Discovering the Workplace: Herb Carnegie
and the Future Aces Philosophy
Level: Grade 10 Careers
Overview:
This lesson takes an in-depth look at the various strategies Herb Carnegie employed during his hockey career and beyond when faced with a barrier. Moving from Carnegie's experience in the school system, to his experiences in the ice rink, students follow the evolution of his personal management skills and highlight ways in which they might try and mirror successful strategies.
Strand:
Personal Management
Overall expectations:
Identify and use effectively the strategies required to manage one's own behaviour in school and in the community;
Identify and use effectively the interpersonal and teamwork skills and strategies required when working with others in school or in the community.
Specific expectations:
Describe strategies used by people in school or in the workplace to manage oneself effectively when dealing with challenges (e.g., changes, stress, work overload).
Identify strategies that contribute to effective teamwork (e.g., presuming positive intentions, managing conflict, paying attention to self and others, seeking diverse strengths and perspectives), and use them to work collaboratively to accomplish team goals in school or in the community.
Describe strategies for managing conflict (e.g., negotiation, mediation), and use these strategies effectively when working with others in school or in the community.
Lesson plan
Description: the class will read A Fly in a Pail of Milk: the Herb Carnegie Story. Throughout the biography the class will document each time Carnegie exercises personal restraint or develops motivational tactics. In a graph form, students will track Carnegie's different personal management experiences, outline the future aces philosophy, and document personal strategies or tactics each student currently employs in similar situations.
Prior knowledge:
Teachers should be familiar with the Future Aces program and an understanding of Canada's long histories of anti-black discrimination, both within professional hockey and in wider Canadian society.
Students should be aware of the long history of Black Canadians playing hockey.
Both student and teacher should have an awareness of the institutional and social manifestations of anti-Black racism (e.g., continually being regarded as suspect, over-policing, disproportionate incarceration rates ).
Required time: 3-4 sessions
Session 1: the class reads chapters 1 through 8 and discusses each moment in the biography when Carnegie encounters racism, or other challenges. Events and reactions are debriefed and students begin documenting in chart form the evolution of Carnegie's personal management skills .
Session 2: the class reads chapters 9 through 11 and continues to pause, debrief and document each of Carnegie's tactics, strategies and actions.
Session 3: the class reads chapters 11 through 14 discusses and completes an evolution of personal management chart. The class reviews what went into the chart and begins to complete the personalized section of the chart.
Planning notes:
The teacher should read the entire biography first to determine areas of concentration. The teacher should also be prepared to demonstrate the relevance of the biography by highlighting the contemporary situation of Black hockey players recently retired or currently in the National Hockey League.
Materials required by the teacher
A Fly in a Pail of Milk
Cecil Harris' Breaking the Ice: the Black Experience in Professional Hockey (a chapter on Carnegie is supplied on the website)
Black Ice: the Lost History of the Coloured Hockey League of the Maritimes, 1895- 1925
Resources used and consulted
Carnegie, H. (1997). A Fly in a Pail of Milk Toronto: Mosiac Press
Harris, Cecil (2004). Breaking the Ice: the Black Experience in Professional Hockey. Toronto: Insomniac Press
Fosty, G & B (2004). Black Ice: the Lost History of the Coloured Hockey League of the Maritimes, 1895- 1925 New York: Styrker Indigo