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. 

SCHOOL DAYS

      As I said a the the start  of this series , there were several hats to wear in telling about my education. Sometimes it switched from student to teacher to just a kid in the same post.

     Even though I was a classroom teacher for 37 years I have a healthy skepticism about some of the things that go on in education. 

     When I was finishing Gr. 12 we had to fill out a form for the exams we wished to write . In that way, the powers that be, knew how many exam copies to send out and then there was less risk of extra copies circulating.

     As I was carefully filling out the form so that I would get all my exams , the teacher came along and said , "Why don't you order the exam for Agricultural Economic?" What? Write an exam for a course I didn't take? The teacher told me that I should get the exam and on the day to write the exam , I could look at it. If I thought I might be able to pass it I would write it. If I thought it was too hard I could get up and leave the examination room. The teacher told me that he thought I had a good chance of passing the exam as I was a farm kid and followed news on agriculture. I was also active in 4H.

     Well you know the rest of the story. The exam came and I wrote it and got a good mark that increased my average.

     So there's my learning things that are out of the classroom!

    So my skepticism is this. There is something wrong with the curriculum if somebody can pass an exam and get credit for  course they didn't take. So over many years I realized that in some cases we did not teach much. I 'm not worried about teaching a whole lot of facts but teaching skills that help a student to evaluate, analyze and make judgments. With world events and elections right now, I don't think we got these skills got across to the students.