Many of us have the idea that the people we take seriously are somewhere between the ages of 21 and 65. Younger people and older folks are at the margins of whom we choose to engage with.

I was lucky enough to have a father who lived to be 90 years old and who was most inspiring to me as an older person. I learned a lot from the way he lived the last ten years of his life, and he lived them to the fullest, despite his physical infirmities.

It is for this reason that I wanted the school to present an exhibit that celebrates the remarkable, wisdom and determination of older people. As an older person, my father was engaged, thoughtful and intent on making his projects (which included his family and friends) very important to him. In our work at the Symes Senior Centre we are meeting many inspiring seniors with the same commitment to make their lives matter.

Equally, children are to be taken seriously and looked to for inspiration. For many years I have been speaking about the value of the imagination on many levels. For children the imagination is the one place where there are unlimited choices to make. It is the ability to make choices that empowers us, so it is important that we provide opportunities for children to enhance and celebrate the life of the imagination.

For adults, as well, especially in the business world, we are constantly required to think of new ways of doing things. We are looking for possibilities where we hadn't seen them before and the place we find new ideas is in our imagination.

If we hang out with children, especially young children, we will learn how to exercise our imagination. They do it naturally. We can learn to see things differently by studying the thought processes of children. We can try to look at the world through the eyes of a child and a world of possibilities will open up to us.

If we look to the margins of the age groups we take seriously, we will learn about determination, resourcefulness and the workings of the imagination, our most precious talent. Maybe these margins could be linked more closely with the centre.

February was an exciting month for three of our faculty members. Artists/ Instructors, Moira Clark, Sadko Hadzihasanovic and Klaas Hendrik Hart all had art exhibits which opened in the same week. Watercolour teacher Moira Clark opened her show entitled Sea Change at the Loop Gallery on Queen Street West. Drawing and Acrylic Painting instructor Klaus H. Hart opened More Than Meets the Eye at the Nancy Poole Studio on Hazelton Avenue and Sadko Hadzihasanovic who teaches Drawing, Painting and Portraiture opened Modern Life at Paul Petro on Queen Street West. Congratulations to all three artists for a successful run.

For more information on the courses these instructors teach, call the school office at (416) 961-1502 or check out our Web site.