Last week, Gord Graham stood in the ravaged mess of his Pontiac High School classroom, staring at the Rubbermaid tote into which he had to squeeze a quarter-century’s worth of belongings.
“I used to have the Red Ensign up on the wall, photos of the Queen, all of Canada’s prime ministers,” the history teacher said of the posters that once blazoned the brick walls.
Graham would often empty his classroom before the summer months, but this cleanup was different. As he peeled back the posters, the expected white brick was replaced by twenty-five years’ worth of yellow.
Last week, the career teacher celebrated his retirement with his beloved students and colleagues, a final farewell to his last year at the school.
“You just think, ‘My God, this has been who I am. That’s just my identity, and all of a sudden I’m going to stop,’” he told THE EQUITY in his classroom as he took a break from packing.
Mr. Graham wore many hats over the years, teaching subjects from law to physical education to drama, to the position he has filled for many years as a history teacher.
Graham, dressed in a heather grey vest and matching bow-tie, said he has always been a showman, a trait that lends itself well to his chosen career. “They are forced to listen to me,” he said cheekily of his students.
But he is also a serious student of his region, having written a master’s thesis about the history of Pontiac transportation, as well as a book about Bristol’s St. Andrew’s-Knox United Church.
Graham said part of his mission as a history teacher was to help students understand that, instead of being far removed from history, they are part of a larger story.
“I have passion for the story, and fitting them within it. Everything we talk about, we lead it back to here, so they can see themselves in it, they can relate to it. You can see the light go on when their imagination starts to put themselves into the people of the past.”
He hopes to have helped students understand history from a different, more hands-on perspective.
“We look out the window, and I say, ‘Listen, every single field you see out there, that was a forest. Some family came here. Some poor bugger from Ireland or Scotland came here and started chopping down tree [ . . . ] How long would it take you to cut down a tree with a saw? Now 50 acres [of trees]?”
Graham, a sixth-generation English Quebecer from Pontiac county, said in Canadian history he taught about important subjects ranging from monarchy to municipal politics, but didn’t want students to forget about the English-speaking history of the region.
“We’re painted out of the picture, we’re not partners in that picture. So I think it’s important to teach the kids that you are a part of it. You’re a partner. Demand being a partner in this province,” he said.
A proud member of PHS staff, Graham said the school has had a marked influence on himself as well many other generations of Pontiac youth.
“This isn’t just a school. This is a pillar of the community. This is a symbol of our future. This is where they send their kids, and to be entrusted with that and pass on your own passion for history and your own passion for the community, that’s been a lot of fun,” he said.
PHS principal Luke McLaren, who once sat in on Graham’s classes when the now-principal first started teaching at the school in 2007, said he immediately took to Graham’s energetic style.
“He has a really unique presence in the classroom. Students hang off of every one of his words,” he said. “[He does] lots of little things that you don’t really realize are good teaching techniques until you see a master teacher like Gord implement them.”
McLaren, who also had a background in history when he started at PHS, said he was impressed by Graham’s ability to make the history pop out of the textbook.
“Gord has the ability to do it with humour [ . . . ] and the thing that stands out to me as a history teacher is he’s not teaching a lesson, he’s telling a story.”
He said former students often name Mr. Graham as their favourite teacher, which he said is a testament to the seriousness with which he treats his job as an educator. “He has had a tremendous impact on students,” McLaren said.
As Graham packs up his classroom for the last time, he has been inviting staff and students to come pillage his classroom for what’s left of his belongings. As THE EQUITY interviewed Graham, former student Sydney Côté stopped by to do just that.
Côté, who took Graham’s drama and history courses, said although she was not good at history, she enjoyed Graham’s classroom delivery and way of bringing the subject alive. “It’s so obvious that you’re passionate about what you’re teaching,” she told him.
Graham said it is those meaningful connections that he will miss as he enters the next phase of his life, working at the family cider mill, Coronation Hall.
“I’m going to desperately miss the kids. It’s potential. I always tease them, saying, ‘You guys are going to go on and do great things. You’re going to make way more money than me and I’ll be right there to borrow it,” he joked.
“But I am looking forward to a new challenge. Working with my dad. Being outside.”
Know a longtime educator who is retiring or nearing retirement? THE EQUITY wants to hear the stories of the devoted educators who are making a positive impact on the next generation. Get in touch! Please email editor@theequity.ca or call us at (819) 647-2204.
