Supporters and opponents of the 2010 Winter Olympics are trying to ensure that their messages reach local students

Poring over a ream of papers inside a café at the central branch of the Vancouver Public Library, Nat Marshik can easily pass for a student doing weekend research. A closer look shows that the documents are lesson plans tailored for classroom discussion. But she is neither a student nor a teacher.

A recent university grad, the young woman belongs to a group that created a stir last month when word went around that it was holding a workshop for teachers at an East Vancouver school. No less than Premier Gordon Campbell and Solicitor General Kash Heed put in their two cents’ worth, saying essentially that the group is spoiling children’s enthusiasm for next year’s Olympics.

Marshik is an organizer with the Teaching 2010 Resistance, a group that is encouraging critical discussion of the Games inside the school system. Upon the invitation of some teachers, it has already conducted five teach-ins, with an audience of about 100 secondary students, in different schools in Metro Vancouver.

“I find it really interesting that people like Gordon Campbell, for example, would talk about a critical educational workshop taking away children’s enthusiasm, instead of talking about how $118 million in funding cuts to education might take away children’s enthusiasm,” Marshik told the Georgia Straight.

Members of the group are preparing to hold more classroom teach-ins this month and in December. Marshik wouldn’t say where, pointing out that her group doesn’t want to see unnecessary pressure placed on teachers who are interested in working with them. The group’s Web site presents several lesson plans, which she said teachers can easily incorporate in classes on history or economics.

The Vancouver school board doesn’t have a position on the activities of the Teaching 2010 Resistance. According to board chair Patti Bacchus, teachers enjoy autonomy in running their classrooms, and they are neither encouraged to use nor discouraged from using materials offered by the group.

What is certain is that the board wants teachers in the city to make sure that their students will be having substantive discussions around the Olympics.

“There should be an educational component,” Bacchus told the Straight in a phone interview. “We didn’t want students to just kind of burst into cheers at promotional events. There’ll be a component of that celebration, but…the Olympics provide an opportunity for real education and an academic approach to discussing issues in a balanced way. There’s room for that getting-excited part, but there is also that more scholarly discussion of the pros and the cons.”

Teachers have other sources from which to draw instructional materials.

The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games has a site that offers a wide array of choices. There is one called the Canadian Olympic School Program, which was put together by the Royal Bank of Canada, an Olympics sponsor, for students in grades 2 to 12.

“At the elementary-school level, students will learn about the values of fairness, excellence, leadership, respect, goal setting, dealing with pressure, and personal growth through the stories of Olympians such as Beckie Scott, Silken Laumann, Daniel Igali, Lawrence Lemieux, Jennifer Botterill, Gary Reed and Alexandre Despatie,” the introduction to this program reads.

The B.C. Ministry of Education has put up an on-line resource that includes teaching guides, such as one on building “awareness of global citizenship” through the adopt-a-country program. Every school in the province is also being provided DVDs on “teachable moments”.

This is part of the 2010 Spirit School project, which the ministry launched on September 8. Through this, students can learn about what legacies the Olympics will bring, and also try out activities such as reporting about the Games as amateur journalists.

Education Ministry spokesperson Scott Sutherland told the Straight by phone that 122 schools across the province have signed on with the 2010 Spirit School program, and more are interested. He also said that educational materials being offered by the province were developed in cooperation with teachers.

Participating schools can also win prizes, which include visits by the Olympic mascots, a particular reward that Sutherland said his two grandsons are very excited about.

Students listening in class to organizers with the Teaching 2010 Resistance will have a different experience.