Pauline McKay came up with the one-month block system of classes when one of her own kids was short a credit and had to take summer school: now she’s won an Indspire award for Innovative Practice.

“I said to my son, you took this same course in six months, and you got this credit in 24 days. How did you do that? He said I just told you, it was fun, the teacher concentrated on one subject, and if I needed help he was right there, he didn't worry about the bell ringing and us off to the next course. It was just the teacher and us for the whole month.”

She was sitting at the kitchen table with educator Ruth Ahenakew, now deceased, and the two of them lit upon the same idea at once: why not teach all high school classes that way? With 25 years of teaching already under her belt, she knew the current system was failing First Nations youth for many reasons, and this idea had potential. With the intensive focus on one credit at a time, bumps in the road meant students only lost one credit, not five or six from an entire term where a whole year’s work could easily be lost leading to discouragement.

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But overall, it turned out that classroom youth were able to stay on top of their credits no matter what was going on in their lives, because of the supportive and focused teamwork atmosphere created by the immersion.

They designed a curriculum which got better every year as they learned from trial and error, and now McKay helps other reserve schools implement the system which results in almost 100% graduation rates.

“We started it that fall and I would have 30 students in Grade 12, and at the end of the month I’d have 30 students that got that credit. That had never happened to me before,” notes McKay, who is Swampy Cree from Cumberland House and has her B.Ed from ITEP and her M.Ed from the U of R. “This is the way to go for our kids. They need us as educators to be risk takers and be willing to change — who says the semester is the perfect system?”

The block system has since worked for reserve schools such as Sturgeon Lake, Carry-The-Kettle, northern reserves in Manitoba, and reserves in Alberta, graduating thousands of youth successfully. Nominated by Belinda Daniels for the Indspire Education Award a year ago, McKay wasn’t expecting the phone call for the award this spring, but welcomes it for one reason.

“I was really excited because now my work will get exposure, because I believe in my work so much, but I just don't have the time to get it out there,” said McKay. “Hopefully that’s going to influence other principals and administrators to say, this works, we’ve got to try this.”

She notes that current statistics show a First Nation youth leaving the education system every 10 seconds: change is necessary.

“We as educators have to make the difference and it's us, nobody else — our people have to help themselves, and that's the message.”