Why I Am Spending This Summer Unlearning and Learning

Today, I planned to write about what I have learned about homeschooling after wrapping up our first year of homeschool. The recent news of remains of children at residential schools across the country and confirmation this week at Cowessess First Nation, and all the schools left to confirm—this has me reeling not about what I have learned this year but what we have to learn.

My education was an education of privilege. I attended a small town elementary school and remember only one face with skin a different colour than mine. We said the Lord’s Prayer and we sung our allegiance to the Canadian flag. Both were familiar and known. I can’t help but think about the children who were forced to attend a school and were confronted with prayers that were so foreign to them and world that was nothing like they had a home.

I am committed to homeschooling our children in a way that teaches them about the world and exposes them to the reality of that world we live in. A world that is deeply entrenched in white privilege and steeped in colonialism.

So this summer instead of reflecting on what homeschooling has taught me, I am reflecting on what I have not been taught and spending a summer learning.

I have committed to be an ally with Indigenous people, to listen, to create space for healing, to recognize the pain my own ignorance has caused in a country that continues to suffer today. I am checking my biases, starting uncomfortable conversations, and actively working towards creating a community and space that fairly represents everyone.

We all have work to do. Here’s to a summer of learning.

xo

Morgan