Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School

Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School located in St. Catharines was a secondary school I really enjoyed. My parents purchased a home almost as close as one could get to being half-way in between Oakridge Elementary School and Sir Winston Churchill.

Once again, it's really difficult to find information about old faculty members, so I thought I'd write about some of my more memorable teachers.

Mr. Ashley was probably the best teacher I've had in my life, as he really taught me to understand history, and understand it well. I wasn't a good student at the time, but he spurred an interest that I have tried to nurture ever since. I took his course both in Grade 9 and Grade 10. I remember his diagrams where he had "Social," "Cultural," "Political," "Economic" and "Technology", which described various societies. Now, reviewing this, I think he was teaching us PEST analysis without actually calling it that. The one movie he showed, which still impacts me today, was Heimat. He was a great teacher, and I wish I remembered more of the films he showed. I think they would make a great viewing list.

Mr. Al Beamer taught the enriched mathematics courses, and he was great.

Mrs. Weaver taught chemistry and biology, I think. She was always willing to talk after class, and I remember having many great conversations with her.

My father didn't drink, so I never really learned the signs of a drinking problem, but one of the English teachers, so I'm told, had all the symptoms. I forget which one.

Mrs. Bennett was also a good English teacher. As was Mr. Ross and Mr. Alisberg. In one class, we read A Separate Peace. I should read that book again at some point.

Mr. Nehring taught chemistry, but he really wasn't that great from what I remember. On the blackboard, he once wrote 1°C = 1 K. I don't remember him ever trying to teach science, but rather, he taught memorization.

Mr. Paulus (sp?) also taught science, as did Mr. Wilson Mr. Wilson also taught computers. We learned programming on the old ICON computers. His password was willieme, or variations thereof. The ICONs were amazing computers, and Ontario was way ahead of the curve when they introduced those into the secondary schools. We learned C programming on these computers, as well as BASIC. The operating system was QNX, yes, that same OS that was bought by BlackBerry. It was a great boost to be familiar with a Unix-like operating system when I got to university. Even today, I prefer track balls to mice.

There was also Mr. Keith Vrieswyk. I first met Mr. Vrieswyk when he directed the Saturday Morning Enrichment program. Saturday mornings were always for school. At first it was German School, and this was first at Lakeport Secondary School and then at Governor Simcoe Secondary School. I didn't even know the names of the secondary schools at the time: we just went there every Saturday with Frau Wenkstern, ... damned, I forget their names, and they were so wonderful people. Anyway, I then had one year of Art School, but then I was invited to attend the "Saturday Morning Enrichment Program" at Brock University. This was for elementary school students, and it was great. I remember going to so many of the rooms in the Thistle Complex but one was in the Crown Complex, which had us elementary students navigating the complex hallways. It was my first introduction to Russian and Chinese. I wish I could recall the specific names of other courses we took there. Anyway, I could not pronounce Mr. Vrieswyk's last name, so I always called him "Keith." He was a Guidance Counsellor at Sir Winston Churchill.

There was one teacher I learned to loath. During examinations, she insisted on wearing high heels, and this made a horrible noise while trying to write examinations in the gymnasium. I was writing one of the mathematics contests, and this teacher was teaching Grade 12 mathematics in the next room, and I remember her words precisely: "You do it that way because that's the way its done." That may be great for elementary school, but by the time you get to Grade 12, the teacher should understand mathematical algorithms.

Mr. Kapadia taught us typing, and he was an amazing man. I got up to 72 words per minute on those old clunky typewriters, although Raymond Scott always beat me. Stephen Dohnberg, one of the most despicable persons I've ever met, on the last day of class ran between the seats when the bell rang and jumped into the air and yelled at the top of his lungs "No more Kapadia!" Stephen made going to school a misery, and I understand he often called in to evening talk shows using my name and making me sound like an idiot. I never listed, but that person was evil incarnate. I remember how much he hated his father and when he pronounced his name, he dragged out every letter: "SSSSVVVVEEEEEENNNNNN." Perhaps he improved later on in life; some people change. However, I really enjoyed the course with Mr. Kapadia, and I'm so amazed today that students can actually come into university and not know how to touch type.

Mr. Stadhler taught us French and Latin. I took Latin for quite a few years in secondary school, and it was great that it was still taught in the mid-1980s. Mr. Cutler and Mr. Las taught geography. I only had Mr. Kit for one course, and I unfortunately forget which course that was. My brother was good friends with him for a long time, and I knew Andrea since Grade 1.

The cafeteria was were we spent many lunch hours, although I often walked home, too. We used to bash popsicle sticks against the tables to break them apart, and the best meal was the "meat pie." Ray Scott used to offer us potato chips if we yelled "cheep cheep" at the top of our lungs, imitating baby birds. For the first few years, we always sat with Ray Scott and Scott Hiebert. The school, however, was filled with preppies and jocks, so the only people I found comfort with were all the metal heads. I enjoyed their company. What I found so odd was how many students drove their own cars to school each day, at least, as soon as they turned 16.

I'm saddened by the fact that I did so little exploring in my youth: there was always so much to do at home. I never walked through the woods from Sir Winston Churchill to Burgoyne Woods across the train tracks.

I'll write some more about Sir Winston Churchill in the future. What was unfortunate was how terrible Sir Winston Churchill was with respect to grade inflation. It makes me wonder if grades were always inflated; however, I also remember when I went through secondary school, I came out with an 82 average, and that was high enough to get me a Canada Scholarship, and when I entered my undergraduate program in first year, my average jumped to 85, instead of the usual "Frosh 15", meaning at that time a drop of 15 percentage points.