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Forum
participants emotionally engaged by speakers The ability to empathize has always been considered a desirable trait. But Dr. Avis Glaze, director of education for the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board, made it an imperative in less than an hour's time. And in doing so, she touched the hearts and minds of those who heard her keynote address at Sir Sandford Fleming College to open the Peaceful Communities two-day forum. What could have been merely policy regurgitation became eloquently about real people. What could have been about 'working to understand one another' became instead about "stretching our humanity." "It was very moving, very passionate" says Jason Brock, a participant from Peterborough's Ontario Early Year's Centre. "I had chills when she spoke sometimes, it was so eloquent," he adds. Brock is here because he wants to take back ideas to his workplace; he wants to be able to relate what he learns back to the children who attend the program. "I was trying to keep up with her ideas - writing them down to think about them more later," Brock says. "One thing that stuck with me is that we have to influence more than our own children - we need to influence the community's children," he says. Brock was heading to the conflict resolution workshop on Wednesday after Dr. Glaze's speech. For Kristen Kairetz, Dr. Glaze's opening address was also moving. "I was very impressed. She is so articulate," Kairetz notes. Kairetz is a police foundations student at Fleming. So academically violence prevention is in her blood, she says, but also personally. "I came from a high school where I could see violence around me," says Kairetz. "And I've been a victim of bullying throughout my life in schools, too," she says. That's why, Kairetz says, that she has developed a new sympathy for both sides of the bullying fence - the part where there is a victim, but also the part that questions why the aggressor is the way he or she is, too. The forum will feature practical workshops today with a closing keynote address by Stephen Lewis, special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa. |
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