Buckets Lists and Bumper Stickers: Some Reflections from Seat 17B
As I write this blog, I am on a Delta flight over southern Saskatchewan headed for Minnesota and eventually, my Boston home. Yesterday, I gave an all-day lecture on student motivation to 350 rural school teachers in Prince Albert, 200 miles north of Saskatoon. They were a great and responsive audience. Many of them teach in one room schoolhouses in isolated areas of the province. The majority of their students are First Nation, the Canadian term for their aboriginal (Indian) population.
One teacher told me that her village is facing a crisis this week because their only small food market and gas station were suddenly foreclosed upon and shuttered. The nearest gas station and market is 160 miles away. A difficult, challenging life.
Next week I travel to suburban Alexandria, Virginia with its gleaming state-of-the-art schools and a gas station and supermarket on every corner.
And yet, the presentation that I delivered at both venues will be basically the same.