The Similkameen News Leader
Editorial
HOW WOULD WE HAVE KNOWN?
May 29, 2007
Dawn's column on the following page made me think back to my own High School days, which followed a generation after Dawn's.
I went to school in Kelowna. By the time I reached Grade 10, there was only one school in the area that went beyond that, which was KSS - Kelowna Secondary School.
As we came near the end of Grade 10 - in 1976 - we learned that our school, KLO, was going to expand to include Grades 11 and 12 and that there was such a population explosion that another school (OKM) was going to be built. The bad news was that we would be entering into 'shifts' as both school populations shared the KLO building. Being a KLO student meant the early morning shift, which I recall seemed to go by pretty quick. I know I didn't mind that classes ended earlier than 3:00 PM.
What I remember most about my final two years of schooling what how unprepared we were becoming for our entry into the 'real' world. And it wasn't our fault.
One of my most vivid memories of Grade 12 happened in Biology class. Our teacher was a university teacher who took on the challenge of teaching senior high classes to students going to a school that was just expanding into senior high classes.
I can't remember the exact experiment but I do recall one day the class was unable to perform the lesson plan for that day as the school expanded without being fully equipped for the new courses. The teacher told us to read about the experiment in our text books and 'pretend' we had done it as it was impossible to do without the proper equipment.
It wasn't the only class a lot of us in the very first Grad Class of KLO (1978!) had to 'fake' or skipped or received a passing grade just for attending.
And I don't feel ripped off or cheated because of it. The semester system was great as it allowed some of us a 'second chance' if we didn't pass a course the first time. In Grade 12 I was repeating English 11 in the first semester. Counsellors advised me against it, but I got through and actually sailed through English 12 in the second semester.
Mind you, those same Counsellors advised against my wishes to enter the field of Media, starting with Radio.
Based on where our society is now, there was nothing in 1978 that could have prepared us for what we met when we finally stepped out into the 'real' world.
I agree with Dawn that even in my final years in high school most of us had no idea what skills we'd need. In fact, out of the 75 or 76 of us in my Grad Class, a very small percentage of us had any clue what we wanted to do once we graduated.
Would I have done anything differently? Probably not other than paying a little more attention to English when I was in Grade 11 and I realized years ago I should have taken typing. I never would have thought EVERY DAY of my working life would include an up close and personal relationship with a typewriter or keyboard.
But you know, even in the mid-1970's typing class was viewed as more geared to young women who may enter the clerical field so it wouldn't have been a choice on the top of my list of 'electives' for my final few years of schooling.
Yep, I feel like a dinosaur all of a sudden.
There's no doubt the system was flawed when I was in school and probably always had some flaws, but for anyone to be able to navigate through twelve years of brain expanding exercise and come out of the end of it smarter and at least somewhat prepared for real life adventures (rent, income tax, job hunting, marriage, divorce, children, etc.) something good has happened.
Congratulations, Grads. You've made it this far.
The ride is just beginning.
- W. George Elliott, Owner/Publisher, Similkameen News Leader and member of the KLO Class of '78.
