SYDNEY — Falynn Roberts used to think girls couldn't play football.
The 10-year-old Robin Foote Elementary School student thought girls couldn't play because it's too rough due to the tackling. But she doesn't think that anymore thanks to a school initiative to increase education about diversity, gender equality and LGBTQ+ community.
"We're learning that girls and boys are all equal and that girls can do everything boys can do and boys can do anything girls can do," said Roberts during a phone interview which included her principal Lee Ann Astephen on Tuesday.
"(Learning this is important) because sometimes people get the wrong ideas and if we weren't learning about this then some people would keep thinking these things."
Along with classroom discussions, book readings and a new "diversity wall," the school is also bringing the Cape Breton Youth Project in for Zoom classes with LGBTQ+ educator Madonna Doucette for the first time.
"When the conversations start in elementary school, it shifts down through the ages. Elementary school is where these conversations should be happening," Doucette said.
"Grades 5 and 6 is where they start having crushes and start having more feeling of themselves, being individual people. They start cooking up their future person."
Astephen said she wanted to increase diversity education at the Westmount school after a professional development day in the fall where a school psychologist talked about the importance of teaching diversity and inclusivity — especially in relation to the LGBTQ+ community.
"The overall goal is to create a caring environment where students feel they can be who they are ... and feel safe doing so," said Astephen.
"Before there can be math, science and reading, the students need to feel cared for and safe. Then they can take risks with learning."
Astephen, who was in the classroom for 20 years before becoming principal at Robin Foote three years ago, said she believes elementary school is the right time to start education in diversity and inclusivity.
"I think elementary students don't have as many preconceived notions as older students, like those in middle and high school might," she said.
"It's easier for them to understand diversity. They see people as people already and they are more open to people's different gender identities."
