The Alberta Teachers’ Association

Like many high school teachers, I have decidedly mixed emotions when it comes to Grade 12 graduation.

Graduation is a significant event in the lives of many young people. It marks, in our secular culture, the transition from adolescence to ­adulthood. In Tofield, the small town where I taught, graduation was also a leave-taking—many of the students would depart shortly after to undertake postsecondary studies or to begin their working lives beyond the community in which they had been raised and taught. It was the great goodbye.

However, grad is also an almighty pain in the ass! It’s expensive and time-consuming, and it generates an inordinate amount of drama and distracts from far more important things, such as learning about the ­nuances of the Cuban Missile Crisis and supply-side economics in time for the Social Studies 30 diploma exam.

That is why I cracked down on my Grade 12 social studies students one year. I unilaterally banned from my classroom any further mention of the word grad. Those foolish or bold enough to violate my diktat were subject to the full range of sanctions within my command (scowls, sharp words and the extorted donation of whatever coins offenders had on their person to the grad fund). Within the precincts of Room 107, the rule was applied without mercy or exception to students and staff alike. My classroom became officially a grad-free zone, at least for a few blissful weeks.

Unfortunately, I had failed to fully appreciate the native cunning of students who needed desperately to consult with their friends about dress colours, tux rentals, hairstyles or arrangements for securing beer. After a few false starts, the Grade 12s started referring to the upcoming event as darg (grad spelled backwards). What could I do? They had outsmarted me on a technicality. And so, in the weeks left before the great event, I reconciled myself to tolerating talk of darg. At least, I told myself, my failed attempt to ban the word grad and the students’ effective resistance might have taught them something about authoritarianism, brinksmanship, civil disobedience and détente (all of which were eminently testable concepts).

The kicker came on graduation weekend. When I woke up Sunday morning, bleary-eyed from the banquet and dance the night before, I was greeted by DARG ’92 painted in six-foot-high letters on the street outside my house. All over town the triumphant grads (dargs?) had left the same message in latex paint on sidewalks and roadways (as vandals go, they were a considerate and socially conscious lot, so that within a month or so, these artifacts of the Tofield darg faded away and remain now only in memory).

We all move on, and this editorial marks my own graduation of sorts from the editorship of the ATA News. As I take on new responsibilities at the Association, I want to thank my colleagues who participate in writing and producing the News for the superb work they do and for the support and kindness they have offered me as editor-in-chief. Rather than try to list them all here, I invite you to note their names in the box below and in the bylines and photo credits that appear throughout this paper. I do, however, want to make a few exceptions and pay special tribute to Koni Macdonald, whose photographs have captured life in Alberta schools and brought colour and energy to our newspaper. Koni is retiring after almost 21 years with the ATA. Her talents will be missed.

I also want to recognize the work of Yuet Chan, who designs the News and who has managed to cram my writing into this space—even if that involved using a font size that elicited letters of complaint from the more senior readers.

Finally, there is Raymond Gariépy, managing editor of the ATA News, whose creativity and dedication are evident in every issue of this award-winning publication. More than any single person, Raymond makes this newspaper happen.

And to the readers of the ATA News, in particular those of you who, over the last three years, have taken the time to share your views, ­compliments and criticisms with me, thank you. We are nothing without our readers.

So from me, goodbye, and from everyone at the ATA News, best wishes for the summer.