12 October 2010

School's Out, Forever



True story:

Three years ago, during our last months in Vancouver, I was working on an anthology of historic Canadian speeches. Among the thirty-seven, I included an address delivered by Arthur Meighen in 1921 at Vimy Ridge. He wasn't much as a prime minister, but Meighen was a skilled orator... and his words were his own.

In the Introduction I wrote that as a boy Meighen had been a member of the St Marys Collegiate Institute Debating Society. The name meant nothing to me; I didn't even know where St Marys was. Four months later, we stumbled upon the town while house hunting in southern Ontario, and ended up buying a place right next to the old Collegiate Institute.

Since it opened 136 years ago, the building now Arthur Meighen Public School has lost its grandeur. Pretty much everything that made it beautiful has been stripped away or hidden behind bland extensions. Still, it was a smalltown school that produced a prime minister. There's something inspirational in that.


Friday saw the final classes at Arthur Meighen Public School. The building is too old, they say. Those studying in seventeenth-century buildings at Université de Laval will not understand. Never mind, the developers have spoken. Its replacement sits on farmland adjacent the town's new Meadowridge subdivision.
Out there are also the subdivisions named, by God, after what the contractors had to eradicate to build them – Birch Hills (named after the grove bulldozed away preparatory to laying the foundation), Vineyard Acres after the rows of Concord grapes plowed under to make way for them.
Peter DeVries, Reuben, Reuben
Despite a good effort by some dedicated, intelligent souls, the honour bestowed on Meighen will not be transferred. The new school, which opens today, is named Little Falls. We're told that was the town's original name. It wasn't, of course.

So much for education; so much for history.

Thanks to my old pal Chris for hunting down the DeVries quote.

Addendum:
Discovered in the school dumpster.

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4 comments:

  1. Easy -- almost irresistible -- to throw out magazines. Impossible to throw out books. Wonder why. Same deal with breaking factory windows vs. breaking church windows. Someone should write a poem or something.

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  2. I'm sure this wasn't your intention, but "Despite a good effort by some dedicated, intelligent souls, the honour bestowed on Meighen will not be transferred. The new school, which opens today, is named Little Falls. We're told that was the town's original name. It wasn't, of course" is probably the most depressing thing I've read all week.

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  3. "We're told that was the town's original name. It wasn't, of course."

    A phenomenon I'm familiar with. There is a persistent story that my home town of Dryden, Ontario was originally named "New Prospect", and when a new school was built on the edge of town to replace a couple of aging but serviceable schools in more accessible locations, it was called "New Prospect Public School". Dryden was never called "New Prospect"; despite what Wikipedia says, it was one of several names proposed during its expansion from a tiny experimental farming community to a proper town, but it was never actually used.

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  4. Anon, some people throw out magazines? What next... newspapers?

    Mark, does this help? Last month the school board named a wing of the town's high school after Meighen. An effort to compensate and appease, I suppose. Frankly, I find the solution just adds to an already sorry tale.

    August, I should've mentioned that Little Falls replaces two "aging but serviceable schools". The other, St Marys Central, "is located in the heart of beautiful, historic St. Marys" (this from the school's website). The new school sits a mile away from that heart, away from the public library, the museum, the town hall and the small shops that make up the main street. But hey, the children of folks who buy new houses will be able to walk to school.

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