Lorna Earl Is Doing It! Introducing TCA's New Seniors Are Doing It! Series

Welcome to Seniors Are Doing It!, a new Toronto Council on Aging storytelling series celebrating older adults who continue to learn, lead, create, volunteer, advocate, and make a difference in their communities. Through personal stories and conversations, we hope to highlight the many ways older adults contribute their talents, experience, and passion to the world around them while challenging outdated stereotypes about aging.

For our inaugural feature, we are proud to introduce Lorna Earl. A former TCA Chair, educator, researcher, author, consultant, volunteer, gardener, artist, and lifelong learner, Lorna embodies the spirit of Seniors Are Doing It! Her remarkable journey reminds us that aging is not about slowing down; it is about continuing to grow, contribute, and embrace new opportunities at every stage of life.

Lorna Earl is certainly 'doing it.' At seventy-eight years young, the outgoing Toronto Council on Aging chairwoman has piled up several lifetimes' worth of accomplishments, and she's still at it. These days you can find her busy with a plethora of retirement activities: whether it's adding yet another plant to her already imperious garden, burying her nose in a good book (George Elliott, Jane Austen, Margaret Atwood, Julien Barnes, and Elif Shafak are just the tip of her reading pile) jogging it out in aquafit, or painting watercolour masterworks (flowers, landscapes, portraits – she does it all!) Lorna always has something on the go. Right now, she also has a gorgeous addition to her household: Lulu the cat, who is absolutely loving her new home!

     But Lorna's life wasn't always paintings, perennials, and page-turners. The story of her

prodigious pre-retirement spans decades and continents. It takes us from small-town snugness to the ivory tower of higher education; from research institutes and government policy pow-wows to all corners of the globe – and it's not over yet.

     Born in 1948 in the sleepy Ontario farming town of Port Elgin, Lorna learned the value of family, community, and commitment from her parents: her father, a family doctor who spent his evenings making house calls after long days at the clinic, and her mother, a constant advocate for kindness and fairness to all. After high school, she matriculated to the University of Western Ontario, where she trained to be a teacher and worked in educational research. She quickly learned, however, that if she wanted to shake up the field, she would need bigger academic guns – and also that a graduate degree in education (the standard in the industry) would not make her stand out. 

     A PhD in Epidemiology and Biostatistics, she decided, would give her the research credentials and rigorous data-analysis background that she needed to tackle the big issues in education. "It was all about methodology," she recalls, noting that her eclectic peer group (doctors, dentists, veterinarians, etc) was drawn together by their common desire to turn data into results. After earning her doctorate in 1986, Lorna immediately set about applying the methodological skills she had honed in her graduate program – becoming the director of research at the Scarborough Board of Education (a move which brought her to the GTA, and eventually the TCA). From there, she moved to the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO), where she became the first-ever Director of Assessment – orienting education around "what works best for students" and making sure that Ontario had a fair and evidence-based assessment system. During this time, assessment became her passion, as she came to realize that – instead of being just a control or sorting mechanism – assessment could be a very powerful tool for learning. 

     Lorna's next adventure was at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) where she was a faculty member from 1997 to 2004. During her tenure at OISE – where she was Co-Director of the International Centre for Educational Change – she focused her research on educational reform (particularly in the crucial 'transition years'  of grades 7, 8, and 9) in Ontario. She did not lose her passion for assessment, however. While at OISE, she developed the seminal idea of 'assessment as learning' (as opposed to 'assessment of learning'), a precept which revolutionized secondary education in Ontario, and continues to form the backbone of evaluation policy to this day. 

     Assessment in education had always been seen as little more than a way of determining what students had already learned ('assessment of learning'). Lorna flipped

the script by promoting the use of ‘assessment for learning'  and, ultimately, wrote an entire book about ‘assessment as learning' – i.e., using assessments to teach students how to evaluate themselves and control their own learning – to be "their own best assessors" as Lorna puts it. Today, Lorna is proud that this idea has been adopted by education ministries in Ontario and beyond, and is optimistic about the possibility of a fundamental shift in the way that educators view assessment practices – one that can support and enhance the learning of students everywhere. 

     After OISE, she 'retired' – meaning, in typical Lorna fashion, that she did more than most working people, while travelling all over the world. As an educational evaluation and change consultant for the OECD, she advised governments and school boards in England, New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, Holland, Belgium, and Austria – to name a few of the countries to which her 'retirement' took her over the years. Her impact was truly global.

Then, as she describes it (and as we all know, all too well) "COVID hit." With everything

online (and in-country) much of Lorna's consulting work became infeasible, and she decided that it was as good a time as any to pump the brakes, and pull back (a little) further into her 'retirement'. She said au revoir to her jet-setting international consultant ways, and did what work she could from home. But Lorna (being Lorna, after all) could not abide gaps in her schedule, and immediately went on the hunt for ways to give back to her community – continuing to personify those small-town family and social-commitment values that she had learned from her parents in Port Elgin, all those years ago. 

     That brought her to the TCA – and, shortly, to the present moment. After finding the TCA on a Toronto volunteering website (https://www.torontocouncilonaging.com/) and signing up to participate in 2020, she found an organization decimated by COVID and in a state of functional decay. Lorna found the disarray frustrating, and being (as she puts it) "someone who is not good at being frustrated," she decided to right the ship herself. Taking the helm as Chair in 2023, she wasted little time 'getting things in order': replenishing the COVID-depleted volunteer ranks and stabilizing the finances, as well as recruiting and mentoring the next generation of TCA leaders, including incoming Chair Allie Piakowski. "I've left the council in good hands," Lorna says proudly, "I can't wait to see what the next chapter brings!" 

     That's not to say that Lorna is idle these days – of course, she's anything but. In addition to the garden, books, painting, and cat-parenting, she stays active on her condominium corporation board, as well as the Canadian Assessment For Learning Network, which she co- founded in 2014, and on whose board she continues to serve, as the resident 'elder stateswoman' so to speak. Lorna is living, breathing, reading, painting, and planting proof that seniors absolutely are 'doing it' in our community – and her story is far from done, of course. Want to know what the next chapter will bring? We do too, and will keep you posted! Check back in every now and again to see what she's chosen for her next adventure : )

Know someone who should be featured?

Seniors Are Doing It! celebrates the many ways older adults continue to learn, lead, create, volunteer, and inspire others. If you know a senior with a story worth sharing, we invite you to reach out to the Toronto Council on Aging at tcacommunications@torontocouncilonaging.com.