Over the course of 100 years Calgary schools have dealt with a lot of students and the public system accepts all comers who are resident of a certain age.

Currently if the new Education  Act passes, anyone ages 6-17 will have to go to school  and will be funded there till age 19. There is talk of making kindergarten compulsory at age 5.  In  Ontario there is early kindergarten at age 4.  There are even proposals by some early learning advocates to start early education in the schools at age 2. 

These moves are highly controversial at both ends of the spectrum.  There is concern that kids even at 17 can’t get well paid careers while others say that for some school is not a positive experience and if success is not likely so you may as well let them leave.  For the start age, parents who raise their children at home without  using 3rd party daycare often do not want to be forced to use another care style, even if it promises ‘early learning’ since many are home precisely because that is what they try to offer.  Daycares would lose business if the clientele moved over to the free school system. Parents are of two minds since some who use the daycares right now prefer the lower cost of schools and like the idea of a highly trained legally liable instructor who will advance skills not just babysit.  Some however argue that any experience for 2-4 year olds is not going to be any more than natural advancing of physical maturity and social relationships which happen anyway. For many official programs for children under age 5,  is  no plan to actually teach  anyone to read or write.

The clincher of the arguments on both ends may well be money.  It simply is overwhelmingly expensive to have children in schools, to provide a building, heat it, get learning materials, and pay staff. Schools in 2012 are already cash-strapped.

The idea of a range of ages at school though is not new. It’s just that nowadays in any given class all students there are likely within 2-3 years of each other in age and most are the same age.  That always seems odd to me, a cultural anomaly, as if you roped in all the teens of age 13 in the entire city and housed them in just a few rooms. It is an unnatural social grouping since there is within it little chance for the voice of experience mentoring.  Some elementary schools are on purpose trying to create the natural phenomenon of older kids helping younger ones though. Some of my most touching moments, bringing  tears to the eyes,  have been in such classes, when the grade 6s come in to read with the kindergarten kids, partnered one to one, or when the older ones lace on the inline skate and knee pads for the little ones and guide them around the gym.  It is very sweet to see a grade 6 child pick up a little child and act as ‘bus buddy’ to ensure the youngest get on the bus and home safely. I overheard a conversation recently of one such grade 6 girl. She asked  the little one” And how was your day?” The child said ‘Good” and the older girl asked’ What was good about it?”  It was the art of conversation, positivity, encouragement and it happens so naturally with kids.

Some schools even have multi-grade grouping in each classroom once a month, a few children from each grade all assembled to chat about values issues, friendship, sharing, politeness. These contacts make what may seem a scary and impersonal building a friendlier one since the kids will now see familiar faces in every hallway. The idea also is very helpful to show kids growing up is interesting and to reduce any fears they may have of higher grades.  I also have found that older kids who might be less academic or rebel-prone often become quite traditional when it is their chance to teach.  It’s good for both parties.

Calgary is a blend of ethnicities, and moreso in recent decades. One of our shopping malls is nearly all Chinese and there are people from dozens of nations in every school. I think that kids by nature integrate. They only learn bias and if we don’t teach it to them, they don’t show  it. For them the variables of how people differ by what kind of pencil you have, what logo is on your shoe, are as important as and maybe more important than any other thing like if you wear glasses, are tall or shot, or those irrelevant things only adults seem to care about- skin color, income of parents or where you live.  It’s fascinating  to see how kids as they get older try to maintain that acceptance of each other and it seems sometimes like parental pressure is a key factor about who actually socializes with how and who dates, outside of school.  I am optimistic about the future when I see how basically kind some little kids are to others who need help, and how accepting.

The schools have had to adjust massively in Calgary to population increase, to population diversity and language demands, to health challenges and needs for special accommodation. It’s interesting to see the ebb and flow of theory about it, the parental insistence on what seems fair, the advocacy to make groupings work.

As a teacher I have had students in one single class who were hearing- challenged, gifted but sloughing off, low academic because that was how well they could do and those who had low marks because they really were not trying, plus students who were immigrants and fairly new to English.  It is a huge challenge to try to teach a group with such diverse needs. One wonders a lot about whether separate classes or groupings would work better for them or if they benefit more from the interaction and learning from each other.  I guess it’s not unlike dilemmas of the pioneer teacher though.  Kids are not all the same.

______________________________________________________________

In 1881 an adult was 21 or over and voting and marriage required attaining that age. Yet for many, operating farm equipment, riding a horse and buggy alone on an errand came much  younger.  It cost $3 to get a marriage license but you needed parental consent if a minor.   In 2012 you are adult at 12 for eating at a restaurant and paying full fare, 14 for movies, 16 to drive a car, 16 or 17 to quit school, 18 to marry or vote or join the military.    21, the age of legal majority for getting some rights even a few decades ago created ironies like a couple not able to divorce without the help of someone older, since they were still minors.

This grey standard of when kids are ‘grown up’ has always been there, but we shifted the numbers.  There are some who argue we give big privileges that matter – like driving a car and putting lives at stake- very young, while we give minor responsibilities late – like voting.

In pioneer times we gave adult responsibilities very young, tending animals, sowing crops but we delayed the right to marry.  We have extended the age when a child has to go to school, and certainly the level of schooling needed to get a well paid job but funding has not always flowed with those new definitions.  Post secondary students face high tuition bills and generally levels of student debt are  in the range of 40,000 to a hundred thousand dollars on graduation.  The debt load makes them delay moving out of the parents’ home, buying their own home, even marriage and having children.  It is an irony that the way education is valued or funded is now affecting society’s core benchmarks for launching into adulthood.

Schools  in early settler times were not even available in some areas and growing up meant learning the survival skills of farming, cooking, hunting, fishing.  When some parents insisted on schools, not all parents felt them necessary and government had to set up rules for  minimal attendance.  The fine line was set already before 1900- with  some viewing education as the right of a child, a privilege we owe them, while others felt it a regrettable obligation where the kid may not really want to go.

In Calgary when enough parents wanted a school to set one up above a curling rink or in the town hall above a jail, the fine line was already  there in 1892.

Parents disagreed on the usefulness of learning to read the classics when farm chores had to be done but eventually learning the 3 Rs- reading, riting, ‘rithmetic  seemed to have merit. In 1890 school was made compulsory for ages 7-12.  In 1886 the Sarcee Reserve the Church of England provided lessons for native  children aged 9-17 with room and board.

By 1902 when the public school system in Calgary had 1000 students the fine line again emerged of whether there was any value in going to high school.  The few who chose to go on attended Sleepy Hollow, the school behind the present day city hall.

As more people moved to town, demand for schools increased two ways- one because of more children and two because with more urbanization there was more need to be literate outside of farm chores.  By 1920 there were so many children enrolled that school officials discussed setting up portable classrooms in outlying districts.

What turned up at the schools was an array of skill levels, not necessarily related to age of the student.  In grade one it was common to have children ages 5, 6, and 7 but by grade two they might be anything from aged 6 to 12 or older. One school inspector in 1921 was dismayed to find in grade two that of the nineteen children, two were ages 14 and 15.  They differed widely in how much school they had already had, and promotion was not given till you learned the skills for the grade.

By 1930 more children wanted to go past grade 8 in Calgary but in the rural areas high school was still a dream. In a remote  school in 1930 some children who enrolled had actually not been to school for the past 4-5 years.   The province struggled to set standards for all schools, knowing the huge diversity of situations. There were so many pulls away from school during the Depression- poverty-, during the war- fathers away and child needed at home, and during boom times- teenager can get a good paying job without school.  Yet the long term value of education was being recognized, when the boom job ended, when the fathers came back from war, when education actually was as route out of poverty.

In earlier times kids with severe medical challenges rarely could get schooling, except at home.  However medical checks revealed that there was a need for special classes  In 1919 the first class for special needs children was set up at Serini Cottage School. It had 17 students. In the 1920s classes were set up for them  at Tuxedo and Mewata Park.  By 1930 the feeling was that it was better to integrate them into mainstream instruction and they moved into regular studies at Victoria, Bridgeland, Central and Kind George.   The  move in and out of integrating has gone on ever since.

 In 1937 Calgary set up at Connaught School, classes for the deaf and hard of hearing and for those with speech problems.   In 1953 there were eleven special education classes around the city for children aged 9-14. They were devoted in particular to those who needed help with speech, hearing or ‘sight saving’.   A 1978 Supreme Court ruling in Alberta said that ‘special needs’ students have the right to be in mainstream educational settings.  It was a balance.  The parents who insisted their child get treated as any other argued against any discrimination.  Yet teachers often found that to give the students top-notch education, they did need special treatment, and it was not possible to give it in a crowded classroom with dozens of other demands.  Both groups argued for the wellbeing of the child.

Over the years the debates continued about whether a class should be a blend of ages or not, a blend of skill levels or not, about what was easier to teach or more practical to mentor and help each other.    In 2012 there are several approaches for instance to children with hearing challenges, and these parallel the approaches parents have. Some get cochlear implants for the kids and want the children integrated fully into the hearing community. Others teach the children to sign and want a sign-language expert in every class with the child.  Calgary schools  now offer both options.

Schools for the severely handicapped were set up with great love and commitment, usually by parents first struck by the situation personally.  Christine Meikle set up a kitchen school for 6 students in 1953.  In 1958 the first school in Alberta for children with developmental disabilities was opened and named the Christine Meikle school. The school now serves children with severe and complex needs,  aged 12-19 years, from all areas of Calgary. 

Emily Follensbee was a teacher in Saskatchewan, having moved up to Canada from Minnesota. She and her husband Harry had a child with disabilities and finding no place for the child to get schooling in Calgary, she set one up. In 1954 she and five other families created the Southern Alberta Council for Retarded Children and a school was opened in 1964 for the mentally handicapped. She herself taught there from 1967 to 1972.  She lived to the grade old age of 100 years, less 3 weeks, dying in 2003.  In 2012 the Emily Follensbee centre is devoted to children aged 2 1/2 to 14 with complex learning needs. 

In 1969 the Calgary board of education took over operation of the two schools. They teach students skills to become members of the community and include where possible functional academics, daily living activities, work experience. The children participate as they are able in crafts, sports, and volunteer work in the community and many graduates including children of the founders, lived long happy lives into their 40s and 50s and beyond.

In 2012 the school board also offers exceptional needs classes in many schools, plus individual program plans for those with mild cognitive disabilities, special technology to help with vision or hearing, ratio of two to five students per teacher in some cases, and modified curriculum.

The fine line about integration also is one of culture. Should all children have to leave behind their language of birth and learn English, which is the dominant language of the community? Those who say yes feel that helps children learn to survive in a competitive economy. Others however feel strongly that it is best to retain the culture and values of birth and insist on this right under human rights conventions. The result is that schools in Calgary try to offer several options. English as a second language classes give students basic skills in several levels so they can handle better the shock of sudden placement into a mainstream English class. Other parents lobby for instruction in the native language and Calgary has set up some immersion or bilingual schools in French, Spanish, German and Mandarin.  Parents clamor for more as immigrant populations increase.

The fine line about integration also is about skills. Should all children have to take academic courses or is there another stream more appropriate for clerical, technical, labor and manual jobs?  Calgary schools have struggled to create options there too.  The debates about having separate trade schools or ones incorporated into the ‘composite’ high school  were contentious.  Eventually Western Canada College, which was academic, became the city’s first composite high school.

Some specialty schools were created.  Sir William Van Horne School was built in 1967 for teens not thriving in the academic stream or preferring trade and technical training. The school board however voted in 2010 to close the school and move the students back into  a mainstream composite school.  Many of the big high schools offer career and technology courses, auto shop, mechanics, woodworking, art.

The public school system, unlike the private, has to provide for the wide range. Private schools can pick and choose clientele and so they often have a lot lower operational costs to deal with.  I remain a big fan of public education. The private schools can be very good but I like the concept of welcoming one and all, and of the community ensuring everyone gets a good start.

.