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The Note Wasn't The Key3/25/2023 In grade nine I had a choice between music class or art class. I say “choice” but, the vice principal would write your class schedule as he saw fit and would get grumbly when anyone suggested a change to it.
In grade 10 I excelled at computers (I was writing advanced programs when the other kids were just learning basic) and the teacher told me that I needed to be in the Advanced class. I went to the VP and told him and he implied that she didn't know better than he did but It think he reluctantly made the switch to my schedule. If you've never heard of "streaming" it's basically where they decide in grade 9 (usually through your public school IQ tests) how "smart" you are and then force you into a set box of educational limitations. I think I scored "average" on my IQ (which is interesting since as an adult I took some tests online and scored 114 - upper average) and combined with my 60.6% I was a "General" student which meant "General" courses (as opposed to Advanced). Better than "Basic" I guess, Basic students were made to feel like failures and ended up having to ride the bus to Walkerton school every day where they offered "Basic" classes in their curriculum. I was accepted into a business course, in Barrie, for college, which I completed my first year but wasn't interested in going for a second year. I chose the business course to attend because, well, quite frankly any idiot can do business and I thought my parents expected me to go to college. In hindsight it would have been better if I had just taken a year off instead. A couple years after college I applied to go back and was accepted into another course, I forget which one, in Owen Sound. Then a decade or two later I applied again, and was accepted into General Arts & Sciences in London. These latter two times I ended up not being able to afford to return to college, but I had been accepted both times - not bad for a "general" student eh? I don't think I was a top-shelf student, not even close, but it never once occurred to them that I might be scoring "average" because school bored the crap out of me. There was no specialized education approach back then, well, except the "Special Needs" kids, the "Average" kids and the "Advanced" kids. My friend Iapetus boasted to me one time about how, in mid-elementary school, he drew a floor plan of a house (and still had the paper to show me). I wasn't overly impressed and he said something like "Well, did you do something like this?" and I replied "No one asked me to". In a single conversation we had summed up the education system in Canada in the 1970s-1990s. It's hard to be an "achiever" if no one expects or even asks you to be one. I hated both classes, Music and Art, but you were required to pass one of them (to get your grade 12 diploma) and since I had played the clarinet in grade 8 it made sense to them I should continue it in grade 9. I had inquired about playing the drums at one point, but our school(s) were hooked on streaming students at all levels and if your idea of what you wanted to do didn’t conform to theirs they would find ways to discourage you. I remember they gave me a block and drum sticks to take home, but there was no support or guidance, they already had their "star" drummer so they didn't need another one. I remember our music classroom in high school, it was one of those stepped platform rooms, next door to the science wing and snack bar. I didn’t describe it earlier but the snack bar was basically a utility closet converted into a room to hold candy and snacks on shelves and sold through a dutch door. I sat behind Demeter (f) who was noticeably developed for her young age of 1. I flirted with her – a lot – much to my downfall. My attention to her and not to my already failed ability to play music let to me failing music, it was not an elective course, but 1 credit in arts was required, so I had to take art the next year. I graduated public school with a 66.5% average which meant I almost had to attend Walkerton (DSS) instead of Chesley (HS). I believe you had to have a 65% average or higher to attend Chesley. Ironic, the school with the higher standards of admission ended up being forced closed, a couple decades later (due to low attendance) after about 110 years in operation. The school basically killed itself off, though the greed of teachers unions and mismanagement by the school board no doubt played a part. In grade nine I failed math. I scored 30% average in the first term, 65% in the second term and ended up with an overall grade around 45%. It was, first to second term, the highest swing in grade average the teacher had ever seen in all of his years of teaching. That summer I went to Owen Sound District Secondary School (OSSDS), which involved my quite unhappy father driving me, six kilometres round-trip for him, to Scone every morning to catch the bus, before he went to work. I think I passed the six-week summer course with an average in the upper 60s.
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