Tomorrow, June 21st, is National Indigenous Peoples Day.
I had finished my teaching degree in December and by March still had not found any employment. So I presented my resume at a reserve school in the hope of doing some substitute teaching. Instead, to my surprise, I was hired to teach full time till the end of the school year. I was the 3rd teacher for that group that year. The class consisted of about 12-15 Grade 9 adolescents. Naturally they were more interested in socializing than studying and the curriculum could not be further from what they needed: Shakespeare in English class, distribution and commutation in math, ... So for English I plugged in the movie "Romeo and Juliet" with Leonardo DiCaprio. My pupils did show some interest, especially in the car chases between the Montagues and the Capulets! Teaching math was hopeless and always started with me rounding up the students from their hiding places all throughout the building. (The principal was no help in this matter).
Now don't get me wrong, they were not a mean-spirited clientele. In fact when I happened to teach them something they liked, they were actually very pleasant young folk! One girl in particular was soo bright she could easily have taught circles around me at that time. She expressed the wish to become a doctor. But sadly her dream never materialized. She became a "hausfrau". Not that there is something wrong with that. But it's a shame because she had so much potential, someone her community desperately needed.
I made it to the end of the school year and as is custom had to plan the year-end field trip...in the next post! 😎
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