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Jacqueline Louie
After leaving school at age 13, it took Peter Green more than four decades to go back to school.
In June 2009, at the age of 64, Green graduated with a high school diploma obtained through the Alberta Distance Learning Centre (ADLC), which provides specialized distance learning options to students in Alberta, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and the rest of the world.
"I’m hoping that with my achievement, others may see and be given hope that they, too, can do what I’ve done. I wanted to show that if I can do it, so can others," says Green, who lives in Paulatuk, a community of approximately 350 situated northeast of Inuvik. "There is so much despair and things like that around me—there are many challenges that people face. What I hope is that someone else will see the good in education and go for whatever it is that they need to do."
Green’s life has not been easy. At the age of 7, he attended residential school in Aklavik, NWT, and did not see his parents or siblings for six years. At the age of 13, Green completed Grade 6 and left residential school for good. "A lot of unpleasant things happened there. And I was forbidden to practice my culture, especially the language," recalls Green. He was reunited with his family in Cape Parry, north of Paulatuk, where his father was working on the construction of the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line.
Green was 17 when he went to work on the DEW Line. "I didn’t last very long there—I was fired for drinking too much," he recalls. "The other jobs I’ve had throughout my life, I was let go for a lot of reasons, violence included. I had no real purpose to do anything that was positive. It’s all part of what happened to me at residential school—I was in between cultures. There were a lot of conflicting things I never sat down and sorted through. Alcohol was the main thing for me, as an escape—as a way to numb those feelings and all the hurt and disturbance in my life. It’s taken me all these years to put myself together again and I’m still working on that. I’m still in therapy today, and I will be for the rest of my life."
Green, who had been in and out of jail a few times over the years, finally realized that he needed to change after he got into trouble with the law, yet again, in 1997, and was sent to the federal penitentiary in Bowden, Alberta. One of the goals he set for himself in the penitentiary was to complete his education.
While he was at a halfway house in Edmonton, the John Howard Society helped him by providing "a good environment and the things I needed to do to make sure I had the basic requirements to do high school work." Once Green was ready for high school, the society helped him enrol with the ADLC. Completing his schooling in his mid-60s and by distance learning was not easy for the divorced father of six adult children and grandfather of six—but Green obtained his high school diploma and went to Calgary to attend the graduation ceremony.
Looking back, Green says, "It was wonderful to have attended the Alberta Distance Learning Centre. They had everything that I needed and their policies were very good. Teachers were available through a 1-800 number and any time I needed something, a question answered, I got it. The teachers I’ve dealt with were very supportive, and very understanding and caring."
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