The Alberta Teachers’ Association

For most of my career I taught in the same high school in the same small town, so it’s inevitable that I run into former students (I say "former" because I’ve reached the stage in life where I avoid adjectives like old). Recently, my husband and I went to the Legion for the Friday steak fry. We were the only two people at a table for eight, so we did not object when six others asked to join us.

"You!" exclaimed one of the six. "I was just thinking of you the other day." He turned to his date for confirmation. "Wasn’t I?" And then this 40-year-old man explained what had brought me, his former high school science teacher, to mind—he was trying to quit smoking.

In these days of declining tolerance for smokers and restrictions on where people can light up, it is difficult to believe that at one time Science 14 featured a lab requiring students to smoke for science. The investigation involved taking blood pressure readings, pulse and respiration rates and hand temperatures of people before they smoked a cigarette and five minutes after.

I remember thinking at the time that it was a good demonstration. Blood pressure rose by 10–15 mm of mercury, pulse rate went up by 5–10 beats/­minute, respiration increased by 10 breaths/minute and hand ­temperature fell by 3–5 degrees due to arterial constriction—all these findings provided hard proof of the harmful effects of smoking. Surely, I remember thinking, such evidence would motivate students to quit ­smoking.

The reality, however, was ­different.

"It was just the best science class," said my ex-student. "We got out ashtrays and lighted up and …" Here he got a faraway look in his eyes, "we smoked. It felt so good."

He looked at everyone seated at the table before continuing. "We didn’t have to go outside and stand in the cold. We lit up right in the science room."

I asked if he remembered what happened to his blood pressure and the temperature of his hands and was rewarded with a quizzical look. Obviously, the results of the experiment were not its most important or memorable aspect.

I consoled myself that 22 years later, he was finally quitting. Perhaps deep in his subconscious mind the lab had had some influence on his decision. And even if it didn’t, it was a little comforting to think that at the very least I had created one good memory of high school science.