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EDUCATION/SCHOOLS/STUDENTS – Page 2

Lac La Biche Post – 1981 Pow Wow Supplement

Going to school at the Mission – Edgar Ladouceur
by Julie Green

"The convent has neither luxury nor modern comfort. In the dormitories, the small beds are very close together; the dining and recreation rooms are very small. The children are very happy and feel so much at home. After school hours, the boys and girls find it a real pleasure to do the washing, peel the potatoes, cut wood, iron the linen, run after the cows, jump on a tractor or in a truck." (From a church publication by the "Sisters of Charity", also known as the Grey Nuns of Montreal).

When did you go to school at the Mission? I was seven years old; I remember I was seven years old - that was 37 years ago.

What grades did they teach at the Mission? They taught up to grade nine. They used two classrooms. They had a small class called the ‘low class’ which was grades one to five and they had up to grade nine on the other side.

Who were you taught by? I was taught by the sisters. I think they were called the Grey Nuns. I was taught in English and French. We'd have about two hours of French education and the rest of the time it was in English. The classes would open at nine in the morning and run until four in the afternoon.

How many sisters were living there, teaching you? Well there were four teachers, two on each side. One would teach half way and then the other one would take over in the afternoon. They taught math and language and a little bit of science, French math as well. The same thing in French.

The sisters lived at the convent - they had their rooms upstairs. As you came into the convent - the door on your right - that's where their lobby was. I think there was a piano in there and they used to entertain themselves and sing. On the left side, that's where the priests used to come and have their dinner. There were sisters cooking. I think there were as many as nine sisters working there as kitchen and laundry workers. They also had a couple of hired ladies.

Did you board there? Not myself, no. I used to go to school from my place about two and a half miles away. In the summertime, we used to walk to school and in the winter we would use a horse and caboose. Sometimes we used dog teams too.

Were there a lot of kids living there? There were quite a few, yes, at least 50 or 60, maybe even 70. They lived on the top floor. So the quotation is probably right when it says that the beds were close together. They were close together. I recall that I went there once in awhile, not often, and the beds were right side by side. The girls were on one side, the south side, and the boys were on the north side.

What was life like for the kids that boarded there? Where were they from? There were quite a few from the St. Paul area and Edmonton, because it was too far for them to come to school. They wanted to learn French, I guess. It was a really good convent as far as they go. The kids that they had there were really nice - we used to get along well with them. I remember one year that they had a whole bunch of bigger girls, grade 8 and 9, from New Westminister, B.C. That was when I was finishing off my school - I quit when I was 13 myself.

The kids that were there all the time played cards, did a bit of singing, listened to the radio and some would play hockey outside. They didn't have any lights but they played until dark anyway. They'd go sliding down that big hill, you know. They helped out and did the chores too, like cording wood. We would sometimes even do that at dinner hour - we would help them because we were used to hard work and some of them were not. We'd help them - there were a bunch of us who could cord wood.

How big were your classes? I've forgotten, but I know they were full. In fact, they were overcrowded at times. We had books; we used to take homework home all the time, when we missed half an hour of school in the morning. There were early studies at 8:30. It was social studies, that's what it was, but they called it early studies. Those that lived in the convent started school at 8:30 a.m.

We had lots of homework – sometimes, you know, we couldn't even finish - you only had three or four hour hours a night by the time you got home. We'd leave at four, especially in the wintertime, and we wouldn't get home until 5:30. And you had to do the chores - we had cattle and horses then and you didn't have much time. We had to go to bed at 10:00. That's how it was. Mum and Dad, especially Mum, used to say we had to get to bed right then, because there were quite a few boys in our family. Most of the family went to the Mission School.

Did the nuns teach you well? Yes, I think they did. They were a lot more strict than the schools are now. The kids couldn't leave the yards at all. The recreation area was behind the convent with the girls on one side and the boys on the other. When we had recess there, the girls would go to their side. They never mixed with the boys because the sisters didn't want them to.

Was there a kitchen at the school? Well, no. We brought lunch and ate it in the boys’ room. That's where the students who came from their homes had lunch. There were Tardiffs & Thompsons.

What would a typical day be like? Well, we got there at nine. We had sports at dinner time. We'd have baseball in the summertime and in the wintertime we used to play hockey. Father Coutoure would teach us how to play. He was a really good hockey player. We used to call him the ‘flying father’. I used to be a pretty good player myself. I used to play goalie. I started on defence, but finally I gave it up when I was about 18 years old. It was not like today; everything was tough to get - you could hardly buy any skates. You had very poor skates and equipment. There was no money like there is now. The opportunity was not even there. Before we could get the ice on the outdoor rink, we used to practice on the lake.

The school was well known for teaching French – it’s too bad they had to shut down. They moved to the newer part where we've got the bingos now. They opened there and operated for about two years. The school was known for teaching French. It was pretty good; I wish some of my kids would have been taught there.

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