A few weeks ago I, and a number of other parents with whom I’ve sat through kindergarten graduations and band concerts with got to tag along with our kids as they toured the local high school, Estevan Comprehensive School.
It’s truly scary that my little baby is now going to high school in the fall, and even signed up for driver training.
(Actually, I’ve been working on the driver training for years, probably driving her crazy with all my little pointers every day.)
But this high school thing – oh boy.
Touring the ECS, commonly known as “The Comp,” reminded me so very much of my own high school, Yorkton Regional High School, or “The Regional.” Both were built around the same time, about 50 years ago, when a wave of similar comprehensive schools were built across the province.
Going through the tour in early May had me thinking one thing over and over again. “There is so much opportunity to be had, there aren’t enough hours in the day.”
In Grade 9 there isn’t a lot of selection in classes. But when Katrina gets to Grade 10, the sky’s the limit. To be 15 again.
When I was in high school, my initial plans were to go into law, believe it or not, but also to keep my options open. That meant taking French, which I have never used since, for three years. I also took chemistry and physics, which were key for me eventually getting into engineering in university. That didn’t leave a lot of room for electives, so I took three years of drafting (again, useful for engineering) and Grade 10 electricity, which has ironically proven to be the class to have had the most practical, albeit infrequent, application in my life.
Further down the “C-wing” were all the technical courses I wished I had time to take. Automotive mechanics would have been a dream to take, especially since I was driving a 1967 Buick LeSabre in Grade 12. Similarly, autobody would have been great as well.
I would have taken construction (which would have been useful in all the decks I’ve built over the years) and the other two years of electricity. Unfortunately, doing all this would have meant zero time for things like calculus, English, history and the sciences I needed. That doesn’t even touch on the arts, which is funny, because a substantial part of my income is art-related via photography and videography. I’ve even been known to draw courtroom sketches from time to time.
If I had taken all the classes that were appealing, I would have had 15 or more classes a day, instead of six.
Now I see that Katrina has a similar offering. Pretty much everything I mentioned that was present at my high school in the early 1990s is present here, in Estevan. The drafting lab is all 3-D modelling now, however, and the drafting tables long since gone. The audio video class includes bluescreen production and all digital editing, similar to what I do with my own work.
The woodworking labs and auto mechanics labs have smells to make any Tim Allen fan go “ARRR ARRR ARRR.” The opportunity seems endless.
So what advice am I giving No. 1 daughter? Take your sciences. For God’s sake, be sure to take chemistry. Take French, because you may need it if you ever want a job with the federal government. Remember every choice you make (i.e. not taking chemistry) can be limiting future choices for post-secondary school, so try to keep your options as wide as possible.
But I want her to take some fun things, too. Unfortunately, there just won’t be enough hours in the day for them all.
None of this even touches on the enormous opportunities in extra-curricular activities. Katrina is going to try out for the volleyball team, which she’s played on for a few years. I was a short-term wrestler, but long-term debater.
We live our lives vicariously through our kids, and these days, I seem to be doing more of that than usual. I wish I had had more time, myself, at that age. Perhaps some day, so will she.
— Brian Zinchuk is editor of Pipeline News. He can be reached at brian.zinchuk@sasktel.net.
