A Different Educational experience

The Nov. 2011 Anglican Journal’s Report on Education is a notable achievement. Teaching the teachers [p. 1] was of particular interest as my own personal experience from 1948 to 1962 differs somewhat.

While many of my public teachers were female, my Grade 4 and Grade 6 homeroom teachers were male, and my Grade 4 principal was female. In high school about 45 per cent of my teachers were female, and about 55 per cent were male.

As far as language was concerned, one of the male teachers at my public school was Greek, and in high school I studied with teachers who spoke and taught French and German. My two Latin teachers, both female, may not have spoken the language, but they certainly knew how to teach it.

Living in Winnipeg and what was then Port Arthur for my public and high school years was greatly enriched by teachers of a wide variety of backgrounds. Due to post-World War II immigration, I had the privilege of studying with students who spoke French, German, Portuguese, Finnish, Norwegian, Italian, Ukrainian, Polish, Russian, Armenian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Roumanian, Latvian, Estonian and Lithuanian!

I am certain that this list covers only a few of the languages spoken by my contemporaries and their parents. In university, the linguistic diversity among faculty and students was even more wonderfully rich and varied.