Graduation - Part 2 - Inspirational Joe

Joe and I worked at Westeel Rosco. We were not buddies but simply colleagues working together. We spent our working days punching holes in steel plates that would eventually find their way into an assembly line of new John Deere balers. Joe and I got along well. We shared the same vision of getting through the workday as quickly and painlessly as possible. Joe had been with the company for over 26 years and due to his experience, had become an expert at doing what he was doing, that is punching holes in steel plates. One of the first things he told me on that first day that we met was that he had a mere 9 years left before retirement.

Our days at Westeel Rosco quickly became routine. Punch in the time-clock at 8 am, break at 10 am, lunch intermission at noon followed by another break at 3 pm. However, Joe had shrewdly devised his own routine which would beat the system. At precisely 9 am, 11 am and 2 pm, he would stop our hole-punching machine and mutter in his heavy Ukrainian accent the word ‘toilet’. At first, during the initial stages of our working partnership, Joe’s frequent visits to the toilet led me to believe that he was suffering from some kind of bladder or intestinal malaise. However, after following him to the washroom one day, I found him sitting on a toilet, seat down, and obviously not answering the call of nature. Instead, with an occasional drag from his cigarette, he just stared into mid air, contemplating life. As Joe sat there engaging in inner dialogue, he appeared to have reached the pinnacle of self-fulfillment. By taking these illegitimate breaks, Joe was beating the system and thereupon, cheating the company out of a few minutes of labor. In fact, his illicit visits to the toilet had become the most satisfying part of Joe’s days at Westeel Rosco. Joe had unintentionally shown me that, as much as I liked the guy, I did not want to end up like him.

After my summer at Westeel Rosco, I landed a job as a teacher’s aid with the Winnipeg School District. A new program for children with severe behavioural issues (alias juvenile delinquents) had been implemented at an abandoned school in the North End of Winnipeg. Today these kids would be diagnosed as children with CD (conduct disorder) or ODD (oppositional defiant disorder). In those days they were simply diagnosed as bad kids. The assignment was simple: keep these 20 non conforming brats off the streets. This nerve-racking and exasperating experience convinced me that I enjoyed being with children, especially the most challenging of them, teaching them, and that with the right training I might even become good at it. I sensed that I had what it took to be a ‘good’ teacher.  It goes without saying that I found the job with the Winnipeg Schools much more fulfilling than punching holes with Joe at Westeel Rosco.

The rest is history. I have been in the education profession ever since. Considering my repugnance to anything remotely resembling education or school during my childhood and adolescent years, the fact of having over 35 years of successful experience as an educator is a surprising if not an almost paradoxical accomplishment. During these 35 years, I have often reflected about the possible reasons for my being locked into this quasi-enigmatic professional state. What is it that keeps me going back every September to a job that ends up draining me emotionally as well as physically every year? The money? I think not; I was making more money as a night custodian at the Airliner Motor Lodge in Winnipeg (another one of my fascinating summer jobs). Job security? There will always be kids to teach as long as there are people cranking out kids.  Or, perhaps it’s the entertainer in me struggling to get out. Let’s face it, although we do not like to admit it, deep down, we teachers are all closet-performers and what we do every day with these kids is nothing less than a performing art.  

So yes, when I was a kid, I loathed school. Not only did I loath it, I questioned its usefulness. I thought school was boring and stupid. Today, as a school administrator, I still question the concept of schooling, a concept that is still occasionally foreign to anything resembling learning.  But as a school administrator, I am in a better position to encourage and make changes to the learning environment of the children that have been put under my care. I am in a better position to make changes that are needed to make my school better than when I was a kid. True, our concept of schooling has evolved, and schools are not as boring and stupid as they were 50 years ago. Many gains have been made since that day that I entered that Grade 1 fern jungle, but unfortunately many of our schools today are still sterile, pseudo-factories shaping and fashioning out graduates praised with high grades but deficient of the ability to connect with the ever changing complex and uncertain world in which they find themselves. There are still plenty of questionable procedures and structures out there that fringe on boredom and stupidity. We still have schools today that are characterized by antiquated procedures of grading, standardizing, the herding of children from room to room at the sound of a bell. And even more alarming, there are still many places in the world where we are still building new “old schools” that see kids merely as vessels to be filled, schools that subsequently succeed very well in stifling all of our kids best qualities – curiosity, resilience, insightfulness, and adventurousness. Thank goodness those times are passé in Canada, where we can proudly boast of having one of the world's top 5 best educational systems (ranking # 2 or # 3, depending on who's ranking).

Ok, now that I've gotten that off my chest, let me ponder a bit about what I will say to my graduates ...

Next entry : Dear Graduates...