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The Citizen, 1999-09-29, Page 7THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1999. PAGE 7. Approaching the Millennium Education - yesterday, today and tomorrow By Janice Becker Citizen staff From the little red schoolhouses which dotted rural townships to large centralized facilities accom­ modating hundreds of children, edu­ cation has gone through many changes in the last 100 years. At the turn of the last century, the only transportation to school was walking, horseback or maybe a sleigh ride. The local school was a one-room building with one teacher looking after 30 to 40 children from Grade 1 to Grade 8. During those years, education was rarely a priority, particularly with farm families when help bringing in the crops and looking after the live­ stock was more important. It was not uncommon for children to finish their formal schooling by Grade 8. Teaching in those one-room schoolhouses hold special memories for Eluned McNair and Jeanne Ireland of Brussels. McNair taught from 1934 to 1977, only taking off 15 years in the mid­ dle to raise her family. She started at Cranbrook #7, before moving to #10, #6, Union, Brick in East Wawanosh, then com­ pleted her career at Grey Central Public School from 1965 to 1977. All her years were spent in Huron County except for one when she travelled with her Chatham. Her annual $500 when she started $2,700 by the 1960s. Noting that she liked all the schools, Union, where she spent eight years, was her favourite. Once she began to explain the conditions at most rural schools dur­ ing those early years, it was easy to see why Union may hold a special place in her heart, other than the wonderful children. While most buildings did not have indoor washrooms, electricity or central heat, Union did. However, McNair is quick to point out that the washrooms were not flush. She was just glad they were inside. Ireland began her teaching career in 1945 in St. Marys where she taught for one year before moving to Huron County. She stayed at a school a mile and Fordwich until she family to salary was and rose to a quarter from came to Morris 1 Remembering the past Schools such as Wallace’s School, Lot 10, Cone. 8, Morris Twp. were where many rural children began their educa­ tions until central schools were constructed in the mid 1960s. Twp. after her marriage in 1948. Ireland taught at Orangehill, Grey #3 and Home School before leaving to raise her family. Upon her return, she entered a brand new school, as the kinder­ garten teacher at Brussels Public School in 1967. She remained until 1981. “It was nice to get into a more modem school,” she says. “I had a lovely room.” Ireland enjoyed teaching the little ones “with their sweet little faces and crying in the first day.” This is one aspect of the system (or society) which has not changed for the better, according to Ireland' In those days, when a five-year-old cried, whether hurt or simply miss­ ing Mom, Ireland used to pick the child up and cuddled them against her shoulder. Today, that would not be allowed. “I’m told you can’t even touch them now.” When McNair returned to teach­ ing in 1965 at a new centralized school, she says there was a great difference in the workload. “I went from having 20 children in all grades to 30 Grade 1 students. I had more than 100 notebooks to check through every night as each student had five books.” McNair and Ireland also see a change in how teachers are able to deal with the workload. “When I first started at Brussels Public School,” says Ireland, “the teachers had a lot of fun together in off hours. Eventually more pressure was put on them (decreasing those opportunities.)” McNair agrees that the workload was different. In the rural schools, there may have been only ’ one or two students in a grade. You could teach them the Grade 5 social studies one year and do the Grade 6 the next year. Ireland says there was far more time for individual attention then as well. However, the hours were not short. Work assignments for the fol­ lowing day were often written on the blackboards the night before. “We had to pull the maps down to cover it so they wouldn’t do it when they weren’t supposed to,” smiles McNair. She says she was more tired work- ' ing at Grey Central. “I spent half the I summer making devices to use in teaching.” i The pair also see changes in how children are handled in class. : “Things happen today that we I wouldn’t have stood for,” says McNair, referring to the manner of • the children and their outspoken i ways. “I know someone who had a Grade 1 student swearing at them.” : “Kids are growing up sooner ; now,” adds Ireland. However, they do say they believe i there has been a crackdown on disci- I pline in recent years. Teaching methods have also I changed. “We didn’t have much to work with in the rural schools,” says : McNair. “Reading was done with t Dick and Jane.” t Both women are firm believers in the phonics method to teach reading i and were not impressed with the creative style of spelling experi­ mented with a few years ago. I “There were young people in high t school and university who couldn’t write a sentence. They didn’t know i what a noun was,” says McNair. Noting that phonics is not the • whole answer, Ireland says it should i still be the basis. They would also like an emphasis i on using one’s head for math, a Education has moved from one-room school houses to centralized systems return to grammar and composition as a focus and importance put on neatness. Willie Lawrie, the current princi­ pal at Blyth Public School has a much different perspective on the education system, having begun her career in the mid 1970s. “When I started, there were up to 40 children in a class. There were also new teaching methods being tried.” Team teaching and open concept classrooms where being tested. In open concept, two classes were put in a room and the teachers were taken out of the fours walls. The teaching staff worked as a team. In spite of experimental things being tried, more children were slip­ ping through the cracks because of the large classes, says Lawrie. It was also during that time that a formative years program was devel­ oped, recognizing the importance of early years learning. “That program was not replaced until this govern­ ment,” says Lawrie. “It was ahead of its time.” Special education emerged. Children who were having difficul­ ties were diagnosed, but there was not yet a formalized program. However, teachers began in earnest to take special training to assist those students. Lawrie says there was more indi­ vidualized planning 20 years ago where today there is goal setting. Children were given objectives as to what they could do by the end of the lesson. Now there are expectations. The boom years of the 1970s also saw an increase in course specialists. There were physical education spe­ cialists and music specialists. It was also during the 1970s when Technology Computer use has increased rapidly in schools, teachers first had to have an under­ graduate degree before entering teachers’ college. The college became part of the faculty of educa­ tion at universities rather than being run more independently and funded through the government as before. Technology of the 1980s brought new possibilities in the classroom and concern for parents. “When we began using video cas­ settes or special education broad­ casts from TVO in the class, parents were worried the television would replace the teachers,” says Lawrie. Computers first arrived in the mid 80s with the big old icons, she says. “There was one Commodore 64 in the school, with no printer attached. It was used only once material had been proofed and re-written. It was not used like we do today, as a word processor.” Lawrie says this was very difficult to get used to because she had had a computer at home since 1983 when she was completing her Master’s degree. During those years, teachers were taught basic programming to use the computer and the programs on the machine were very elementary. As the years progressed, Lawrie says the teachers’ federation began to lobby for smaller class sizes, aim­ ing for a mid-20s figure. It was Bill Davis’ Conservative government which finally brought in a regular special education program. “A lot of people don’t realize it, but the 1980s were a very tight time for paper and supplies. There was a wage freeze and very few teachers were hired,” says Lawrie. For years, she was one of the youngest teachers on staff. With the rollbacks, specializations used in earlier years were now being combined. It became harder to pro­ vide some programs, says Lawrie. One memory which will stay with Lawrie is the change over to photo­ copiers from the old ditto machines. She went through a pregnancy won­ dering what effect the toxic fumes might have on her child. Funding in the education system continued to tighten into the 1990s. Flexibility was lost in many schools as there were no longer specialists. Teachers may teach a course they are not experts in or are not interest­ ed in. “There is a mandate to teach spe­ cial interest courses, but there is not the personnel to do it,” says Lawrie. When there is not a specialist in courses such as music or physical education, a child’s skill level may not be carried through because they do not receive consistently increased knowledge from the teacher, she says. As the specialists became classroom teachers, they were no longer available to teach the special­ ty to ail the students. For new teachers trying to find a school, Lawrie suggests the system needs more multi-faceted people. “We need music, drama and phys. ed. teachers.” One improvement in recent years, Lawrie notes is the in-school social worker who works in conjunction with the Children’s Aid Society. The social worker can now work with those children both in school and at home. The development of partnerships with many organizations and com­ panies has helped bring the board through difficult times. Educational assistant training offered in Clinton has allowed the caliber of the employees to improve. There is now a huge infrastructure and technicians to back up the sys­ tem, she says. The biggest change for the chil­ dren, in her 25 years of teaching is the introduction of junior and senior kindergarten, she says. “I was quite a proponent of the program. It gives the children an opportunity to be better matched as they enter Grade 1.” The smaller class size has also helped teachers work with individ­ ual children more, allowing the stu­ dents to work at their level and the teachers to differentiate the way they teach to particular pupil. The volunteerism in the school has been very helpful in providing that one-on-one time needed by stu­ dents. There has also been a great move towards inclusion of all children in the system. There are many schools which have deaf, blind, autistic or tube-fed students in the schools. “It has a great effect on both the children with the disabilities and those learning to communicate with those with the challenges. In the last few years, annual edu­ cation plans, standardized testing, common curriculums and portfolio assessments have gone a long way to equalizing the education system across the province. However, no matter what the tech­ nology or other changes which have infiltrated the education system in the last 100 years, one thing still holds true. The teachers do what is best for the children and try to be the best teachers they can be. “The good teachers have always known that,” says Lawrie.