "raise awareness of mental illness in Canada."  For the 62nd Annual Mental Health Week (May 6 - 12), Inuujaq School held a mental health assembly in the gym after afternoon recess.  Everyone was encouraged to wear green.  Unfortunately, I left my green tie in Ottawa.  In its place, I wore my black tie with many colourful inukshuks.

            

For the assembly, students were organized into their Spirit Teams.  Iga, the Inuk teacher in charge of Spirit Team activities, led everyone into a collective singing of Bobby McFerrin's famous 1988 song, 'Don't Worry, Be Happy.'  The next activity was a word game where spirit teams had to quickly spell the phrase, 'Don't Worry, Be Happy,' by pulling out letters one at a time from an envelope.  Each team member had to roll a dice and could only pick out a letter if the dice landed on 4.  Unfortunately, my spirit team, Team Rabbit, didn't win.  The last activity of the assembly was for each Spirit Team to read one of the many mental health posters that were posted on the gym's walls.  The posters were written in English and Inuktitut.

            

Team Rabbit reading an important mental health message in Inuktitut.

When the assembly was completed, teachers & students were sent back to class because there was still time left in the school day.  My guitarists and I spent the remainder of fourth period working on string exercises and selected tab melodies.