Education Unplugged: Students Sound off about What Helps Them Learn.

DONALEEN SAUL It was after school on a Friday afternoon at the end of a long week, and Christmas was days away. But nothing was going to stop a group of students at Vancouver’s King George Secondary School from saying what was on their minds. Sitting seminar-style under fluorescent lights in hard chairs around two pushed-together classroom tables, they were asked to talk about what helps them learn and what does not. The answers detonated from them at a speed next to impossible to keep up with, but nonetheless each student’s unique point of view came through with blazing clarity. Being challenged is the essential element for Ioana Bercea, a Grade 10 student who started her school years in Rumania, where she says the education system is much more rigorous than it is here. According to Ioana, “It may be fear-based but kids learn more.” Ioana is an avid reader, a former violin player, and an active volunteer at My Sister’s Closet, a second-hand clothing store that provides free clothes to clients of Battered Women’s Support Services. Although she is an honours student, Ioana doesn’t find school that interesting, claiming it offers few opportunities “to think outside the box.” For Tamara Mihic, the most important aid to learning is being free to speak what’s on her mind. At the top of her Grade 9 class, Tamara plays volleyball and basketball, holds down a part time job as a clerk at an adult education centre, serves as student council treasurer, and plays piano at a Grade 8 Royal Conservatory level. Although not at all reticent to say what she thinks, Tamara laments, “Lots of kids hold back. They’re too shy, they’re scared.” Conor Mervyn is a Grade 12 student in King George’s City School, a mini-school program he describes as “enriched, which means more work.” Conor is a believer in “non-coercive learning”, meaning that learning is most effective when it is self-motivated. Although a good student in his academic subjects, Conor’s passion is music. He plays the guitar and hopes to attend the music program at Nelson BC’s Selkirk College when he graduates. Of his newly acquired iPod, he says, “It just completes me.” Grade 11 student, Zlatina Radomirova, has only lived in Vancouver for two years, having previously attended school in South Africa and Bulgaria. Fond of jogging, drawing, and reading about Ancient Egypt, Zlatina notices a difference in Canadian students’ attitude toward others, compared to what she experienced in South Africa. Convinced that learning occurs best in a positive environment, she says, “The kids here don’t really respect the teachers or their peers... We can’t learn in that kind of atmosphere.” Sarika Narinesingh, a Grade 12 student, is on the honour roll and works hard to stay there. Literature is her favourite subject, she enjoys movies and art, and she hopes to get into the Emily Carr Institute’s Communication Design program after graduation. Describing a school Career Preparation course in which she had to teach a unit on Energy to Grade 7 students at Vancouver’s Space Centre, Sarika says she learns best when she is able to experience and directly apply what she is learning.

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