16 9 Terrace Review — Wednesday, November 20, 1991

A classroom without walls

Regional
correspondence
takes school

to ihe

students ©

by Nancy Orr

School days, school days. Images
of teachers, school friends, class-
rooms.

But what about the school that
has no walls, no classrooms?

There is another school in B.C.
that has had pupils for seven
decades, that has always practiced
individualized instruction, contin-
uous progress and all the philoso-
phy of “the Year 2000”. It reaches
out to students across the pro-
vince. It has no walls, no face-to-
face teachers and little group
activity but has successfully grad-
uated students year after year who
have learned self-discipline and
love of learning. -

It is the Provincial Correspon-
dence School, developed to cope
with the isolation of lighthouses
and pioneering families who lived
too far from traditional schools;
the islands and inlets of B.C.’s
million-mile coast line; logging
camps, fishing camps, mining
camps, farming communities,
pioneers, And in the days when
mail service was: sporadic and
dependent on weather, a student
hoped that this work would be
returned before he got to his
exams — and yes, exams were part
of the process and were operated
on an honour system.

The correspondence school was
formerly operated out of Victoria
but has grown so large that it is
now regionalized to make the
work more personalized and

/ :

CONTACT TIME. Jo Falconer and Moira Sheridan get
ready to fly off on a visit to some of their students, kids
-enroled in the Northwest Regional Correspondence School
based in Terrace. The two teachers usually interact with

“Se

their students by mail, but the school considers personal
contact important and they occasionally get out in the field
to see first-hand how their students are doing. Helicopter is
just one of the ways they have to get around,

efficient for students.

Terrace is one of the nine region-
al centres for the correspondence
school and encompasses the north-
west section of the province, oper-
ating from the lower floor of the
building that houses the Terrace
School Board Office.

Officially opened Sept. 25, 1988,
with 55 FTE (Full-Time Equival-
ent) students in the elementary
grades, it has grown to the present
100 or more FTE elementary stu-

TEAMWORK. One of the Year 2000 cla
Junior Secondary School this month, with M
Elementary working with 14 of Mr. Anaka’s Grade 10’s.
from the grade 10's the care an
experiments set up for them by the older students.

a re

~ dents plus 1,250 secondary stu-

dents taking one or more courses.
Joe Vander Kwaak is principal of

this unique school. He has taught

at Skeena junior high, was prin-
cipal at Kitwanga elementary
secondary and has an enthusiasm
and commitment for his new
school that carries over to his
“clients” and staff.

Moira Sheridan and Jo Fal-
coner, both former teachers with
wide experience in many types

ssroom innovations is in progress at Thornhill
rs. Hedberg's Grade 7 students from Thornhill
The younger students are learning
d operation of compound microscopes and are conducting
Anaka explains that the Grade 10’s used

their own experimental work and library research to create the project.

of schools, work with primary

and secondary students respec-
tively, Betty Hamilton, another
teacher with a wealth of back-
ground experience, is currently
substituting for Falconer.

A host of secretaries - Marilyn
Soules, Natalie Stewart, Debbie
McCooey, Joan Quast, Joan Ken-
nedy — keep the mountains of
papers and supplies flowing
smoothly in and out.

Then there are the numerous part-
time markers on call for the rush
times, when all the papers arrive at
Once. .

Time is important.

“We have a 48-hour guaranteed
turn-around,” said Vander Kwaak.
“That is, of course, after we get
the work! It comes to us by many
forms of delivery — helicopter,
aircraft, boat, truck, as well as
traditional mail — and weather
plays an important part in
delivery, especially to remote
lighthouses, But we all work to
make sure there are no hold-ups to
returning the corrected work be-
fore the students get on with the
next step.”

One of the major innovations the
new school has made is in its
efforts to personalize the service.

“We have made a point of getling
to know our students, face to
face,” said Moira Sheridan. “It
was a great experience the first
time we went out to visit, every-
one was so shy and hesitant, and
now we are greeted like old
friends. After all, we correspond
with each other weekly.

“Tt was quite an experience for
us, landing in a helicopter on
rocky islands, driving remote
country roads in four-whcel

drives, walking lonely roads.
However, meeting the students
and their families and seeing
where they work makes a big
difference to us all.

“We have made a commitment to
meet at least once a year with
every full-time student,” she said.

Typical of elementary students
are Deanne and Jay Kawatski,
who live near Bob Quinn Lake —
“you drive as far as you can ina
four-wheel drive, on a rough road
off Highway ‘37, then you take to
your feet and walk for one and a
half hours. But it is really worth
while when you get there,” says
Sheridan.

The Kawatskis have built a tradi-
tional log house. They are almost
self-sufficient. A stream with a
water wheel provides utilities and
an enormous garden most of their
provisions, with chickens and
geese to supplément their diet.
They augment their income by
working as forestry lookout,

weather observer and carver and

their mother has a ready market
for her writing.

“They are all so pleased to see us!
and we now have a personal tie
with our students that helps us all
to know where they work and their
interests.”

However, not all students live in
isolation.

Some of the other students live in
towns or villages and even in Ter-
race, and take their schooling from
correspondence for many reasons,
often religious or social. They
probably have strong support, too,
which helps greatly in their work.

— Continued on page 17

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