September 7, 1956

1089 Homes Street

Victoria, B.C.
Sept 7, 1956

Hello dear,

Jack Short has just finished the evening rebroadcast of today's recess so I can now lie back and say hello from my downy bed.  You can tell Bill that Princess Street did a dandy six furlong sprint today. Unfortunately they forgot to tell him the race was a mile and seventy yards and he ran out of gas coming into the stretch.  Honour, an Irish-bred, won by four.

You seem to be getting into all sorts of entertaining situations now that you are back in the wilds. For heaven's sake take care of yourself.  I can't see much percentage in marrying a fried and frazzled female. 

From the gloomy sound of the teacher situation it doesn't sound very promising for Christmas, does it? It is only a little over a week since your departure yet it seems like eons of time has elapsed.  I haven't been so lonely in a long while. Four months is a far distant looking period of time.

You have a pretty heavy teaching load starting at you from the look of the courses you showed me.  How much counselling time do you have?

I don't know if I will be able to fit in here or not.  In some respects it is fine and in others it no so hot.  On the positive side the kids are for the most part quite good although there are one or two over 17 according to my calculations but we have him because he is an epileptic and there is someone educationally retarded although needless to say he is superior to most of the kids.  He momentarily blacks out quite frequently according to him and to his records.  He has also had several grand mal seizures since Christmas so ?!  I also have a diabetic and a polio child plus another who has had TB and club foot.  I can see I took the wrong courses this summer.  I should have taken some pre-med work.

Mr. McMichael, on opening day  in the gymn informed all the assembled 960 students about the general class, why it was there and who was being placed in the class.  Naturally I was ecstatic with joy when he said the students in in class were boys and girls who were hopelessly lost last year. Although he is nice enough to me personally, he hasn't much understanding of the purpose of the course or what I am supposed to be doing.  I think he will be happy to leave me alone as long as I can keep these kids out of his hair.  Quite a few teachers have remarked already about the -dumb bunnies- the morons-and so on in no encouraging terms. However I have also had some encouragement from some of the others and I think the teachers who are giving them Home Ec and Shop are going to do a good job with them.

At the present time I have practically no materials to work with and it is very difficult to get the teaching programme rolling.  At least last year I had enough friends to turn to for resources for picture displays and so on.  My room is a pretty shabby sight as yet.  Maybe next week I can get something started.

One other thing I will have to get used to is that the school is locked after four thirty and while it is possible to stay later than this, it is not possible to get back in the evenings.  This is a little inconvenient but I do have a desk here so I can do most of my work here at home.  Naturally with this arrangement one does not get to know the other teachers very quickly, in fact I only know about a half dozen so far.

You say your Aunt Betty will be teaching a class of severely retarded in Grande Prairie.  Infosfar as materials go, she can have the Special Class Teacher magazines. Also she can have this copy of the Journal of Mental Deficiency if she wants it.  She might find it profitable to join the association.  If she wants I can send her a lengthy bibliography of books put out by the National Society for Exceptional Children.  It covers a tremendous range in this field.  A good resource person is Mrs Rose of Syracuse NY.

I hope I have been of some help.  I realize now how some of the people I asked for help must have felt-completely inadequate.

By the way, I received my marks back from Syracuse and I received top grades in both courses as I was led to believe before I left. Makes you think, doesn't it?

Well, my 'love' it is now 12:45 so I think I will jpin Morpheus in a quick round of snooze.

Goodnight.

Love, George