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FROM THE PRESIDENT |
Gilles Arsenault
PEITF President |
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PEITF newsletter
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From the President
PEITF Newsletter Article by
Gilles Arsenault
The holiday season is quickly
approaching… Christmas concerts, plays, musicals, winter sports
and many more seasonal activities are taking place. We are
starting to feel the crisp air and Mother Nature is waiting, just
like Santa, to deliver the white stuff as winter sets in.
Time flies when we’re having fun! This time of year is always one
that goes by very quickly as December is a short school month, but
a very busy one. I truly hope that you will have a chance in the
holiday season to renew old friendships and find time to do the
things that you feel are important to you and your family. Another
option can also be to do nothing at all, if you so choose!
At Federation House, we continue to advance and promote the
interest of the teaching profession. We are wrapping up our work
on the Teacher Workload, Teacher Allocation Committee. The
Minister of Education and Earl y
Childhood Development should have a nice report for Christmas. We
hope that in turn, he will give teachers nice gifts tagged with
different actions linked to our recommendations.
We also hope that Minister McIsaac is enjoying his new portfolio
and we trust that he will spend the holiday season mingling with
his many educational friendly family members. To you and yours,
Minister McIsaac, a safe and happy holiday season.
The Staff at Federation house is also busy with many different
educational issues, but at this time of year I will spare you all
the details and will forward you this information in a future
issue of the PEITF Newsletter or e-mail.
At this time I will share with you a story for the season…
THE GOLD
WRAPPING PAPER
Once upon a time, a man punished his five-year-old daughter
for using up the family’s only roll of expensive gold wrapping
paper before Christmas. Money was tight, so he became even
more upset when on Christmas Eve, he saw that the child had
used the expensive gold paper to decorate a large shoebox she
had put under the Christmas tree. Nevertheless, the next
morning the little girl, filled with excitement, brought the
gift box to her father and said, "This is for you, Daddy!" As
he opened the box, the father was embarrassed by his earlier
overreaction, now regretting how he had punished her. But when
he opened the shoebox, he found it was empty and again his
anger flared. "Don't you know, young lady,” he said harshly,
“when you give someone a present there's supposed to be
something inside the package!" The little girl looked up at
him with sad tears rolling from her eyes and whispered:
"Daddy, it's not empty. I blew kisses into it until it was all
full." The father was crushed. He fell on his knees and put
his arms around his precious little girl. He begged her to
forgive him for his unnecessary anger. An accident took the
life of the child only a short time later. It is told that the
father kept this little gold box by his bed for all the years
of his life. Whenever he was discouraged or faced difficult
problems, he would open the box, take out an imaginary kiss,
and remember the love of this
beautiful child who had put it there. In a very real sense,
each of us as human beings have been given an invisible golden
box filled with unconditional love and kisses from our
children, family and friends. There is no more precious
possession anyone could hold. |
As I
usually say: ‘don’t forget, take time to enjoy life’ … and to all
teachers and administrators, have a safe and happy holiday season!
May you find a box with many things underneath your tree!
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