To finish and get a grade—ten education in those days was a big accomplishment. As a young student Jimmie MacAulay recalls watching students from the high school at the annual graduation ceremony held every year in the Legion Hall, and wondering if he would ever get to that point, for “at that time most people within the community got to grade eight; to finish grade ten was considered a huge accomplishment.” (31)

With consolidation in 1966, students within the fire district area continued on to Morell, Montague, or Souris to attend high school. The attainment of high school today is taken for granted and is rarely thought of as a privilege. The three high schools that now service the students of the fire district area have computers, are hooked up to the Internet, and have teachers who have a minimum of one University degree behind their name. In just thirty-five years, the concept of a high school education is one that has changed considerably. Those from the “old school” argue that the education today with all its advancement is no better than what was received thirty-five years ago. Nevertheless, it has changed.

TEACHERS REMEMBERED:

One of the earliest recorded teachers from the St. Peters area was Mr. Thomas Noonan. In 1832 an announcement ran in the Royal Gazette that he and Mr. James Gouldrop of Bedque had been “examined by the Commissioners of the Board of Education, and obtained a certificate of qualification." (32) There have been many teachers who have come to the area such as Danny MacDonald and left a lasting mark on the community and the pupils they taught.

Flora Sutherland came from New Perth to teach in Greenwich in the early 1930s. She taught in the Greenwich School for a total of nine years and was the last teacher to teach there before Greenwich entered consolidation in 1968. She fondly recalled the students she taught in that “I will say this, the kids who went through my hands down there were good — extra good students. Perhaps that didn’t have too much to do on my part.” (33) Residents in the Greenwich area have remarked over the years that the students who had Flora for a teacher all got Somewhere; they all got something. She drilled her students in the three R's and the benefits showed in the success rate of her former students.

Mary “Bus” MacCallum, from Mt. Stewart, taught in St. Peters for tWenty—three years. She first taught in the St. Peters South School and later in St. Peters Consolidated. Remembered as a very affectionate teacher of the younger grades, Mary was renowned for the birthday cards She gave all her students that always had a coin taped to the inside. Recalling her days of teaching, Mary replied, “I loved teaching; they were the happiest days of my life.” (34) In his book The North Shore of Home, Frank Ledwell writes about meeting his former teacher at a Teacher’s Convention. In this story, he paid a warm tribute to “Mary Bus:"

275