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The Georges P. Vanier School is dedicated to helping every student attain their full potential through a variety of programs, some of which reflect the unique bilingual and multi-cultural nature of the area it serves. The staff, parents and students strive to promote critical thinking, caring, sharing and tolerance with a positive learning environment.

Good Will  

This week I got to substitute a class for the first time in a month or so and it got me to thinking about our school.  The class was about the French Revolution, but it was also about a writer by the name of Rousseau.  In the mid eighteenth century Rousseau coined a phrase out of the ether of his age; he put forward the general will.  This will would come to provide the intellectual foundation for the greatest ideals since the fall of Jerusalem and the greatest excesses in violent execution since Charlemagne beheaded the Saxons, The French Revolution.   

So, a general will can be dangerous.  At base, it says that our common desire, or indeed understanding, will determine the direction of us all.  The citizen completes a contract social, signs his name, and is adopted into the circle.  The new minted citizen gives us some freedoms in exchange for the community.   He may have to put down his sword, learn to use his fork with his left hand, or take off his shoes at the door.  Yet, once he joins, his own ideals will push us all just that smidge forward.  The general will moves us all.   Schools too have a general will.  Think about the freedoms you give up to sit in this circle.  But think too that by sitting here you make the circle of people a little bit better.  

I want to give you another example of a great school.  It is a school for the deaf at the south end of Maasai Mara in Kenya.  It is not, perhaps, the most beautiful building.  Nor does it have Smartboards in every room.  There is no photocopier.  Yet, in the building, there is a will.  The will is that each child will have the childhood that is so rare in Africa.  Despite a disability, they shall have a little classroom all their own.  Consider then the revolutions of 2007, Raila Odinga and Mwai Kibaki each vie for the Presidency.  Two old lions, neither are willing to relinquish control over the Pride.  They send their supporters into the streets and the brush fires begin in earnest.  Tribal lines are drawn and the revenge killings begin.  The Luo and Kikuyu are at war.  

In the midst of impending violence, what does this little school for the deaf and mute children do?  Do they close their doors and have their staff run for the hills.  No, instead they keep their Kikuyu and Luo children together under one roof signing away in American Sign Language.  They perform an act of will.   

I like to think that these children are the tipping point.  They are the few who did not go home to fight one another’s brothers.  In so doing, they did not suffer, or inflict disaster on one another.  I like to think that the little deaf children signed their way out of their country’s civil war.  The little boys and girls could not hear the drums beating in the streets, so they refused to go to war.  In not hearing, they saved us all.   

I like to think that our school is an act of General Will.  This year, we have gone to plays and won tournaments.  We have built shelves and ducks and fired clay.  We have seen respect in ourselves, and in those we have met on the road.   Amazingly, we have wrestled and not degraded into violence.  In doing so, we have all become more competent souls.  But remember that none of these projects is our school.  Our school remains an act of will because of our decision to remain deaf to drums.  We are deaf to the forces that hold people apart.  That is what the General Will of a great community looks like.  It is the one that Rousseau hoped for. 

We are embarking on a new semester.  As we do, I hope that echoes of the deaf children resound with you as they have for me.  That we all may refuse together to hear the lions and make signs to each other that we care for those in our classroom and in our school.   

February Pizza Order Form available HERE

The senior high dance scheduled for Friday, February 3 has been CANCELLED.

January / February Vanier Voice available HERE

Oiler Game Ticket Information available HERE

Your ‘Voice’ on Healthy Eating.

We are looking for your support in providing feedback to our School and School Division as a whole on the new protocol for cafeteria, food service, fundraising and special days like Pizza Day.  We have posted a copy of the draft policy on our webpage and hope that you might take the time to fill out a copy of the survey and return it to Nigel McCarthy before February 8th.  

Have your say on food for our kids!

DRAFT POLICY FOR "HEALTHY SCHOOL COMMUNITIES" available HERE

FEEDBACK SURVEY FOR HEALTHY SCHOOL COMMUNITIES DRAFT POLICY available HERE

The library has acquired many new books for both the fiction and non-fiction collection.  These books are of diverse interests and support most reading levels.  A selection of these books has been posted on the digital photo frame at the main entrance of the school for a sneak peak.   

Georges P Vanier School is now on facebook. For quick updates, look for us and "Like" us!http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Georges-P-Vanier-School/123813397726077