Steve - Now, Neil, you've been in education-or you are-I presume you are retired now. But, you were in education and could you tell us a little bit about how you started, what subjects you were teaching and when you moved into becoming a principal.
Neil - Well it's kind of a long story here, Steve, so I'm not sure how much you want me to tell, but I was very fortunate in my youth, that I had some abilities athletically, and so, in high school I played just about every sport that came along, and from that-I guess I- the role model I had was one of my physical education teachers, and that, I think persuaded me to pursue teaching at that time. And I was, at 19 years old I had finished my teacher training and there was quite a shortage of school teachers at that time, and particularly physical education teachers.
And because of my athletic abilities, I was hired at 19 years of age to teach physical education in a senior high school. And so I guess my up-bringing and my schooling experience helped me to get that first position. So I then went and continued my education to complete my degree which I would do at night school and summer school and completed a major in physical education and one in mathematics. And I carried on teaching physical education for about seven years.
Around that time I was asked would I be interested in a counseling position in the school system, and, I guess quite naturally I said yes, I would like to do that. So, I did some physical education, some counseling and then soon moved to full-time counseling. And, at about year 10 I guess it was, in my career, I had someone tap me on the shoulder and say there's an administrative post for a new school. We think you should apply. And I did, and that got me involved in the administrative line. This was all in junior highs and senior secondary schools, so for the last 24 years of my 25, I was involved in administration as a vice-principal or principal in a senior secondary school.
Steve- What have been some of the changes that you have seen in education, in the student body, or, have the changes not been so great?
Neil- I think not everyone agrees with the opinion that I have on that. I don't think that education has changed as much as some people make it out to have changed. We've reorganized the curriculum in different ways. We stream it in different ways. At one time we had a university program, and a general program, and then we had performing arts programs and, well we had industrial programs, and academic programs, and now they've got other names for it. But the basic curriculum I don't think has changed a great deal. It's organized differently. Students, I think, today, want the same kind of things that they wanted when I started teaching back, well, almost 50 years ago now. They want to know where they stand, they want you to be firm with them, they'd like to have fun in the classroom and I think all of those things can apply. There's no reason why it can't. But there are a lot of external pressures on students today which weren't evident many years ago, and that makes it much more difficult for them when they're growing up. Steve- Very interesting, so yeah, kids would like to have fun in the classroom. Of course that's not always possible. The teacher has to sort of balance the fun aspect with I guess the discipline or the serious business of learning. So I'd be interested on, on to what extent a teacher can accommodate the desire to be entertained in the classroom. And, second of all, I'd like to hear more about the kinds of pressures that students face today that they didn't face, say, 50 years ago. Neil- Well, I, I think that most subjects can be fun. Physical education obviously can easily be fun. That's not hard to make it fun. But when I taught mathematics, I thought it could be fun too. And, don't get me going on the number 9, because I could tell you about the magic of number 9 in a number of different ways and, when you can talk about, you can talk about space and points on a line and geometry. I mean there are so many things that you can do in an interesting way, and you don't have to be an entertainer. You just need to think, "we're in this together." We could have some fun doing it. And it doesn't have to be a mystery. It's not a-it doesn't have to be a contest, we could just have some fun with it. Different pressures? You know, obviously, things like the type of way we are recording today on an MP3 disc versus the old tape recorders. The way media can get to our teenagers today so much more readily than it was several years ago. And the influence of the drug culture on them. Those things have changed tremendously. But, basically, I think human beings are the same creatures they were several years ago.
Steve- Well, I certainly agree with you that learning should be fun. And that's one of the principles, of course, of the Linguist system. That we try to offer such a variety of different content that people can learn from subjects that are of interest to them, rather than having to slug their way through something that's imposed upon them. Of course, in a school, you have a curriculum that you have to teach.
I remember in school, it almost seemed as if there are about 20-30% of the teachers were very good at doing what you just described- making it interesting for people. Another 20 or 30 were somewhat indifferent, and another 20 or 30 were, actually had no control at all over what went on in the classroom. Has that-was that your experience in your school?
Neil- Oh, I think you're absolutely right on that, but that's probably no different from the doctors or the lawyers or any other profession where you've got that group that can excel in what they are doing and do it in a way which is very acceptable to everyone around them, and those that are sort of at the other end of the scale. I see it as not being very different one profession from another.
Steve- For sure, now of course, for all parents I guess, today, some, a fear that I, I think my parents never had, and I guess I had, and my wife and I had to some extent, but which is probably an even larger fear now is this whole drug thing. And you know, will children at school where you hear stories that drugs are available and so forth. You know are they vulnerable to wanting to take a chance, or a risk, or whatever. And is this problem getting bigger, is it static, is it, how many people are affected by it? Are there solutions? I mean, you were in the school system. Is there a way to deal with it?
Neil- Well, again, I've been out of the school system for a few years, Steve, so I think that it's a little hard for me to say exactly what's happening today, but one of the keys, I believe, in dealing with it, is that schools, the staff in the schools, the principal, the teachers, the counselors, or whoever is working with the parents, and remember that they're in the same game for the same reason. They should be working together. And often I hear stories where it sounds like the staff and, and parents are at odds with one another and that troubles me, and I see the best success when they are supporting one another and working together to deal with the issues that are there.
Steve- Well, you know I was involved very briefly in hockey coaching, and so forth, and even when my kids were growing up it seemed that, you know, when I was young, whatever a coach or a teacher had to say, if I didn't agree with the coach or the teacher, there's no way my parents would have sided with me. Whereas, even when I was coaching, if I disciplined someone on my team for, for example, swearing at me, their father would come at me as if I was a mean old disciplinarian or something. Like, you got the impression, and I hear some of this from the schools as well, that nowadays, the parents are more likely to support their children when they are disciplined by a teacher, whereas, certainly when I was growing up, if I got disciplined at school, I sure didn't tell my parents about it because it would only make it worse. Neil- Well I think you're right on that account, but again, I'll go back to the point I was making. If, at the outset, whoever the adults are that are working with children, if you can reach that understanding that you're working together for the same ends, you're going to have much more success in dealing with that type of thing. Steve- Okay, well, thank you very much. We have now covered, I think, some of the highlights, I guess of your experience in education. And we'll move on now to John, who is sitting right next to me.
