A New “Regeneration”

BY CHRIS OLIVE, SCIENCE TEACHER & COORDINATOR OF SUSTAINABILITY

LCC is a school with a long history of responding to changes in the world around us. Becoming coed, building facilities like the Centre for Discovery and, most recently, moving toward becoming a fully independent school in 2024 are just a few examples. These changes allow us to chart our own path to the future. It is the story of where this path will take us that I wish to address.

FOR A PROJECT ON BUOYANCY, GRADE 5 STUDENTS BUILD

As a long-time LCC faculty member, I recently took on the role of coordinator of sustainability. In the spirit of storytelling, I believe that “coordinator of regeneration” would be a better title. Sustainability is not a sufficiently ambitious goal for a school like LCC. The etymology of the word “sustain” is to maintain. We can do better. The natural world needs some care and repair. At the same time, data show that huge strides are being made in areas like infant survival, endangered species protection, Internet access, girls in school, and protected natural areas.

I am a teacher of physics, robotics, chemistry, biology and computer science. I believe in data. But data makes for poor storytelling. It is the human component that matters. When a student says they want to go into “business”, I tell them that is not a career destination. A business is what you create when you have a dream that you want to build. I want to help make the school a place that teaches students the power and subtlety of nature and the beauty of its creatures. I want to help them dream of worthy things.

CHRIS OLIVE has lived and worked in Montreal his entire life. He has degrees in computer science and education, both from McGill University, specializing in physics and biology. He grew up on the Macdonald Campus of McGill University. Mr. Olive has played competitive soccer for 44 years and missed the podium by one position in the World Masters Diving Championship in 2014. He and his wife are in the process of opening a non-profit Maker Space on the West Island of Montreal.