Some teachers go beyond the call of duty.
Julie Dias, a teacher at Osoyoos Elementary School, is certainly one of them. The Grade 2 teacher on Friday took 20 pies in the face – all for a good cause.
She’d promised students she would take the pies if they raised more than $2,000 for the Heart and Stroke Foundation. The students delivered, exceeding that amount.
Dias didn’t mind the taste of the whipped cream pies, but she didn’t enjoy getting the sweet ingredients in her eyes. She tried to wear goggles during her pieing, but the kids would have none of it and made her take them off.
Afterwards, teacher Amanda Stene and Principal Dave Foster also took pies in the face.
For those of us raised in the age of the strap, where teachers were to be respected and feared, the schools of today are unrecognizable.
But there’s a lot to be said for making schools a place that children enjoy attending. Whenever we visit Osoyoos Elementary School, we see students happy and engaged.
Only two days before the pieing and a Nighthawks 1/5/10K Fun Run, teachers Dean Rowland and Lynsey Richards had students in grades 4 to 7 in the gym showing off products they’d developed.
The young entrepreneurs did everything from developing an idea, doing market research, refining a prototype, developing a business plan and obtaining a loan.
These are real skills that will be useful in the real world.
The teachers and administration at Osoyoos Elementary deserve kudos for making their school a place where students enjoy coming to learn. And special kudos to Julie Dias for her bravery in the face of cream pies.
