TEACHING HAS CHANGED

 Picture this. You won`t believe what I did the other afternoon. I took out the wife of my Physical Education teacher at Harbord collegiate for lunch. She is over 90 and we had a great time talking about old times at my beloved high school. All was different for the teaching profession in the 40`s when I went there,  and it is constantly changing. I will explain what I mean by incidents that I never forgot.

 Sex was just not discussed in any manner as if it was something peculiar to Martians. Wilkie Davey the teacher, and new at the job, was teaching about Health and the male sexual organs. It goes without saying it was an all boys class. He was the future husband of my luncheon date.. We were looking at a picture of a male penis which came up on the page as the teacher turned it. One of the students gave out a loud laugh. Without hesitation, Davey approached the student, and in one stroke, took the health book, about an inch thick, and hit the student on the head. There was stunned silence. The student slowly put his hand in his pocket and all the students waited. What would he do? Draw a pocket knife. Not on your life. He pulled out a comb and started combing his hair. We all started to laugh and it even brought out a tiny smile on Mr Davey`s face. My teacher would be reprimanded for striking a student and of course to-day, the teaching of all things sexual is no big deal. Today a knife might have been in the picture.

When we went swimming  the boys did not wear a bathing suit. The girls wore something in which they would not now, be seen dead in. As we filed in, we stood around the edge of the pool to be counted. This was the routine so that nobody would be left in the pool when the class was over. Our phys-ed teacher was Stapleton Caldecott, very respected and nobody to fool around with. As he went around the circle of boys he stopped at one, Ralph Schlussel and stared at him for a moment. Schlussel, he said in his usual voice, better go into the locker room and get the starch out of ” it”.

The whole atmosphere was different at school. The teachers were called by their first names, on occasion, and they all dressed very informally as did the students In my day men wore  suits and ties  and the women dresses. Students failed regularly and were kept back, but I understand this does not happen now. Higher marks were not easy to get, and it goes without saying, it is much harder to enter university now.

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