Metis educator believes leaders are servants first

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Deep religious faith and an awareness of his Metis heritage have been guiding principles in his 29-year career as an educator, says the man in charge of 82 Catholic Schools in Edmonton.

"I had a very good childhood with a lot of love, a lot of care and a deep spiritual gift of belief in Christ and in religion," says Terry Fortin, Chief Superintendent of Edmonton Catholic Schools, who was raised as a single child of a Cree mother and a French-Canadian father. "My parents were very religious, very much in a deep faith way where you could feel it because of the practicality of their faith, not because of their showiness."

Fortin was born in Edmonton, grew up in Dawson Creek, B.C., and finished high school in Cold Lake, Alta. In 1966, he graduated from the University of Alberta with a bachelor's degree in education. "My first job was in the Calgary Public School District in which I taught mathematics and physical education at Victoria Junior High School," Fortin says.

After a short stint in Lacombe and one year at a public school in Edmonton, he taught nine years in the Calgary Catholic school system. In the early 70s Fortin and his wife Pat spent two years overseas, teaching at a school for Allied forces employees at NATO headquarters in Holland.

"Our best souvenir from Holland was our daughter Valerie," he says. "The Dutch people have a real earthiness to the whole process of a child being born. You meet with the doctors well in advance. You go to the actual place where the birthing will occur. They actually had birthing rooms in 1972. Instead of going to a surgical stainless steel

environment, you had a room that you actually gave birth in. Even the head nurse that was there was using an old wooden device to listen to the heartbeat. It was just a real earthiness to it all."

After returning to Alberta, Fortin earned a master's degree from the University of Calgary through evening classes, specializing in educational administration, but he says it never was his goal in life to become a school superintendent.

"I've always loved teaching," he says. "I spend 13 to 15 year of my career in teaching. I still to this day love teaching. I think what

has got me into administration is the belief that I can make a difference for children, that I really can serve the needs of children and also support the staff and provide the staff with good caring servant leadership. I really believe in servant leadership. The leader is servant first. That's a really important concept. You're not leader first, you're servant first. It's a Christian concept."

Fortin believes that faith has led him throughout his life. "I've never been one of these people who ever set a goal to be a principal or ever set a goal to be a superintendent," he says. "I just do what I can today and do the best I can. I'm convinced from a faith

standard that God is going to give you enough light for today. Don't

worry about tomorrow. Just do your very best, serve the people what you

can today, be they students in a class or teachers in a school or

parents. Just have patience. God is not finished with your creation,

the creation of you as a gift for people."

In Lethbridge, where he served six years as principal of Catholic

Central High School, Fortin met one of his mentors, Ralph Himsl, then

superintendent of the city's Catholic schools.

"Ralph Himsl I think is one of the leading Catholic educators by far in

Western Canada," Fortin says. "His basic theory is hope. He believes

that the ethic of the teaching profession is hope. Everything should be

measured against it. How does what you're doing bring hope in the life

of a child? If you don't teach them good learning skills, you're not

giving them hope in their life. If you're not teaching them faith, then

they don't have hope in themselves or hope in their fellow men."

Himsl was the one who encouraged Fortin to accept a job as

superintendent of a 10-school Catholic district in Prince Albert, Sask.

"I did not wan to go, because it's cold up there," Fortin says. "When

I got to Prince Albert, I knew no one in all of Saskatchewan. I was in

a new part our country and really had to learn all over again."

The job in Prince Albert gave Fortin the opportunity to rediscover his

Native roots, because more than 40 per cent of the district's students

were Cree.

"Native students have always been special to me, but once I got to

Prince Albert, for the first time I think I felt linked really solidly

with my ancestral roots," he says.

"I began to read a lot about my Native ancestors. I began to meet with

people and learn about my Native ancestors. I did not know an awful lot

about the ancestral background of Native people, but I learned in Prince

Albert."

Teaching Native students and learning from them at the same time was an

important experience for Fortin.

"Teaching and learning are part of a circle," he says. "Sometimes the

student is the teacher and the teacher is the learner and vice versa.

You can learn from anyone, anywhere. The key is to open one's senses to

learning and questioning and asking questions and listening."

During the last two years of his stay in Prince Albert Fortin taught

educational administration at the Saskatchewan Urban Native Teacher

Education Program, a program for First Nations teachers. He brought in

Native leaders from across the province to share their experiences with

the young teachers.

"We brought these leaders in and had them teach our staff and teach our

administrators about the Native dimension of faith and the spiritual

dimension of faith and also the Native culture," he says.

"I believe that the First Nations people have a gift to give to the

other people of Canada. The gift hasn't been accepted yet by the other

people, but I think there is a gift. My experience has been that in the

Native culture we have many people who have the gift of this deep faith

and spiritual expression, and they really radiate that. Many of these

rituals of expression of aith, like the sweat lodge or the pipe

ceremony, are really the type that have a place for everyone. I don't

think they're just for Native people. They can enrich the faith life of

everyone."

Fortin, who returned to Edmonton last August to lead the city's

Catholic School District, says the Native idea of the circle has played

an important role in his life.

"I spend a lot of time in my job building community" he says. "To me

the community is reflected in the circle. I have to listen to the

community. I have to ve a very, very good listener. I just really

believe that a leader must listen."