School District #60: A workshop for teachers and parents by Daniel Vecchio

Saving our Boys: Our duty of care

How nurturing boys’ emotional health, especially in the classroom, must be foundational for all teachers and parents.

Wednesday, May 2nd at 7:00pm at Bert Bowes Middle School Bandroom

Daniel Vecchio

In this workshop/lecture, teachers and parents will learn how fundamentally important it is to engage and nurture the boys in our schools to find their emotional voice (emotional literacy.)

The research is abundant about what happens to far too many boys who are emotionally illiterate (just look at the stats around violent crime, sexual crime and harassment, incarcerations, boy suicide, substance abuse, drop-out rates, and achievement in school)- the data is very disturbing; clearly we need to re-think how we “behave with and react to” boys during their school experiences.

Far too many boys believe that the only acceptable emotions for them in our society are anger and aggression; far too often these boys grow up to be men who are angry and aggressive. Our boys carry with them the invisible code of “manhood” and it is an impossible for any of them to live up to this cultural creation of a masculinity that still values and encourages boys to use power, strength, domination and control over others; a culture that does not nurture boys to express a broad array of healthy emotions so that they can live full and happy lives.

Participants will have the opportunity to learn how and why boys are getting a “raw deal” in schools and what they can do in their school communities and with the partnership of parents, to raise emotionally healthy boys who grow into healthy men.

About Daniel Vecchio:

Daniel Vecchio holds a Master of Education degree in School Leadership and has been an educator (teacher and administrator) for 31 years in a variety of schools in School District # 60. He has also worked as a Faculty Associate for the department of education, Simon Fraser University. In 2004, his younger sister, Rebecca, was murdered by her husband in Abbotsford, BC; this tragic event led him to “an awakening” of the violence committed against women by men that continues to flourish in our country. In 2005 he began talking to groups of students in both elementary and secondary schools about healthy relationships, recognizing unhealthy relationships and how boys and men need to shed those aspects of masculinity that promote the use of violence, power and control over others. His website is www.standbyyourwomen.ca

For more information, please contact Bert Bowes Middle School at 250-785-6717 or whart@prn.bc.ca