NUMBERS THAT IMPRESS.

       I have a friend who lives in a senior residence. He was 93 in Sept. I phone him 3  or 4 nights a week. He's quite lonely and enjoys a chat. He's one of the brighter people I ever met so he's interesting to visit with. The photo below is for his 93rd birthday. 

 

            The photos of old buildings  belonged to Mike. The farm first belonged to his parents and Mike farmed until he went broke according to him. 

     In each phone call he has something very interesting to talk about. He likes politics and science. He was an engineer.

    Last night he told me that his former high school had contacted him about his 75 th anniversary from finishing high school. That number just about blew me over. They were contacting as many former students and teachers as they could find. And guess what? They found one of his teachers still living   at 105.  Mike was pretty happy about this information. I thought it was a big number to finish high school 75 years ago. I finished high school 67 years ago. My numbers don't compare with his. 

    At  the present time Mike doesn't have plans to attend the reunion as they don't have dates or anything else arranged at this time.

    None of my former teachers are living. 

I JUST FORGOT

          Somehow or other the Micro Manager and I got onto the subject of high school at dinner tonight. To be specific we were talking about what subjects we took in high school.

        One thing I remember is that I took eight courses in my grade twelve. (final year)

       The Micro Manager claims she took 6 classes. We were in different provinces so under different systems. 

      Now I tried to remember what courses I took. I couldn't name everything  I took. She asked me if I took biology and I had to really think if I took biology. 

     Now I took eight courses but I have credit for nine courses. We had a system of applying to write exams. My Principal told me to order an exam for a course I hadn't taken. He said take a look at the exam and if you think you can write it go ahead. If you think it's too difficult just give it back to him. So I wrote it and I think I got 68%. The course was agricultural economics and for a farm boy who was in 4 H, it was an area that I knew quite well. 

     I will have to look at my old report card to find out what else I took. 

    I finished high school in June of 1957 which is 66 years ago. I wonder what else I've forgotten in the last 66 years??

                                The kid (me) in gr 10.

Also, you know that I'm in the process of downsizing. So I have all the report cards and marks I ever had. Do I dispose of them? I don't think so. 

SOME CORRECTIONS

     From some of the comments I got the idea that  some people felt sorry for me because of the hardships faced. There were challenges but I didn't hurt myself . I was a poor student. I was incredibly lazy. I skillfully got by doing the least possible. 

      I did my work except for one time that I remember and my friends will never let me forget it.

     In Gr. 11 English we had a novel to study. Since there was very little teacher time, he wrote questions on the board for each chapter and we were supposed to write answers for the questions. No checking of the work...almost no checking. I did not do any of the questions. I faithfully copied every question in my book but wrote not one answer. One day about 11:50 the teacher decided to take a look in our books at the questions and how we were doing. Everybody knew I hadn't done anything. There was an air of tension. The kids were all waiting for me to get caught . It would be a lot of fun to see me get caught.  So the teacher started at the front of my row and started checking. He was checking the student in front of me. Just then the bell rang for noon. I remember some of my buddies couldn't believe my good luck of not being checked. They've never let me forget this incident.

     At the end of the year I would bring all my school stuff home and Mom told me to put it in the closet. I would come home and she would tell me to sort out what I didn't want and put it on the floor. I would come home a few months later and everything had been put back in the closet.

     So my brother had the same teacher and novel study. My brother wanted to take a shortcut so he decided to get my book and copy the answers! Guess what. There were no answers for him to find. 

     So I wasn't exactly an angel. Math was checked every day. The teacher would ask each student for an answer. If something was wrong the teacher would explain the concept. Now I was pretty good in math . I did learn to factor trinomials. Does anybody remember trinomials? Does anybody remember how to factor trinomials? Does anybody remember what trinomials are for.? Has anybody ever used a trinomial since they left school? But I did my math.

     So I was good sometimes and bad sometimes. However I don't need sympathy. I  had the opportunity and got there.

    Now I have all my report cards. Do you know why? You guessed it. Mom kept them all. I will not copy one report card to show you my marks. 

EDUACATION OF A PRAIRIE BOY PART 7

          For me , going to high school was a complete surprise. Most rural kids in my generation dropped out of school. The main  reason was a lack of transportation to get to highschool and another reason that kids were used as farm labor . It was a challenge for parents and students to make highschool happen. 

        For me, economics and technology were changing  quickly and it allowed me to go to highschool. Our rural roads had improved and snow clearing machinery became available. This meant that a student could get to school and back home each day. I did have a place to stay in case a storm came up and roads were not passable.

     So in September of 1954 I began high school. Each day I would drive  5 miles into town with another family to attend high school. Today 5 miles would be nothing. At that time it was a challenge. Today in that area children ride the bus for two hours to get to school. There are very few people living in the area.

    So what was my high school?  There were 26 students from gr 10 to 12 and one teacher. That's right. One teacher taught all the grades and all high school subjects. Sound possible? Well, it happened. 

     Prairie boy's gr. 10 photo. 

    So you remember that I was the only one in my class from Gr 3 to  9? Now there were ten of us in the gr 10 class. It was quite a change I was not that confident or sure of myself in that situation. 

     I also look back and see that I was not that well prepared for high school. Learning on your own meant that you missed many things. However, I guess I was prepared as well as the others. 

     Again in many situations we worked in groups on assignments. 

    The years from 14 to 17 mean that you are learning many other things outside of school. We spent more time with other teenagers. We spent time with other people who we didn't know. I learned that there were different ways to do things and different ideas and opinions. Being raised in a very small rural community meant that you were not exposed to many different ideas. 

    People helped me and I was able to overcome the things I was missing. Anybody remember how to factor trinomials? I remember somebody showing me this concept and I found out that it was very simple. This opened many doors in math for me.

    I still worked for my Dad in the spring and fall . Teacher's comments on my report card always referred to the issue of me missing school. I improved as I went through gr 10 to 12. I became more confident and finished high school. Many students did not complete their high school even though they put in lots of effort. One teacher even, a very , very good one just wasn't enough so that many students could succeed.

    I got to know the kids in highschool very well. I even got to ride a school bus for the last two years of highschool. We couldn't even think about school busses when I started high school. 

    So like many other things in my life high school wasn't planned but it happened and turned out to be successful. 

     Gr. 12 graduation. Prairie boy is in the back row first on the left.

MY EDUCATION III

    For most people high school is one of the highlights of their life. For me, high school just about didn't happen.

    World events almost prevented me from a high school education.

    The depression and WW II caused some very tough economic times. I lived in a very rural area. Transportation in general was very poor. Up until 1952 we went to town with horses in the winter. We went at least once a week but sometimes less. We used horses because we didn't have a modern car and clearing roads of snow had not been developed to where it was efficient. A small high school was 5 1/2 miles away but it was impossible to attend. 

   So going through grade school I had no objective to attend high school. It wasn't possible. However, by my gr. 9 year things had started to change. The farmers were clearing snow off roads about once a week. If you were lucky you wouldn't get snow for two weeks or more.

    So all of a sudden at the end of gr. 9 I saw myself attending high school. I carpooled with the neighbor boys. I had an arrangement with a family in town to stay at their place if we couldn't get home. Many times I didn't get to school as the roads were blocked. 

The gr 10 kid!

   However, economic conditions and transportation improved. We had a bus for GR. eleven and twelve. 

    Gr. 10 was a huge challenge. I was used to small school not that this school was large. There was one teacher for gr 10, 11 and 12. There were 26 students from gr ten to twelve.Taking gr nine by correspondence did not give me a good basics for high school. The teacher was good but he intimidated me. However, with some good help I completed gr. 10. 

    For gr eleven I had overcome my concerns about a different school. I had got to know all the other students and it was fun. The teacher had started a six man
 touch football league and I was hooked. It was something that I could succeed at. 

     And surprise , surprise I completed gr 11 and entered gr. 12. We had a different teacher and he gave me lots of confidence. I liked him and he was easy to work with. 

    My Dad tried to encourage me to think about what I should do after high school. I wasn't giving Dad any answers. He suggested nursing? That would have been a big mistake. I would not make a decision. I didn't have much confidence in myself so waited until I got my marks and found out that I had completed high school and then I announced what I wanted to do. I had decided early in the spring to attend Teacher's college but I hadn't told anybody.

    So high school was completed and I enjoyed the experience. High school was something that I had not thought possible and had only thought about being a farmer. 

Eight of us were in the gr 12 class

    

ANOTHER MURAL

      I found another mural which is quite different than the musician mural. This mural was a high school art project. 

     They have a theme and then laid it out nicely and did a super job of the painting.

    They did a good job  of showing street scenes from different times in our history.

Freaking Out When You Think You're Old

    About 1992 we hired a young single male teacher. Tom was well qualified and quickly became a very good teacher.

    Tom was single and as single guys go he could have  good time. 

    Soon Tom was married to his long time girlfriend and of course children appeared. Now Tom is a very affectionate, caring and sentimental guy. Tom's wife is a very lucky woman and his kids have experienced a solid family upbringing. The family traveled and participated in sports.

   I saw Tom and his family from time to time and it was always interesting to see the kids grow. Tom was very proud of his two boys. Oh yes, they learned how to fish! They also became good hockey players.

   Tom is a Face Book friend. The other day he said, "It's happened and I can't believe it. We took Gord to the high school orientation night!"  Tom couldn't believe that his son had grown up so quickly and was ready to enter high school. Yes, Tom was freaking about his age.

    So we have kids and are extremely busy with them and don't notice the time going by. I was surprised when my kids were ready to start school. It seemed like the time they were little went by very quickly. Where time really seemed to race is when they were in Middle school. Once they were through Middle School they seemed to be out on their own much more and away from home. I still wanted to have them at home. 

     All at once a certain milestone is reached and we are keenly aware of time going by rather quickly. Our kids are growing up and we are getting older.

     I'm sure the people who have children mark the passage of time by what happens with their kids.