Claude McIntosh
South Africans have been wrestling with the long-standing tradition ofpublishing student final exam results in local newspapers.
Some for. Some against.
We – we being just about every baby boomer who is reading this -have been down that road.
For the longest time, until the 1970s, final exam results for Cornwall Collegiate and St. Lawrence – name, subject and final mark – were published in the Standard-Freeholder for all to see. (Gee, why not throw in the home address while you’re at it).
It might have been the S-F’s best selling edition, for two reasons: Delighted parents who bought an extra copy, or two, and students who tried to buy up every available paper on news stands in a desperate attempt to hide the evidence (from parents), or lack of.
In my group, we’d gather at Joe Miller’s pool hall the day results were to be published. Somebody would be dispatched to Carl’s Smoke Shop around 2 p.m. with five cents to buy the paper. It would be stretched out on a pool table and a designated reader, usually the who forked out the five cents, would call out the results.
More than one parent called the S-F circulation department on the day results were published, wondering why they didn’t get that day’s newspaper. On rare occasions, the paper boy, a fellow student, was in on the ‘missing newspaper’ ruse, which only delayed the inevitable.
This was the era of “recommendations”. Courses in which the student scored a 68% average for the year, got a free pass on that course, and didn’t have to write the final exam. This meant that the really, really smart kids – aka brains – got an early start on the summer, while the rest of us wrestled with finals.
Some of the smart ones didn’t write a final exam until they got to Grade13, and the dreaded provincial exams.
This was when you had to pass all the subjects to be promoted to the next grade. Fail one, and it was back to square one the next year. I knew of two guys who spent two years in Grade 9 because they failed math and passed everything else. (They went on to become teachers).
Phys-ed counted but somehow – miraculously – a couple of the brainy guys who couldn’t do more than two push-ups – always managed to get 50%, a pass.
Mercifully, albeit too late for many of us, the public publication of final exam results, was stopped in the name of confidentiality.
HITS AND MISSES: If you haven’t forked out the thousands needed for an electric vehicle (second-hand ones not to be found), then stop telling me my gas-powered chariot is bad for the environment and I need to be driving an EV, that I can’t afford, to help save the planet. … Where’s Ivanka? Trump’s favourite daughter no where to be seen, unlike his first term when she was every where. … Gotta love those drug ads. After telling you all the wonderful things they will do for you, the ad wraps up with all the dangerous side effects with the kicker the dose could be fatal.
JUNE 1964: The post-war baby boom tidal wave was putting a strain on the city’s two public high schools. St. Lawrence High School, built to accommodate 1,500 students, was expected to surpass 1,800. Over at Cornwall Collegiate, enrollment was expected to climb to at least 1,700. The school needed six new classrooms and, as principal C. I. Coulthart put it, all available space would be needed, short of closets. This included dividing the cafeteria into four classrooms and utilizing the basement rifle range. St. Lawrence needed 16 additional teachers, while CCVS was searching for 12. … The city’s newest industry, Allied Weaving, was being set up in the old Cotton Mill. City hall was hyping it as a major addition to the city industrial portfolio and would, eventually, create hundreds of jobs. (Never happened). .. Sod was turned for the city’s newest Roman Catholic church, Canadian Martyrs, on 12th Street East. The parish had 300 families. … The one-cent parking meter era came to an end with new meters that required a payment of a nickel. Some councillors (the usual suspects) protested, saying the city was moving “too fast” on raising the meter rate. Meanwhile, council voted to create the new position of parking meter supervisor with a salary of $250 a week. The supervisor would be responsible for maintenance and repair of parking meters. … The city’s welfare numbers were going in the right direction – down. June numbers dropped to 2,773. There were 523 families and 210 single persons on welfare rolls. … French Week parade had 32 floats and nine bands. … Lillian Ross wrapped up a 14-year career as Cornwall Tourism Bureau supervisor. In March 1993, Lillian died at St. Joseph’s Villa. She was 113. She was the longest living Canadian ever whose age could be verified. She had been a music and dance teacher. … Ontario’s minimum wage climbed to $1 for males and 85¢ for females. Minimum for construction workers was $1.25. … Local oil heating firms were slugging it out with natural gas which was expanding in the city. … Hodgin’s Huskies defeated Rochon-Mousseau 3-1 in a North End Fastball League game. John Boisvenue had the mound win with a four-hitter. … Canada’s population was 19 million with 5.6 million living in Ontario and 5.5 million inQuebec. … An appearance by Sen. Ted Kennedy at a democratic party function in Massena was cancelled when he was injured in a private plane crash that killed the pilot.
TRIVIA: Ontario premiers with a law degree: 1) Frank Miller, 2) Kathleen Wynne, 3) Bill Davis, 4) Ernie Eves, 5) Mike Harris, 6) John Robarts, 7) Bob Rae.
TRIVIA ANSWER: A change in boundaries had Liberal incumbent John Cleary and Conservative incumbent Noble Villeneuve running against each other in the new riding of Stormont-Dundas-Charlottenburgh. Cleary had represented Cornwall-Cornwall Township-Charlottenburgh, while Villeneuve had represented Stormont-Dundas-Glengarry and East Grenville. Cleary defeated Villeneuve by 365 votes, thanks to a large advantage in Cornwall.
QUOTED: Diplomacy is the art of telling people to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions. -Winston Churchill
