Learning Disability
A learning disability is a lifelong difference in the way a person processes, stores, and expresses information—an invisible and often misunderstood variation that exists not in isolation, but in constant relationship with the accessibility of the learning environment. This tag brings together stories, critiques, and resources that challenge deficit-based framings, centre lived experience, and demand educational practices that create true access for students with disabilities, rather than demanding constant adaptation from those already working hardest to belong.
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Flourishing as an ethical imperative
Like many of you, I caught CBC’s Ideas episode the other day, where philosopher Angie Hobbs spoke about the ancient Greek concept of eudaimonia—a term sometimes translated as happiness or welfare, but more richly understood as human flourishing. In a world flooded by crisis, it may seem indulgent or impractical to contemplate the good life,…
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When compensation is mistaken for capacity: why I support Dyslexia BC
In every school, there are those children—gifted and hyper-conscientious—who stay behind after the bell has rung, who do the homework even when no one collects it, who chase perfection out of a desperation to stay afloat in a system that offers no life raft for those who do too well to be noticed. These are…
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Summer school blues: on being excluded from the gifted program
In the spring of 2018, I applied to the Vancouver School Board’s summer Gifted/Challenge Program for my twins, Jeannie and Robin, who had just finished kindergarten and were, in different ways, already outpacing the curriculum. Robin was already captivated by the ancient world—particularly Egypt, with its pyramids, its rituals, its mythologies of death and continuity,…
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Not sick. Not fine. Not supported. Sexism in Vancouver School Board.
They said she was doing well. They said it with the softness of authority — that practiced tone that suggests neutrality while sidestepping consequence — a tone I’ve come to recognise as institutional, not personal, and absolutely not maternal. They said she was fine because she was quiet. Because she didn’t scream. Because she didn’t…
