When a delegation of 29 Swedish educators and politicians arrived in 麻豆传媒映画last week, they didn't expect to be met at the airport by Pippi Longstocking. The group from Gothenburg, the country's second-largest city, is in town to learn how the 麻豆传媒映画School Board has helped new immigrants to Canada achieve a high standard of academic success. The decision to have them met by a world-famous, fictional character from a Swedish childrens book wasn't made simply to make them feel more at home.
The thing about Pippi Longstocking is that even though she is a bit strange and an outsider, she has all these really amazing qualities in her, said local performer Lisa Voth, who arrived in character to meet the surprised Swedes at the arrivals gate. Not only is she very strong, but she has this great imagination and thinks outside the box even though she struggles in normal society. Like it must be for many immigrants, she has a lot of awesome qualities that often don't get recognized easily.
Voth was brought in by Dr. Michelle Mann, a counsellor who provides mental health services to 麻豆传媒映画elementary schools, to help make the point that immigrants from western countries struggle in unfamiliar surroundings as well.
Helping people fit in is a life mission for me, said Mann, who helped organize the visit that saw the Swedish delegation drop in at a number of city schools to speak with students and teachers. What I wanted to show them was evidence-based programs so they will be able to see that not only are there emotional and social programs within the school system, but that these are effective as well. They need to feel that people are accepting you, that you are safe with other people.
B.C. schools have been teaching social responsibility, which incorporates social and emotional learning, for more than a decade. It's recognized as a "foundational skill" right up there with the three Rsreading, writing and arithmeticand educators say teaching these skills help students live happier lives and become good citizens.
Sweden is struggling to cope with an influx of immigrants, predominantly Muslim, and its educators want to help children fit into Swedish society to avoid the alienation and high unemployment rates experienced by immigrants in other European countries.
We used to be much more of a monoculture in Sweden, but now we are facing a multicultural society, too, so we have to face this in the schools, said Jaana Sandberg, development manager at Gothenburg's Centre for School Development. Among our newcoming students, especially if they are a little older, they have quite a hard time because they have to struggle so much with the Swedish language. We have a lot of refugees in Sweden and among them many people coming alone, young boys from Afghanistan or Somalia who are coming on their own. You have to help them get on the right track from the beginning.
The Scandinavian country, generally considered an oasis of civility and openness, has one of the most generous welfare and immigration policies in Europe, and consequently is seeing roughly 100,000 new immigrants added to its population of almost nine million every year. As of 2010, 1.33 million people or 14 per cent of residents in Sweden were foreign-born.
