84 .S'ur'cwxr on [he [it/go

upwards, isolating them from friends and relatives for much of the day. This may have been counterbalanced somewhat by the higher standards of both teachers and facilities. Consolidation also left all of the small communities in the Tignish area without a centre; it is not surprising that, in some of these, such as St. Felix, the former school building became the community hall. It was then used for card games, meetings, and other events which had been held there on evenings and weekends when it was still a school. Finally the French-speaking children from certain districts were mixed in with the English—speaking ones. This is said to have contributed to the eventual abandonment of the all-French classes which had been held for some twenty-five years. From the point of view of survival, independence, and co- operation, consolidation may have helped the children reach a higher standard educationally, but it certainly weakened the independence of all of the very small communities, without contributing anything to that of Tignish itself.

One small community tried to keep its own school, even after it had been deprived of teachers. Anglo- Tignish, a community with an average of twenty to twenty-four children in its school, stayed open for a year after the teachers were gone, thanks to the efforts of some of the parents and other adults to look after the teaching themselves. The local School Board wanted to keep the children near home, and to be sure their education would be a Catholic one. Unfortunately the adults who shared the teaching found it was too much to do on top of their regular work. However the five children who finished Grade Six in the last year of the Anglo—Tignish school became some of the top students at the new Junior High School located some three miles from Tignish.