SadMag spoke to Vancouver-based artist, public school worker and nominated COPE school trustee  about education, art, gender, and her vision for safe, inclusive schools.

SadMag: You’re an artist but you also work with kids. Tell me about your involvement with education (past and present).

?Heidi Nagtegaal: i’ve worked for the vancouver school board for the last 8 years (since jan 2006)?. i love to work in east van, in what the vsb calls “inner city schools.” for the last 3 years i’ve worked at britannia elementary community school. before that i was working for about 10 years in respite care, home care, after school programs, and parks and recreation.

SM: What is the intersection of art and education in its best form?

HN: art can be education and education can be art. it’s all about perspective and how you see things. the best form of this intersection is when all people involved feel loved, connected, cared for, communicated with, and involved. it is in that state of mind that information can be given and received effectively. when the brain is relaxed, it is able to absorb more information and learn faster.

our brains integrate material when dopamine and serotonin are in our systems. when you make art, and you are in a creative state, your brain is releasing dopamine, which reduces stress, increases learning, and opens new neurological pathways.

stress is a brain killer, a creativity killer, it’s not good for you, not in your life, and not in schools either. self care is really important.

SM: What motivated the decision to pursue a spot on the school board?

HN: ?i was asked to by a bunch of friends. they came up to me and without knowing that any one else was doing, asked me to consider running. i was not interested at the time, and had my list of reasons why i did not want to be involved, starting from the “system is failing” to “i don’t believe in the government.”

i realized that being asked to consider this kind of position was kind of a rarity, and stared at a candle for a long time and thought about the possibilities of running for the school board as a candidate. i’ve worked in schools for so long, and have witnessed systemic violence, not because anyone is against the children, and wants them to suffer, but because the school system itself has big holes in it, and it’s not pencils that are falling through the cracks. it’s children.

so i decided to run for government, and see what happened. ?

SM: What do you hope to accomplish?

?HN: on a modest level, to get the conversation flowing, get people involved. the government is super broken, corrupted, aligned with big business; money & power are definitely all coming before people, communities.? even the bike lanes that vision vancouver put in – the ones i ride on – were put in without community consultation, and put in by a personal friend of gregor robertson. the vision vancouver Anti Poverty week was kicked off by petitioning the Supreme Court to have the tenants of Oppenheimer Park removed. tent city was started because living in the park was safer than living in their homes.

we all know there’s something wrong, but it’s hard to know what to do. i really love cope’s housing policies, and i think they’re real, based in real life, they don’t take developper donations, it’s all grass roots, we’re all activists, and artists, and i dunno, people with a plan. and it’s run with 2 staff, and this whole campaign is happening on 2 staff, no budget (well, a a very small one), and a whole lot of volunteer hours. npa and vision get donations year round, and during this campaign alone of millions of dollars, it’s crazy. and here cope is with their scraggly budget, and a bunch of good ideas, and we’re covering the news and media sources. articles are running on meena (wong) every week, and they can’t get enough.

so on that level, i’ve already accomplished my goal. on another level, it would be great to be voted in, and keep on doing the work at a municipal level, but i have to be voted in to do that, and we’ll see what happens.

there’s been polls done by npa and vision on statistics, and they don’t release them because they show that cope, vision, and npa are neck and neck. vision and npa like to say that the race is between the two of them, and vision is marketing that “you have to vote vision so that the npa doesn’t get in” when really, you can just vote cope and not bother with vision at all.

i’m really sorry to anyone who loves vision. their words are beautiful, but their actions stink, and i’m ready for a change. so i guess that’s why i joined cope, and that’s what’s happening right now. when i think about “what i hope to accomplish,” it’s happening now. the dialogue is changing.

SM: Tell me about the current transgender policy? What does it fail to address? How would you like it to change?

HN: ?for starters, i work in an elementary school. dividing students up into “boys” and “girls” is seen as an ok way to learn patterns. the children are told to sit boy/girl, and are addressed as “boys and girls.” bathrooms: boys and girls. there’s no room for anything beyond the gender binary.

children are born beyond the gender binary. they transition from one gender to another, they flow between genders, they express their genders in many ways. the conversation has started to shift around what masculinity and femininity can look like, but it’s very much centred around the “sensitive boy” or the “tough girl” which, although it expands the idea of what gender can be, doesn’t exactly collapse the binary system, or integrate genders into a fluid structure, where all genders and gender expressions are embraced, nourished, and understood.

when you hear “girl” “boy” and never anything else, do you really think we are promoting a space for other genders? he and she are used in a classroom, but most teachers are still confused about the gender neutral pronouns, such as they, zir, and yo.

gender neutral bathrooms are a start, but the work is very deep, and we have a long way to go before all children are safe to gender express themselves without being afraid of feeling shame, or getting beat up.

i mean, we feel the same as adults, but we’re trying to change the world here. we want the futures of our children to be better than the ones we have. that’s the hope anyways. otherwise, what’s the point? damage control? yes. but no.

SM: Why is it relevant to you?

?HN: i work in schools. i went to school. i love learning. i don’t think schools are the best expression of learning out there, and it could be better. bullying is real, and we don’t have to set up social structures where those things happen rampantly. we can make it safer.

parents talk to me all the time about bullying, sensitive children, the need for feelings, and how to make space for all the feelings. children have feelings. i have feelings. we all have feelings. and we all have the need for safe spaces.

when children are forced to spend 6.5 hours of everyday in schools, it has got to be a place that makes them feel good, loved, heard, respected, and safe. when you don’t feel those things you feel sad, your brain doesn’t work as well, it’s harder to make friends, you feel miserable and unwell. that’s doesn’t work for anyone.

when humans are happy our brains work better! safe spaces make people happy. it’s not only a human right, it’s good for learning.

SM: Why should it matter to the rest of us?

HN: ?why would anyone want a school system where it is the way it is?

children go to schools that are underfunded, don’t have proper support, are in the dark as far as the full spectrum of gender and sexuality are concerned, not effective against bullies, or the creation of safe spaces, and have long wait lists for psychologist, school counsellors, special needs, or anything outside of the education of a standardized learner who fits within a binary.

that doesn’t seem healthy, supportive, or nourishing. it would be hard as a student to learn in a system like this. and it would be hard as a teacher to have a classroom full of children, and know that you can’t support them them the way you want to. as a support worker in the school system, i see children i love, who i have spent hours of time with, fall through the cracks. i know what it feels like to know that it could be different. and it matters. every child matters.

i want justice, not charity.

SM: What’s amazing about kids?

HN: … it’s endless. we play together, we love each other, we help each other. they carry around my coffee cups for me if i forget it on their table, and then giggle about it. when i go outside and i’m a bit late for something or i get switched, and then SURPRISE heidi is here, it’s not uncommon to get a “HEIDI!” and a group hug

i get secret messages and art works and handshakes from children every day. their parents and i bond simply because i love their kids and they hear all about me after school, to the point that they feel like they know me.

?according to the vancouver school board, i work with the most vulnerable youth in the district. when i go home to the valley, or talk about my life in vancouver, people are mixed. one reaction is “that’s so awesome!” and then there’s the “how do you do it?” and then the “isn’t it hard??”. and the “isn’t it hard” always freaks me out a little bit. like they’re saying “it’s too hard.” sometimes, that’s my projection, and other times it’s a real read and it’s actualized by a follow up comment featuring a racist, sexist, homophobic, classist rant about “those people.”

those people are our people. we can’t have a strong society when don’t see ourselves as a whole.