School at the Legislature

When I am done this Inquiring Minds tour, it’s going to be hard to give up the magic carpet, but right now I wish we were walking this next path together. Regardless, we will fly out of Churchill Square south and pass a fine example of Edmonton’s architectural heritage, the Hotel MacDonald. At the Mac, let’s swoop gently to the west to follow the Heritage Trail that approximates the original path from the settlement of Edmonton to the Hudson’s Bay Company Fort where the Alberta Legislature Building sits. Along this trail are plaques about sites of historic importance and McKay Ave School, the meeting place for Alberta’s first Legislative Assembly. As we wend our way through the buildings just above the treetops lining the streets, we finally pass the Federal Building and turn to the right to carefully swoop down to the reflecting pools. Look south and take in the iconic Dome and then north to the windows of the Education Centre, home of the School at the Legislature.

Are you a teacher interested in Parliamentary Democracy? Consider the Alberta Teachers Institute on Parliamentary Democracy planned for this fall. I can’t help but wonder here, if an alumnus of School at the Legislature is already working in our provincial civil service or considering running as an MLA?

The health and safety of the Members, staff and visitors is a top priority for the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, so during these Covid-19 times, all tours and public events are suspended.

I had the opportunity to catch Kelsey Kendrick, Michael Ruiter and Grace McNeely working hard in their respective homes. Kelsey first observed Inquiring Minds in action at the Legislature in 2015. As a program assistant, she facilitated a hodgepodge events for programs and exhibits. Michael Ruiter, with a Master of Letters in Medieval Studies, was a tour guide (Heritage Interpreter) at the Legislature when he met Inquiring Minds through a class of Gr 4 I brought from EJ (Edmonton Journal) School. Grace McNeely, who recently became SATL Education Coordinator, started at the Legislature in fall 2016 as a Heritage Interpreter. Her first interaction with SATL was giving a small group interview for a French class! She began leading SATL weeks a year later, in 2017, and eventually became a Programs Assistant.

I asked each of them in turn about misconceptions teachers might have about spending a week at the Alberta Legislature. In their own ways they all came back to the idea that the educational opportunities of their space are so much more than social studies. They enjoy making connections to ideas teachers might only dream they could make there.

The diversity of their hidden gems surprised me. These gems speak to the wonder of how pleasing it can be to be engaged by different things. I have visited and toured the site numerous times over many years and appreciate the fact that I have not plumbed the depths of treasures there. For Kelsey the gem is a piece of beautiful and clever stained glass in Legislature Library. Michael takes great joy in sharing a larch planted to honour Alberta’s sister province in Japan, Hokkaido and builds on its needle dropping habits to illustrate the metaphor of something being two things at once. Inside the refurbished Federal Building is a pedway stairwell walled with Tyndall stone where Grace delights in revealing fossils from a time before even flowers existed, a surprising science, art and just plain fascinating set of connections.

The Inquiring Minds website has this to say about School at the Legislature:

Bring your students to our fully equipped classroom to experience government first-hand and to meet the people behind today’s headlines!  The School at the Legislature program is targeted towards meeting all aspects of the Grade 6 curriculum and aims to educate students about citizenship and democracy while providing a fun and exciting learning environment.

Look at the School at the Legislature webpage. http://www.assembly.ab.ca/visitor/teachers/SchoolatLeg/SATL_program.htm

Do you want to know more? Contact them at satl@assembly.ab.ca

You can start your application process at the Inquiring Minds website. https://ourinquiringminds.wordpress.com/application/