Who Am I?
My husband calls me an uncompromising optimist.
At first I was offended by the the uncompromising part.
But, you know what, he's right!
I want to light a candle in the darkness, kiss the scraped knee, hug away all the stress . . .
Don't get me wrong. I have not lived a fairy tale life. But I have lived to the other side of:
• tragedy (when my house burned to the ground--leaving me with my son, my husband and my Irish setter, the clothes on my back and the old family clock that was at the clock repair shop);
• violence (the unsolved murder of my precious sister and friend);
• devastating illness (Neuro Lyme and severe environmental illness which stole a quarter of my life and still affect me)
and more . . . The truth is I have become an uncompromising optimist.
I see our times as the most exciting in the history of humanity. Sure we have huge challenges. But we also have the knowledge, the wisdom, and the ability to turn this ship around and head straight up the channel of human evolution.One thing long term illness gives you, once you get over the worst of the symptoms, is time. Time to explore new ways of looking at life, new ways of fixing things. Another thing severe illness provides is new perspective. Since your old world no longer exists, the only way is to forge a new one.
I focused on the challenges closest to my heart: education, healthcare and the judicial system (which just happen to be the three main expenditures of our social system!) I began to imagine the amazing benefits to our society if we addressed these key issues in early life where they can be prevented? That, I decided, is what I want to see!!
I realized the root symptoms of all three challenges were well-developed in every Primary/Kindergarten class I ever taught. The driving question became: if these problems are already ingrained in many 5 year old children, where do they start? Since newborns usually arrive with a sparkle in their eye, studying the world around them, what is it that happens between the sparkle and the first bus ride?
Life!
Positive genetic tendencies are turned on by rich and nurturing life experience. Awareness of how our daily interactions with our kids create their future and ours transforms fear into hope.
So who am I?
A teacher thrilled to be alive in a time when we truly do know how to change the world.
And one of the growing number of villagers reaching for the possible through our children.
Yes I AM an uncompromising optimist--I see great hope for the future of mankind planted in the hearts of our newborns, waiting for us to protect and nurture the flame.
Professional and Writing Achievements
• Graduate of Nova Scotia Teacher's College
• Continued studies at Acadia University, and Mount St. Vincent University throughout my teaching career
• Rural Delivery magazine published my article The 100 Dollar Greenhouse in their January/February 2018 issue.
Leadership Roles:
Click to read about or order
•President of the Lunenburg County NS Council of the International Reading Association
• Chairperson of the local Primary Teacher’s Support Group
• Member of N.S. Reading Association’s provincial literacy committee
• NSTU’s PETA journal committee.
• Presenter ITA Conference Halifax 1992
• Piloted Math Program for NSDept. Ed 1992
• Presenter LCDSB Summer Institute on Math 1993
• Winner of Numerous Grants for Innovations in Classroom
• 1997 Became Reading Recovery Specialist
• Honourable Mention in 2012 “Women Creating Peace” Writing Competition
Second Story Women’s Centre, Lunenburg NS
• 2013 Publication of my parenting book The First Five Year’s Nurturing Your Child’s Ability to Learn now distributed by Brunswick Books http://brunswickbooks.ca/First-Five-Years/
• Member of the Writer's Federation of Nova Scotia
[In the late 1990's a series of unfortunate events combined with untreated Lyme disease causing Nancy to become unable to teach. From that time until the present, she has focused on reclaiming her brain/nervous system function using a holistic healing approach. The gift she received from her illness is an exceptionally deep understanding about how brain function is affected by the environment and how providing a healthy environment during the brain-forming early years can prevent learning, behavioural, health and emotional problems in our young children. This information was invaluable when she was finally able to return to the writing of the parenting book she began in 1992.
Nancy has recently begun to give inspirational and informative speeches/workshops to parenting groups and others involved in the lives of young children].