Reminds me of my youth

Most mornings I take Kingsley between Davignon and Sunnybrooke, which means I pass in front of what is now called "Spring Garden school", which I believe is now an integration school for children arriving in Canada. I noticed that they were adding pre-fabs the past week.

Just seeing the prefabs brought me back to the early 70's and Gerald McShane school on Maurice Duplessis in Montreal North. My mom sent me there, to challenge me, because it was a big school and it was also one of them new fangled "Open area" schools.  Each grade had one large room that was subdivided in 6 classrooms. One was generally kept to be used for arts the other 5 were filled with desks and the rooms were separated by shelves and partitions. The noise levels in these rooms was phenomenal. I used to go home from that school frazzled. Over stimulated au max!

The reason my mom sent me to Gerald McShane was because out of the 5x25 or so kids in each level, we would be divided for English and Math classes by skill level. So I was challenged on those levels. we had 10 or 12 classes for math and English. Usually the teacher would get a highly skilled group, and a less skilled group. They would show work to the skilled student and let them work on it while explain stuff to the less skilled students. 

Anyways, the other thing I remember about Gerald McShane was the Pre-Fabs... 70's style. They were ugly, they stank, and it was also too hot in June and September, and freezing from November to March. We used to get our French lessons in the prefabs, and instead of desks it was those stupid chairs with a little tablet which doesn't take into account some people might be left handed?!?!!