INCIDENTS IN MY TEACHING CAREER

1. “The Actor”

2.  
3. I don’t know about the modern teacher, but I did feel that in my day most
4. High School teachers taught or presented their lessons to accommodate the
5. upper 25% in the learning strata, and the rest, such as the medium
6. intelligent group, or the lower intelligence stream, could sink or swim as
7. the case might be. I was guilty of just that sort of thing, and I don’t feel
8. very proud of it.
9.  
10. But early in my career I had my mind changed in a rather remarkable way.
11. As an option subject I was given the Drama to teach in Grade 10, 11 and
12. 12 along with my Social Studies. I had had some two or three university
13. drama courses, but these were simply options. When offered the drama I
14. protested at first. Later I came to like the classes and even formed the
15. first Drama Club in the Wainwright High School.
16.  
17. It was early 1963 and I had been teaching about 5 years in the High School.
18. I was still wet behind the ears, compared to others in the system, but I
19. was struggling mightily to do a good job.
20.  
21. The story I am about to relate happened during the years when Pearson
22. was Prime Minister. As I said, I had been given the Drama option against
23. my better judgement. I went to the Principal to protest. I wanted a crack
24. at Literature 21 (which I later got) but his reply was terse and to the
25. point. “Mr. Laird,” he said, leaning back in his chair, “you may not have a
26. lot of Drama courses, but you are normally such a clown, that I have no
27. doubt you will do a superb job in this department!” Ah well, so be it. I
28. was the new drama teacher.
29.  
30. The next day I met my class of 35 students – all shapes and sizes. Some
31. were quiet – some loud – some were smart alecs who didn’t fit into any
32. other class, and who no other teacher wanted. This was the class I had to
33. do something with. I hit on a novel idea to keep them quiet. I introduced
34. some pantomimes. The idea was novel and caught on. The idea was that no-one
35. spoke a word during the class period. All requests came by pantomime.
36.  
37. It looked really funny for someone coming into the room, to see 35
38. students, making signs, expressions and gestures. I do admit it was the
39. quietest class in the school – for a time at least.
40.  
41. Then came play production time.
42.  
43. Now there were three groups in this menagerie – the really bright students
44. who really loved acting on stage – the drones who were there to get
45. credits – and those who were there for nothing more or less than to create
46. a disturbance. The pantomime had worked, but now came the big test.
47.  
48. I cast a play called “LITTLE NELL,” complete with old mom and dad, the
49. heroine, the hero and the villain. Mom and Dad I chose with care from the
50. persons who wanted the credits. The hero and the heroine I chose from the
51. brightest and most interested of the students.
52.  
53. But I had trouble finding a villain. I needed a person who was forward,
54. didn’t care – sort of “laid back.” The perfect person was the class clown
55. and troublemaker – six feet of absolute meanness. He hated drama. He
56. admitted it. He told me he was just there because no-one else wanted
57. him – and this was, oh, so true.
58.  
59. After much soul searching, inward muttering and downright prayer, I gave
60. him the part. I can tell you right now that the class rehearsals were
61. agony. He got a hard time from the backstage crew, and he delighted
62. giving them one too. I had a hard time keeping his concentration on the
63. script. I swear I aged ten years in just one small month.
64.  
65. “Laird,” I thought to myself, “if you get yourself out of this mess, you will
66. be a genius.”
67.  
68. Dress rehearsal day came, and it was in agony that I sat out front to hear
69. the results of my efforts for the past month. Mom and Dad were great –
70. expression – the whole bit. I was delighted. Little Nell cried beautifully,
71. and Hector Skyscraper, the her, did his rescue routine with magnificence.
72. But…alas…the villain – 6 feet of clumsiness, waving in and out like a flag,
73. tripping over the stage furniture, and muffing his lines with gusto. It was
74. a tragedy to see his mannerisms, and how he repeatedly threw off, or
75. stole lines not his own. Thank God the principal did not appear, or it
76. would have been curtains for the entire production.
77.  
78. Next day was the big evening performance. Most of the parents would be
79. in attendance, as well as half of Wainwright. My ulcer, about 4 p.m., was
80. dancing the foxtrot. How I wanted this night to go away quickly!
81.  
82. Having coffee with the other High School teachers in the Wainwright Hotel
83. Café, I made the remark: “Let me get a good look at your facial features
84. for tomorrow you won’t see me. I’ll be long gone!“
85.  
86. I ate an early supper, and I really believed it would be the “LAST SUPPER,”
87. and then I went to the school for the performance. There were musical
88. numbers, one comedy presented by the Drama Club, and following a brief
89. intermission, the melodrama. Not wanting to sit down in the audience I
90. stood in the balcony to watch the melodrama. The principal appeared, and
91. said: “This is your Drama Night. You should be very proud.” I looked at him
92. in agony and choked out the words, “Yes, I am.” The principal looked at the
93. program – and the cast of characters for the play. “Ye Gods!! – don’t tell me
94. you cast HIM as the villain. He has never hit a classroom that he hasn’t
95. caused trouble in. I tell you he will ruin the play!”
96.  
97. I looked the principal in the eye, and said, in a hushed whisper. “That is
98. my surprise for the evening-the boy who spends 90% time in your office.”
99. At that point the curtain rose. Mom and Dad came out, and gave their
100. opening soliloquies in true artistic fashion. Out came little NELL with
101. shy, demure bearing tripping around the stage. Out came the Back Stage
102. worker with signs that read “CLAP” and “APPLAUD.” The audience
103. responded enthusiastically. The came the signs “HISS” and “BOO” and to
104.  
105. this response from the audience, the villain made his appearance. What a
106. transformation – 6 feet of pure black, from tuxedo to cape. But what was
107. absolutely amazing to me was the actions of the boy.
108.  
109. What had happened to the clumsy oaf that had just yesterday wrecked the
110. dress rehearsal? The villain advanced to the front of the stage, swished
111. his cape around his shoulders, and shook his stick at the audience each
112. time they booed or hissed. I was astounded. I hadn’t even told him to do
113. this but there he was doing it, big as life and twice as mean.
114.  
115. And the lines, the sneers, the maniacal laughter – absolutely amazing! He
116. loved every minute of his part. He knocked the hero to the floor before
117. being subdued himself. And the final sneaking off the stage hollering:
118. “Curses, foiled again.” – would make Richard Burton envious. The last
119. trump was when the audience stood to a person, and gave him a standing ovation.
120.  
121. The principal looked at me: I looked at the principal. “How did you
122. accomplish that?” he said with a great degree of incredulity – as if he
123. couldn’t believe this had just happened.
124.  
125. I looked at the Principal with the same degree of surprise. But quickly
126. recovering my composure, I replied with simple dignity, “That, my friend,
127. is the mark of a good teacher. Every student has some talent. You have
128. just seen the talent of the worst clown of the school!” I fully believed
129. that a miracle had occurred, and that I would wake up and find this whole
130. thing just a dream.
131.  
132. But I came away that night quite convinced that every student, above
133. average, average, or below average, has a right to compete and win in this
134. system of ours.
135.  
136. I found out quite by accident some days later, what had made the villain so
137. believable and so good. Apparently he was half tanked, and no-one knew it.
138. All his inhibitions had been suppressed by demon rum. He had gotten into
139. his Dad’s rum bottle after school. That was the thing that had produced a
140. change.
141.  
142. I never forgot that one incident in my Drama teaching, but it did teach me
143. that there was good in everyone – and you don’t turn your back on the
144. underachiever, and gear your thinking to the upper 25%. You see, that boy
145. really did want to reach out and be helped. In order to be good in drama,
146. and win my approval he went to extreme measures. Not that I approved of
147. those extreme measures he took but it was the idea that though he was a
148. “bad egg” in school, there was part of him that wanted to succeed, and he
149. tried every available means to do it, rightly or wrongly. I complimented
150. him sincerely the next day, and pretended not to see the smirks on the
151. faces of his peer group who know how he did it.

The Actor
By Washburn Laird

155-159