Teacher Ryan Baptiste (right) is heading up the new EPIC program at Southern Okanagan Secondary School. Students in the program will forego the traditional school timetable and take part in opportunities courtesy of the local First Nations community. Here, unrelated to the EPIC program, Ryan encourages Justin Boisclair in a fun activity during Spirit Day recently.
Almost everything about the new EPIC program at Southern Okanagan Secondary School is designed to keep students from going to class.
EPIC—which stands for Experiential, Project-Based, Indigenous, Community—will be offered for the first time during second semester this school year, and according to Principal Marcus Toneatto, the small group of students who enrol will have a school experience unlike any other.
Toneatto explained that EPIC students will completely forego the traditional school timetable. In place of “classes” they will undertake a number of projects and learning opportunities both in the school and community.
Many of those opportunities will come courtesy of the local First Nations community, who will play a big part in the curriculum.
Part of the course will see the students themselves help choose those projects, but Toneatto said they will all be recreation-based and mostly outdoors. He said things like carving a canoe paddle, learning to construct a sweat lodge and visiting important natural landmarks in the area could all be part of the curriculum.
“We’re trying to be innovative in meeting the needs of our students,” Toneatto explained.
Vice principal Tracy Harrington explained that the program will be designed to meet the needs of students who don’t necessarily flourish in a traditional classroom setting.
“The four walls of a school doesn’t do it for all the kids in the school, all the different types of learners that we have, so we’re just trying something new, and trying to be as creative and forward-thinking as possible,” she said.
“We’re looking at learners who sitting in desks all day is not necessarily in their best interest.” she explained. “For some students learning from a textbook isn’t the way that they learn best. Whereas if they’re out and doing things—taking things apart and putting things back together—in a different environment, it might be a better for them.”
The program will run the entire semester, and students who take part will receive the usual four credits for a semester of high school. Those credits will likely be in physical education, information technology, social studies, woodwork or something similar.
The beauty of the program, Harrington explained, is that students will gain all of the same knowledge they would in a traditional classroom, just through different means.
“It really connects them to their learning in a different way. So they will understand why math in important. If you’re building that canoe you’ve got to be able to measure things out and it has to be right. So just for some of those kids that connection piece makes it real for them,” she said.
Ryan Baptiste is the teacher who will head up the program. While EPIC is open to any Grade 9 or 10 student who is interested, Baptiste said he hopes it will engage some of the school’s First Nation’s youth.
“It’s really exciting to me, being a member of the Sioux Indian Band and kind of being like a role model for the students, to be able to tie the community into the school,” he said. “I know a lot of the kids don’t value education much and trying to get them into it would be a really cool thing to see.”
He said that he believes that all the students who enrol will find more of a sense of belonging because they will be spending an entire semester together. It will be like their own little community.
EPIC is open to any Grade 9 or 10 student enrolled at Southern Okanagan Secondary School. Any students interested can visit the office to learn more.
By Trevor Nichols
