Library provides a powerful human touch

There’s an old saying: “Every person has a book in them.” At Oilfields High School there was a whole library full of people’s adventures and advice.

The school completed its Human Library for high school students on Friday. The human library has students visiting real people who tell their stories to the students.

Grade 10 student Leiam Carter “checked out” a variety of human books.

“I think it is a great experience to see a bunch of different people, see how you can get a different career out of this – get advice for a my future life,” Carter said.

The emphasis is on different. Carter took in sessions with magician Malcolm Russell, assistant film director Kayla Popp and death doula Sarah Kerr.

“I was interested how she took something from birth, being a birth doula, and then helping people ease on to a death,” Carter said. “I just found it interesting how people can help people deal with a tragedy like death.”

He found Popp’s talk the most interesting.

“I’m thinking of being an actor,” Carter said. “It was interesting to hear how she moved up from absolute bottom to assistant director.”

Diversity is the key at this library.

Although Waylon and Willie may urge mommas to have their babies grow up to be doctors and lawyers and such – Oilfields librarian Nadine Russell finds those fine professions – she wanted to offer something a little different.

“We targeted careers that aren’t standard — there are no doctors, no lawyers, no nurses,” Russell said. “These are photographers, artists, mountain climbers, expedition leaders, embalmers, we had a death doula. We are trying to show the kids that there is a whole world of other careers out there and the path they need to take to get to it.”

There were 24 speakers at Friday’s Human Library and over the four days of the event, there will be 127. This is the second year of the event, the first year for high schools days with students from across the Foothills School Division.

Some of the speakers included Deva Dave, a retired drag queen, who is now a hairdresser and selling funky clothes; former Stampede wrestler and teacher Keith Hart, and there was one lawyer, Gabriel Chen who does work for the homeless.

“I wanted people who were motivators, innovators and had done amazing stuff,” Russell said. “I went to Avenue Magazine top 40 list and started phoning.

“Sixty per cent of our speakers are industry-top in their field and they are coming out here to talk to our students.”

It was a learning opportunity for Jamie Anderson, a teacher who is transgender, talked of his experiences growing up.

“When I was growing up, I didn’t know any LGBQT adults in my life,” Anderson said. “I always had to believe you could never be that or else you would never live to adulthood to be frank.

“I think youth still face that today, there aren’t a lot of real people who are out and open and honest who they can look up to — ‘that person can have a normal successful life and I can too.’”

The human library also provided real-life situations for topics that are in Canada’s history books. This wasn’t revisionist history, it was the talking, breathing real thing.

Grade 10 student Eli Lange booked to hear Sykes Powderface.

“He talked about how he was a survivor of the residential schools and I have that subject for social studied and I thought I would get some extra knowledge about it,” Lange said. “He was actually there. Rather than getting it out of his book, it is in his head.

“It is really a good opportunity.”

Powderface, who is from the Stoney First Nations near Morley, said it was an opportunity to talk beyond the residential school situation.”

“Everybody wants to know about the residential schools – the residential school totally disrupted our way of life, who we are, our language,” Powderface said.

He said the residential school experience taught him, “the rules of the game in that new world, to be able to compete and survive.”

Riley Liska, a Grade 11 student, was doing interviews of the speakers for the Foothills Composite High School.

“There are so many of these people that all standout,” Liska said. “I really enjoyed Trevor Stuart who climbed Everest. He was more than just being a mountain climber, he was just an awesome person.”

The junior high school students will have their chance this week on April 7.