Abbotsford Mayor George Peary was a bright light as an educator and remains a class act today, even if his decisions at City Hall aren't always appreciated by local taxpayers.
My late grandfather, a weekend farmer and weekday school principal, used to enjoy fishing and sharing teaching tales that, suspiciously, often sounded similar to his “ones that got away” drivel.
He used to haul me out on his shiny aluminum boat at Madge Lake, where we would solve the world’s problems, swill a few beverages and drown Saskatchewan’s finest worms for hours.
Truth be known, I disliked fishing, but loved spending time with my Grandpa who, besides being a brilliant mentor, was an amusing character with an infectious smile.
“Hear about the teacher who got fired for having bad eyes?,” he once asked me as I shook my head. “He kept losing control of his pupils! Get it?”
Grandpa had a million of ’em, but I never forgot that one – for some strange reason. He taught his children and his students plenty over the years. And they loved him for it, even if the odd joke – and many of them were odd – didn’t garner laughs.
Grandma used to whine about going out for groceries, because what should have been a 30-minute exercise often lasted for hours once Grandpa ran into former students or colleagues.
Early next month, World Teachers’ Day will be celebrated in our neck of the woods, with each school district honouring those who spend time and shape the minds of your kids.
I’m sure Grandpa would be less of a comedian if he had to endure what teachers do in today’s classroom.
Grandpa didn’t really have to worry much about obese or latchkey kids, single-parent issues, gangs, drugs, racism, cellphones, Internet chatrooms, health pandemics, school funding and teacher cuts, job action, poverty or political interference.
Today’s classroom is much more complex and teachers, once respected by everyone, have too often been thrown under the bus and treated like Mexican piñatas by budget-slashing politicos as they impose their save-thy-hide agendas on educators, while bleating on about children being our future.
And it honestly irritates me when I hear people mutter “those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.”
While there may be some poor teachers, that staffing flaw isn’t exclusive to the school system. I’m sure your office has a person or two who appears allergic to work or lacks the passion and skills he or she requires to excel.
When your scribe first moved to Abbotsford in 1982, I was homesick for the first few months until The Three Amigos – teachers Barry Stewart, Bill MacGregor and George Peary – rolled out the welcome mat and introduced me to everyone I needed to know.
Peary and MacGregor now serve as mayor and councillor and take all kinds of flak from taxpayers and certain columnists (wink, wink) over their civic priorities and decisions. Rarely are they praised for the good they do at City Hall.
Regardless of what you think about the jobs they do as front-line politicos, they are quality human beings with teaching resumes and accolades second to none.
And Stewart, who I once dubbed “Dr. Sport in red shorts” at a roast held in his honour – was the undisputed Minister of Information for scoop-starved scribes in the Fraser Valley for several decades.
Now happily retired, Stewart still drops in with sporty “gems,” words of praise for the reporters and some cheap shots for the editor (likely on behalf of Peary and MacGregor!).
World Teachers’ Day will come and go Oct. 5 without much fanfare. But given the impact of teachers on my life, the day won’t pass without thinking about their unselfish contributions – or my awesome Grandpa, who always had more success teaching from the heart than a book. That in itself is a lesson.
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