Imaginative Education Engages Aboriginal Learners in Prince Rupert.

But air doesn’t seem to hold much interest for the students until she gets them to start thinking about just what air consists of. “Air is full of invisible particles that have been around forever,” says the teacher, “so we are breathing dinosaur breath. Air is full of dust, and dust is mainly small flakes from humans, so we are breathing Esther and Timothy and Alice. And, by the way, where do insects go to the bathroom?” Now the students are engaged. Suddenly air is something, not nothing. By the time the unit on air is ending, students are acting as air particles, working on art about air, dancing as air. From now on, when these kids think about air, there will be an emotional spark. Air has captured their imagination. And imagination is what teachers in Prince Rupert, B.C., are using as a foundation for engaging the hearts and minds of their students, nearly 60 percent of whom are Aboriginal. Between 55 and 60 percent of these Aboriginal students will graduate from high school, much better than the 25 percent who graduated 10 years ago, says Debbie Leighton-Stephens, district principal, Aboriginal Education Services, but not nearly enough. “We have a long way to go,” she says. Across B.C., only 47 percent of the Aboriginal students who entered Grade 8 in 2003 have since completed high school, compared to 79 percent for all students in the province, an inequity that has been recognized and deplored for years. Governments and non-government organizations, schools, and education organizations have poured money and ideas into projects aimed at closing the graduation gap and improving the quality of education for Aboriginal students. Many of the projects have established touch points with Aboriginal culture but haven’t built a culturally inclusive, pedagogically sound curriculum to engage Aboriginal students throughout an entire year and from one year to the next. GEORGE PEARSON