Dedication Ceremony Speeches

Macdonald High School Centenary Address

by

Donald S. Barnes, former vice-principal

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Thank you, Pieter. Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen.

We few, we happy few…Joan Hanna, who taught in the junior school for some years, later becoming a school board consultant, Leslie Clark; Leslie Clark, who was principal of Mac from 1060 to 1966, later becoming Director-General and, myself, Don Barnes. We are honoured to represent, this afternoon, the “staff past”. I am thankful that on the programme this is spelled, p-a-s-t and not p-a-s-s-e-d!

Our job is to bring you a few anecdotes about the “good old days”.

It is important, before I continue, that I explain to you some rules. You all went to school and surely remember a class where some young Herbert asked his teacher “Does this count?”…which meant, “If it don’t count, then I ain’t listening!” Today this does count! There will be a test at the end; a skill-testing question will be posed for you all to answer. So pay attention!

In 1964, or so, there were no such things as teacher unions. There were also no substitute teachers. If a teacher was absent, it was the job of the school to deal with it. At Macdonald, this meant having classes report to the cafeteria. It went like this: The teaching day was seven periods; five teaching and two free – if you were lucky!

One arrived at the school to be met, just inside the main door, by Leslie Clark, this same Mr. Clark sitting here with us today. He would greet you with, “Good morning, Mr. Barnes. I wonder if you would mind reporting to the cafeteria second period”. You readily said, “Yes, sir, no, sir, three bags full, sir.” He could fire you! As I said, there were no unions!

Dutifully, I reported to the cafeteria. Remember now, this was my first year as a teacher. Immediately, a Grade XI class arrived, looking like the retreat from Moscow, having had the hell beaten out of them by the Russians!
“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen! I assume you all have plenty of work to keep you busy this period? Jolly good! Please sit over in that corner of the room.”

Immediately, a second group came streaming through the door. They got similar orders and were directed into another corner of the room.

By then I was feeling some concern. “Please God, let that be all.” That was when the third class arrived! There were now some ninety young adolescents in the room, with mischief in mind – and only me to control them.

Within a minute, from the Grade XI corner, a paper airplane was launched in my direction! “Stay cool”, I told myself. “Don’t play their game. A second paper airplane soon followed. “Can’t ignore that,” I muttered as I strode towards the senior class. “OK,” I said, “we have a student of aerodynamics here (or some thing equally witty) but that’s enough. Settle down please.” I returned to my seat.

I can’t recall how many paper planes it took before I lost it. I felt anxious, even desperate; I strode again towards the Grade XI class and said very loudly, “That’s it, all of you report to the office!” I clearly remember the stunned, “He’s sending us ALL to the office?” look on their faces. They knew they’d won. It was usual to send one unruly member of the class to the office to be dealt with, but a whole class?! I had just committed the most monumental error of my career (I hasten to add that I only made a couple of others in my thirty years in education!).

“OK, let’s go; move it,” I yelled. They ambled through the cafeteria door, up the stairs to the office of Mr. Todd, who was the Administrative Assistant in charge of discipline. Now, Norman Todd, on his very best days, was never Mr. Happy! Finding some twenty-five youngsters milling around outside his office rather took him by surprise. Have you ever seen a man having apoplexy? I was truly quite worried that he might have a real brain haemorrhage!

I soon discovered that his excited condition and ire was not directed towards the students, the majority of whom were innocent of any misdemeanour. He was trying to understand who this twit was who’d just sent him a full class to deal with – and, how had this novice teacher ever been hired by Macdonald High School.

Now, here comes your test. What should I have done to deal with this problem?

Answers proffered were:

“Try to build a better airplane.” Facetious and incorrect.

‘Send in the Navy.” Answer from the head of the colour party, who was a Navy man. Wrong again!

The correct answer is:

I should have taken the papers I was grading and sat in the midst of the Grade XI students. Then the most venturesome ones would not have dared to continue making paper planes under those circumstances!

Thank you.

-Don Barnes, teacher and vice-principal, Macdonald High School (1964 -1986)

_____________________________________

A Tribute to Malcolm Davies

Presented by Mrs. Joan Hanna
on the occasion of
the Centennial Celebrations Dedication Ceremony,
Macdonald High School

May 20, 2007

On the opening school day in September, 1957, with excitement and an air of self importance I began my first assignment at Macdonald – to supervise pupils at the east door, facing the main door to the High School.

This was the era of the Baby Boom, with two Grade 4 and 2 Grade 5 classes, each with at least thirty pupils, ages ten or eleven. They came from Senneville, Ste. Marie Road, Ste. Anne de Bellevue (Baie d’Urfé) and the Macdonald Campus. On a grassy slope fringed with bushes (now paved over), all these children, strangers to me, were shouting and screaming, pushing and shoving.

When to bell rang, to my horror, no one paid the slightest attention. The awful din continued as before. I blew a few blasts on my newly acquired whistle, to no avail. I then tried waving my arms and shouting, also without success. In desperation, I raced up the steps of the High School, burst into the principal’s office crying, “Mr. Davies, help, help!”

My difficulty quickly explained, I followed him back to the playground. Of course, as soon as the tall imposing figure of their principal appeared, there was complete silence. Raising one arm with dramatic emphasis he said, “Now young ladies and Gentlemen, what has been going on here?”

A girl called out, “The boys are throwing burrs at us.” Stroking his chin for a moment, he said as *if* imparting a secret, “Girls, listen to me. Boys are burr throwers! They do it to make you scream and because they like you”. Then there were groans from the boys and giggles from the girls.

Turning to me he said very politely, “Please carry on”, and left the scene. To my relief, one hundred and twenty pupils quietly filed into the school.

This was my initiation into Malcolm Davies’ way of solving problems – with wit and humour, good spirits and dignity, a recipe for a happy school.

-Joan Hanna, former Demonstration Teacher and English Consultant

________________________________________

Presented by Mr. Leslie J.B. Clark

on the occasion of the
Centennial Celebrations Dedication Ceremony,
Macdonald High School

May 20, 2007

When I realized yesterday that I am eleven years younger than the School, it was quite a shock. You will understand, then, how lucky I feel to be able to be here with you today. I have also made some notes to keep me on track. At my age, I am likely, in the middle of some other topic to talk of yesterday’s great win by the Ottawa Senators over the Sabres.

One Friday afternoon in the spring of 1954, there was a knock on my classroom door. I opened it and there stood a gentleman who announced that he was Wayne Hall from the School for Teachers, Macdonald College, and asked if he might sit in on the class to watch me teach. I gave him a big smile and said, “Of course”. Nonetheless, I was somewhat perturbed as this was a downtown high school class of pupils, ages from fourteen up, some of whom were Chinese with very little English. The class was always restless on a Friday afternoon, so I feared the worst. In fact, they couldn’t have been better behaved.

A week later, I was advised by the School for Teachers that I was acceptable as a Demonstration Teacher at Macdonald High School; subject to the approval of Macdonald Protestant School Board. The following Saturday, I was invited to attend a meeting of the Board at the School. The full Board was present, grilled me for about half an hour, and then asked me to wait outside while they made their decision. A few minutes later they called me back and offered me a post at the Grade 5 level. I would be paid $250 above the Teacher Scale as a Demonstration Teacher. In 1954, $250 was a lot of money, so I gladly accepted.

When I reported for duty in September 1954, I discovered that, already on Staff, were Miss Ruth Evans, Mr. David Hill, Mr. Roger Malboeuf, the late Mr. Grant Taylor, the late Mr. Harold Smithman. Miss Evans and Mr. Hill were still on Staff during my time as principal.

The Headmaster of the School was Mr. Malcolm Davies – generally known as “Mac”. It was always my belief that he never received the rewards he deserved. It was he who spearheaded the extension from the original building to Maple Avenue to make classrooms available for the fast-growing elementary-age population. It was he who spearheaded the building of elementary schools in Ile Perrot, Baie d’Urfé, Dorion and finally the extension to the east of the original high school building to provide classrooms for the increasing numbers of high school students.

When Mac handed the school over to me in 1961, there were approximately 700 students, from kindergarten to Grade XI. When I left to join the Staff of the newly formed Lakeshore Regional School Board in 1966, there were just, there were just under 1500 students from Grade 8 to Grade 12.

A quick word of another staff member – Miss Grace Revel, a greatly revered, no-nonsense teacher of French. One afternoon I walked into the staff room. A number of the Staff were already there including Grace. She said, “Les, you look warm and weary. Would you care for an iced tea?”

“Grace, I would love a glass”, I said. She handed me a glass and I took a mighty swig and nearly went through the roof. It was neat whiskey.

Finally, from age 17-59, with the exception of the period 15 July, 1939 to 26 June, 1946 when King George the VI required my services, I worked in the Education Sector. The twelve years I spent with the Macdonald Protestant Central School Board were the happiest of those years. I met and worked with such wonderful people – students, their parents and the Staff.

- Leslie J.B. Clark, Principal Macdonald High School 1961-66.