School Memories--If you attended school in montreal, write out!

My First School Memories
My Welsh life had a quiet routine at Infants School, a soot-sodden brick building of the Edwardian period, with tall chimneys reaching to the sky from every dank classroom, chucking out the misery of misspelled words, poor grammar and the brimstone aroma of the anthracite coal wrenched out of the valley floor.
Then, in 1960, my father was offered a teaching post in Canada. We sailed across the ocean to settle in the east-end of Montreal where a new high school and elementary school had been built to educate the little hopefuls of the burgeoning English speaking population of petroleum industry professionals. These schools had central heating, tiled floors and indoor toilets! Housewives with their high school leaving certificates tucked in their pocketbooks were hired in throngs to educate the assembly line of students. These were the banner days of rote learning and subject promotion.
But boy, these educators knew how to do kindergarten!
The room was full of toys, dolls, wooden bicycles and tiny desks and chairs. At the end of the cloak room, there were two doors, one blue and one pink. The sparkling white sink and toilet bowl were fit to size for small children. These beautiful features were to become my Waterloo.
I was terrified to say the wrong word, like toilet for washroom; “year” for ear; “ouer” for hour; or “ambarg” for handbag. If the teacher called on the class to answer a question, I would reach enthusiastically up to the skies with my tiny hand, but lower it deep into my tunic pocket if she glanced my way. The wrong word would earn me a taunt at recess. I sounded like an outsider in the only language I knew. How I wished to be like all the others.
“Yes, Gay-NOR. You have your hand up,” the teacher said in such a kind tone that I didn’t have the heart to tell her she had pronounced my name incorrectly.
“May I please use the toilet,” I blurted out, but the waves of laughter from the class drowned me out (I vowed right then to never speak again in this school),
The teacher replied curtly that “toilet” was an impolite word in Canada, and I could use the “washroom”. My humiliation was intense. This was the moment that I had dreaded all along.
Then the newest boy in the class, Olaf raised his hand. Olaf came from Lapland, where his grandfather was a reindeer herdsman. He was an affable boy who never really said anything, so we shared a silent bond.
“Yes, O-LAFF,” Mrs. White responded, but was drowned out by laughter from the whole class. “Children! Quiet down. Now, O-LAFF.”
She stopped herself, but laughed so hard that had tears running down her cheeks. “Maybe I should try that again.”
She cleared her throat and said softly, “Olaf.”
“I go home,” he grumbled, “I am not well from cold.”
When I returned from the “washroom”, he was waiting in the cloakroom for his mother to take him from school early.
“Why do you have that dirty sock around your neck, Olaf,” I whispered to him, leaning close to his face. I had noticed him pull it out of his cubby and put it around his neck before he put his coat on.
“In home, my sock because I have a tickling voice. Not same for you? Makes better” Olaf croaked.
As I returned to the group of singing kids, I thought to myself that even though Olaf and I had a hard time with the language, he had a much bigger fish to fry with that sock on his neck.
And even though we were just strange kids from a world of different places, I cut myself some slack, joyfully accepting my own feeble peculiarity.

My memories of school in Montreal

I am a transplant to Montreal. I was born in British Guiana, which is now Republic of Guyana. I immigrated to Canada just after High School in that country because I wanted to have some adventure and was not ready to settle down and have a family as most girls of my age would do, "get married." I arrived in Toronto, which is called the "meeting place." and that is where I met my current husband. I enrolled in a Seminary and took some courses in Theology. Within a few short years, I was married and moved to Montreal.

Arriving in Montreal from Windsor, Ontario on short notice was an experience by itself. I was new to the City of Windsor and after having lived there for only two years, I packed whatever little belongings we had and came to this wonderful city of Montreal. I soon realized that in order to enjoy the best of Montreal and if I wanted to establish myself here, I would have to learn the French language. The reason behind my madness to learn the language is that I realized after we arrived in Montreal that my husband was quite adept in the French language. We visited the St-Anjou shopping mall in the Eastern part of Montreal and everyone spoke French even the cashiers at the check-out. That inspired and motivated me to learn the french language and the culture of the province of Quebec, it was not an easy task but I persevered.

I was only new to the Canadian and Quebec system and I could not find employment because I was lacking Canadian experience I therefore enrolled in French conversation classes that was offered to newcomers to the Quebec without any tuition. It was a lot of fun but hard work as well. In my experience and limited vocabulary it was not an easy feat. You had to ask a question in French in order to have an answer to your question. This for me was beyond what I could handle at the time but as already mentioned I persevered. We would look at recorded conversations which we would answer questions to and enact the scenarios. After completion of the conversational course, I embarked upon the written work of the language which consisted of "savoir faire, savoir ecrire et savoir lire."

I will continue this later on because I have to sign off now.

So my madness to understand a culture and a language that was foreign to me began with going back to "alphabetization" of the French language. I started over again for about one year and a half to cover kindergarten to Secondary V studies in French. My experiences were full of interesting stories; this enabled me to met individuals from multiple backgrounds and culture. Two things that really stands out in my memory was the celebration of St-Jean Baptiste day which is June 24th. There was a big party organized by the school and we went out on the streets parading and celebrating a holiday that was foreign to me but it made sense because there was a lot of jesting, laughing and eating going on. The other was the way that idioms were used by the people of Quebec. I questioned my French instructor about the expression "pantout" but she was not able to give me a proper definition of the word. At first, I thought it meant, "I do not have any pantouffes" which means slippers in english. It took me many years later to realize what it actually meant and I was exhilarated to find out that what was being said was "pas de toute" which in english means "not at all."

To you, this may seem a trifle but to me learning a new language was an added bonus because the opportunity to attend school as an adult is indeed a great opportunity. Today, I can say that I have no regrets for my choice way back when because today I work in English and French and I have been able to go places both in the working world,as well as my personal life that I would not not have had without the grasp and understanding of French as a spoken and written language.

Today, I find myself in the university setting and I am enjoying the freedom to attend school and meet students from diversified backgrounds, sharing their experiences and learning more about them. Attending school in Montreal has been a really exciting period in my life and I look forward to every opportunity to participate in various areas of academia, so that one day I will pass on the knowledge that I have learnt to my children, my peers, my colleagues at work, friends I meet in the park and hopefully my grand-children.

My first school memories in Montreal came when I started CEGEP at Dawson College. Growing up in Laval, Montreal had never been much more than a neighbour and a place to visit from time to time, but going to school at Dawson really introduced me to the city for the first time.

I think going to school in Montreal (especially downtown) is a great experience, but it really can be a challenge to stay focused on school when there is so much going on all around you. Dawson really forced me to exercise discipline for the first time. It's never easy being a very impressionable 18 year old and having the choice between going to class and joining your friends for drinks and pool. I skipped many an English and Humanities class to explore st. catherines and all its mysteries, but I have no regrets. In fact, I'm glad I got it all out of my system when school cost me roughly 1/10th of what it does now...

Looking back, I did complain a lot about Dawson, but I can appreciate the ways in which it helped me develop as a student. I was studying Pure & Applied Science, which I couldn't stand after my first year, and my main focus quickly became graduating as soon as I possibly could. But along the way I picked up some habits that have stuck with me ever since and helped me get through life as a University student. I went from a disorganized high school kid, to someone who used an agenda! Also, the unbelievably heavy work load for a science student taught me how to organize my time and make the most out of my studying. After graduating and applying to English at Concordia, I couldn't help but feel like I had wasted 2 years of my young life slaving away behind Chem and Physics books, while my friends were taking it easy in Social, but although I haven't taken much of the book-knowledge with me to University, my experience at Dawson shaped me into the kind of student I am today.

All this being said, I can't pinpoint a single fondest school memory from Dawson, but I think the whole experience was an important one for me. From 1 to 10 I would give Dawson a 10. It's a great place to learn (as long as you actually go to class). At the time I may have been bitter about the fact that I was studying something I hated, but if I could go back in time, I wouldn't cange a thing.

High school was definitely a strange and paradoxical period. I went to a small private college in Montreal called "Collège Mont-Royal. We were about 450 students. It was an easy and peaceful school. No gangs, not too much drugs (but just enough to try...) and a certain solidarity among students.

The most difficult for me was to wake up a 7:00 every morning and sit in a clasroom until 3:00. I had trouble with authority, even though I respected and liked my teachers. It was just not stimulating enough. I learned quickly so I was bored most of the time.

The hardest rule to follow? Silence... I also had to look interested even when I wasn't, and that required a lot effort... :-)

Generally, I'd say it's a very good school (8/10). I you have kids and you want them to grow in a "healthy environment", it's an option you should consider, but it's private, so be ready to pay. Is it really worth it to pay for a private high school? I'm not sure... But it's certainly better than a lot of those huge public high schools where anything can happen...

I grew up in the West Island of Montreal, so when my parents decided to send me to "The Sacred Heart School of Montreal" a private all girls school downtown, I was skeptical and nervous. The worst part of going to school downtown at the age of thirteen was the amount of time it took to get to school and get home. Waking up at 6am was not my cup of tea, and getting home at 4:30pm made my days really long.

The school itself provided a good high school experience, if you could get past how awfully terrible, and (excuse my language) bitchy, girls can be. Wearing a uniform made my early morning wake up a lot easier, as I didn't have to rummage through my closet and drawers in the wee hours of the morning trying to figure out what outfit I was going to wear to impress the non existent boys. The school rules were a little intense, but I never had trouble following them. I was never a rule breaker, and firmly believed in doing what you got to do to get by. There was no way I could engineer my uniform and give it my own look without getting in trouble.

The school was like a family. It was a small school so everybody knew everybody else, and a majority of the teachers were very helpful and understanding. The environment was very welcoming, which was nice. They instilled important values and etiquette in their students at a young age. A lot of people say that private schools provide a better education, I highly disagree with this notion, and I think I could have received an equivalent education at a public school, because the curriculum is the same.

Overall I had a good high school experience, and I would recommend this school to other people. I give it an 8/10.

I was born and raised on the south shore of Montreal. I spoke English at home and learned French in daycare. My parents decided to put me in a French elementary school. I remember feeling out of place. Learning to read and write in French was very difficult. I remember spending hours at night with my mother going over lists of vocabulary words. I also remember being picked on for my "anglo" accent. Separatist sentiments were high and I felt it. In the end, it was difficult being surrounded by a culture I didn't relate to. I watched "Wishbone" and "Lamb Chop's Play-Along" instead of "Passe-Partout.

My father must have sensed that I was unhappy because in grade 4 I was put in another school. This school was 1000x better, although not perfect. It was a French immersion school so I was placed in a Language Arts class for English instead of anglais language seconde. To this day I credit my ELA teacher for my love of literature. Stepping into her classroom was like digging a spoon into a jar of Nutella-- pure comfort and sweetness. I read books, wrote short stories, made collages, in short, had the opportunity to be creative.

Fifteen years later and I am studying to become an ESL teacher. A seed that was planted years ago is now ready to burst.

really engaging post here.

Just saying thanks will not just be sufficient, for the tremendous lucidity in your writing. I will right away grab your rss feed to stay abreast of any updates.

Superb! Generally I never read whole articles but the way you wrote this information is simply amazing and this kept my interest in reading and I enjoyed it.

really good article. Ready to hear more next week