A few weeks ago I, and a number of other parents with whom I鈥檝e 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. (ECS)
It鈥檚 truly scary that my little baby is now going to high school in the fall, and has even signed up for driver training.
(Actually, I鈥檝e 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 鈥淭he Comp,鈥� reminded me so very much of my own high school, Yorkton Regional High School, or 鈥淭he Regional.鈥� Both were built around the same time, about 50 years ago, when a wave of similar comprehensive schools was built across the province.
Going through the tour in early May had me thinking one thing over and over again. 鈥淭here is so much opportunity to be had, there aren鈥檛 enough hours in the day.鈥�
In Grade 9 there isn鈥檛 a lot of selection in classes yet. But when Katrina gets to Grade 10, the sky鈥檚 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 for three years, which I have never used since. I also took chemistry and physics, which were key for me eventually getting into engineering in university.
That didn鈥檛 leave a lot of room for electives, so I took three years of drafting (again, useful for engineering) and Grade 10 Electricity, which was has ironically proven to be the class to have had the most practical, albeit infrequent, application in my life.
Further down the 鈥淐-wing鈥� 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 鈥�67 Buick LeSabre in Grade 12. Similarly, auto body would have been great.
I would have taken construction (which would have been useful for all the decks I鈥檝e 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鈥檛 even touch on the arts, which is funny, because a substantial part of my income is arts-related via photography and videography. I鈥檝e 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 have 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 have 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 鈥渁rr, arr, arr.鈥� The opportunity seems endless.
So what advice am I giving No. 1 daughter? Take your sciences. For God鈥� sake, be sure to take chemistry. Take your French, because you may need it if you ever want a job with the federal government.
Remember that every choice you make (i.e. not taking chemistry) can be limiting to your 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鈥檛 be enough hours in the day for all of them.
None of this even touches on the enormous opportunities in extra-curricular activities. Katrina鈥檚 going to try out for the volleyball team, a sport which she鈥檚 played for a few years. I was a short-term wrestler, but long-term debater.
We all 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.
听
