The woman who runs a tutoring company out of Toronto said she was overwhelmed and amazed after joining a group of teachers on a recent tour of a Northern Ontario mining operation. By the same measure, she said she was also amazed at how much people in larger cities do not know about mining.
Joanne Sallay, the president and CEO of Teachers On Call, recently wrote a blog entry after she escorted a group of teachers on a two-day visit to the new IAMGOLD Côté Gold Mine, near Gogama, north of Sudbury.
Although in production for more than a year, the mine held an official opening in May.
Sallay said she and the teachers on the tour were thrilled with the visit. One of the things Sallay discovered after the tour is that everyday people do not know enough about mining in Ontario.
"My goal was to bring back valuable insights to share with elementary and high school teachers, guidance counselors, administrators, and parents. Despite being a major driver of the provincial and national economies, mining is a sector that students (and their grown-ups) often know little about," Sallay wrote.
She told Sudbury.Com the trip to the Côté Gold site near Gogama was organized by the Canadian Ecology Centre, by Mining Matters and by the Ontario Mining Association. Sallay said it was her first visit to a mining operation and although she learned a wealth of information about the industry, she later discovered that urban students have very little knowledge of mining.
Sallay wrote the following in her blog:
"To conduct a small-scale experiment, I gathered a sample group of elementary and high school students from Toronto to test their knowledge of mining, similar to a hypothesis in a science experiment. While the sample size was small, the findings were quite revealing and provided a snapshot of common misconceptions," she wrote.
"When asked about mining, responses from these Toronto students in Grades 2, 5, and 10 largely included outdated images — words like ‘dangerous’ and ‘pollution’ dominated their answers, as if mining had been frozen in time, resembling something from the old-fashioned coal mining era with pickaxes and headlamps."
Sallay said part of the perception is because modern teachers do not know enough about mining or the technology involved in the industry these days.
"From what I've seen, from my professional viewpoint, teachers are curious, but they don't know a lot about mining, at least in a lot of the urban centers," said Sallay.
"I do live in Toronto and that's where my children go to school, and that's where I am, and people don't know a lot about mining. It's pretty frightening for such an important driver of our economy," she added.
Sallay said as much as others were in the dark about mining, she said she was swamped with messages and emails from educators after she shared her experiences of visiting the gold mine.
"So when I shared my learnings, everyone was amazed, and I can't tell you how many teachers and principals were like, where do I sign up? I would love to go on a tour. I would love to bring this back to my students," she said.
Sallay said some people in the mining industry told her they feared that some teachers have a negative perception of mining. Sallay disagreed.
"I don't believe that to be true. I don't think that teachers have a negative perception. I just think there isn't a lot of information, and because there isn't a lot in the curriculum, there isn't a lot of opportunity to really delve deeper," Sallay said.
In her blog post, Sallay also wrote that the Ontario education curriculum could be improved.
"There is room to go above and beyond in all grades to integrate real-world connections. Many teachers may feel hesitant to fully engage with these units, worried they might seem "boring" or difficult to teach,” she wrote.
“However, this doesn't have to be the case. With creative approaches and real-world applications, these topics can become dynamic and interesting for students. While not mandated, there is room to connect the Ontario Curriculum to mining-related topics by integrating real-world examples and discussions," Sallay wrote.
Len Gillis covers mining and health care for Sudbury.com.
