Part 2 (Read Part 1 first)

When asked about the early use of the "Whole Language" approach at the school, Winnie said, “You just write down what you hear. You don’t sound things out, you say things slowly,  and you start to remember but basically it is the thoughts that are important not the spelling. The more you read the more you write. Sometimes you talk about spelling rules, to help them along.” With the 5 year olds, the letters and sounds are taught, and practiced all the time. At these early stages, the teacher "always praises them for everything...you never say that's not right." Spelling was taught, Meredith said, "Just in time...when the pencil went towards the paper." As children get older, they write "reams and reams" and then the focus was on organization, and on deepening their thinking. In the Middles, a lot of time was spent encouraging the children to broaden their thinking, and then take a second or third look before organizing a long text. At this stage, punctuation and grammar were secondary - they were seen as aids to organization.

We talked a little about the school's early reputation as a place which handled "difficult" children well.  Children who did not read as early as others were given more of the teacher's time, but were not referred to specialists or resource teachers.  There were several children who had undiagnosed syndromes such as ADHD and Asberger's Syndrome, and who were sent by parents who believed that the school's holistic, hands on approach would suit them. This often happened, and parents were generally very supportive - the work produced was impressive, the children seemed very engaged and active, and the public schools at the time were often uninspiring. 

Some of the elements of HIS which are key to the school's philosophy had their origins during these early years. Meredith recalls watching Winnie facilitate the whole school meeting, which happened every day, "She was brilliant, and took on really challenging social issues, giving the responsibility back to the kids. It was non-threatening, as no names were used (a tradition that has lasted to this day) and even children with issues would participate. Follow through was important, and the children would trust that their problems would be solved.  Sometimes, a kid who was in trouble would have others agree to help them with their behaviours."

I asked where the concept of "Mini-Society" originated, and with a little thought, Winnie recalled that it probably started with a Valentines Day activity which became a unit on the postal system, with children designing stamps, buying and selling them, and writing letters which had to be posted. This went on once a week for a month, and was so popular that it was extended into another unit where children made things themselves one afternoon a week, a currency was created, and on the last Friday afternoon,  everyone set up shops and buying and selling occurred. At the end of the afternoon, the teachers said, "No more" and the children realized that the currency was worthless. A lot of discussion ensued about value and how we decide what something is worth. The next time this was tried, discussion happened beforehand about the value of labour, and it was decided to set the labour cost at about 10 minutes work for 1 point (or dollar) as a guideline for children to know what to charge for their goods. Apparently some parents didn't like Mini-Society, because it was all about money, and they didn't want to promote the idea that we only do things for money - the Board concurred, and it was stopped for a while. The children kept asking for it, and so it was revived several years later.

Finally, I asked for some memories and stories about the early days. Meredith remembered that Winnie was always scavenging for natural objects to use as catalysts for teaching...one day she came in to the school and Winnie was boiling a seagull on the stove to articulate the skeleton. Another time, said Winnie, "Somebody had described where you could find the skeleton of a moose all eaten away– find that rock, by that tree. So we (the teachers) decided to go there – it was late fall, a little bit cold, so we go there and we take 2 cars, coffee and sandwiches. I hit a bit of black ice, slid around and of course the woman behind me drove right into my car, and I was so shaken, so what did I do?  I started handing out coffee and sandwiches."

Meredith continued, "We turn around and come back and there was Winnie giving out food, but the car was schmucked. No moose was found that day!"

Ruth relates, "We were driving somewhere, and all of a sudden, Winnie says, "Stop!" and I slam on the brakes, and there was a dead porcupine there, and Winnie runs up, but  no, no, it's not dead enough!"

Another time, Meredith's class went down to the Northwest Arm on a Friday afternoon to collect creatures to put in the cold water tank which they had borrowed from the biology department. "It was mainly  little snails, and they were all put into the tank to hold them until Monday when we could discuss the various ecosystems, foodchains etc. So, I came in on Sunday afternoon, and  I remember opening the door, and the room was covered with snails – everywhere. They missed their low tide so they were traveling. They were in holes, up in the bathroom, and of course by now it was high tide so they were looking for water so some were in the toilets. It was a huge clean up!"

Finally, they reminded me of DUS' brush with fame:  Mark Garneau, who at the time was the first Canadian astronaut to go into space, came to officially open the Playhouse which was built by the children as part of the first "People and their Work" theme.