Speaking at Dasmesh Punjabi School

Day at Dasmesh to talk diversity 'truly inspiring'
Ken Herar, Special to the Times
Published: Friday, October 23, 2009
What would you do if you weren't a writer?
What is the best part of being a writer?
What do you like writing about the best?
Do you still play tennis?
Those were some of the questions I faced from students on Tuesday during a speaking engagement at Dashmesh Punjabi School with Times' editor Gord Kurenoff.
We were both at the Matsqui Village school to promote the Times' essay contest Building an Inclusive, Diverse Community with eager students. What an inspiring morning we had meeting hundreds of well-mannered children and their excellent teachers.
I arrived a bit earlier than planned and as I stood outside the main entrance in the frosty morning air with vice-principal Jaspal Singh Dhaliwal and watched the yellow school buses roll up, almost every student greeted me with a big smile or "hello, sir!" as they stepped foot on school property.
They knew I was their guest for the morning and they made me feel very welcome. The respect and maturity these kids had all dressed up in their school uniforms was well beyond their young years.
In fact, I have never seen an entire school that all looked like one large team.
Before our session with the children, we had the opportunity to sit down with Principal Sulochana Chand, the founder and now-retired principal Dr. Dalip Singh Gill, and school administrator Sandeep Lidder.
Dr. Gill, who started the school in the early '80s, said "we have liberal values and firmly believe in multiculturalism.
"In fact, we have a multicultural teaching staff and just hired our first Métis instructor at our school."
With our heads covered in kerchiefs out of respect, it was time to go upstairs to join in the morning assembly in the Worship Room and pay our respects to the Guru Granth Sahib where students were seated.
Kurenoff, who gave me a start in this business in 1995 and the opportunity to write for the Times this year, was introduced first. He shared his emotional, award-winning story of how nobody would pick "Kevin" to be on their street hockey team while he was growing up in Yorkton, Sask.
Kevin, who had a disability, was left out of many games because the kids in Kurenoff's neighbourhood thought he couldn't play and "seemed very strange and very different."
When Kurenoff's mother found out about Kevin's exclusion, she was very unhappy with "Gordo." He was forced to pick Kevin for his team the next time they played, and was shocked how great the kid was playing in goal.
"Roberto Luongo would be envious," joked Kurenoff, poking fun at the Vancouver Canucks' star goaltender. "Kevin could stop lightning. If he was on your team you usually won. Who knew?
". . . When he passed away [just before his 16th birthday], the church was filled with his ragtag hockey buddies. His foster mom thanked each of us for making a much-too-short life full of so much joy.
"We all got seriously choked up when she told the funeral gathering that Kevin thought 'we were all pretty odd, lousy goal-scorers, but the nicest friends in the whole wide world.' "
I shared some similar "inclusion" stories with the students and related how often we are told that we are not good enough or face the rejection slip. This is all part of the game of life, I told the kids, and that it is important that we move forward and treat others well.
I also shared that some people will not like me because of my skin colour or my ethnicity. I am OK with that - we cannot fight with everyone.
I encouraged the students to volunteer and integrate in the community and be good role models.
As for the contest, there are seven days left before the entry deadline. Again, the question is: What have you done or what can you do to make our community inclusive?
You must be between 14 to 26 years of age to enter and all responses must be 300 words or less. Entries can be e-mailed to me.
- Award-winning columnist Ken (Kulwinder) Herar writes for the Abbotsford-Mission Times. E-mail him at Kenherar@gmail.com.