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Teaming culture and education

Vandals cause problems during week-long event

Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (May 01/01) - Students at Leo Ussak elementary school in Rankin Inlet joined kids across Nunavut to celebrate Education Week this past month.

Interaction between students, parents and elders highlighted the activities to support this year's slogan: Young people learn by example, older ones learn to lead.

Iglu building and scavenger hunts headlined the activities at Leo Ussak.

School principal Cheryl Forbes said a number of parents joined in the scavenger hunts with their kids.

"Some of the kids did wonderful things with their parents during Education Week," said Forbes.

"Our activities worked well in that respect."

Each day during Education Week (April 15-19), students were given a big word to take home with them.

They would then find as many smaller words within the big one as they could.

"We also had our students write brief stories on people who set a good example for them in their lives. We have a whole board full of pictures and stories displayed in the school from that exercise," Forbes said.

The final day of the week saw some kids sharing a hot chocolate with elders in an iglu, while others square danced and took part in other activities.

"The kids really seem to enjoy it when they get the opportunity to interact with the elders during these activities," she said.

"They were also quite happy to write down and share with the other kids who the people are who have had a positive influence on their lives."

Education Week wasn't without its disappointing moments, however, as the iglus built to mark the event once again became the targets of local vandals.

The first two iglus built for the school were smashed the first night.

Later in the week, two more iglus built at Little Williamson Lake for students at Maani Ulujuk middle school were also smashed.

"You always hate to see something like this happen," Forbes said.

"When you have incidents like this, with kids smashing iglus, you wonder what's happening with the kids' respect for their culture, elders and the community in general?"