September was recuperation and laundry month, and now I'm back on the road. This past Friday, I had an opportunity to visit a fellow college, Larry Smith and his class at Portage Collegiate Institute.
The first thing that Larry showed me was the school's archive. Wow! How lucky they are to have all that history at the student's fingertips. Their archive is extensive due to the fact that PCI is an amalgamation of two high schools, PCI and Arthur Meighen. It also houses memorabilia of the (former) Victoria School and Prince Charles School. So the boxes of files, trophies and paraphernalia is literally over-flowing. They also have a unique collection of photos taken by Yosh Tashiro, a photographer that worked for the Daily Graphic for 25 years. The school offers two archiving courses in which the students work with museum software, learn how to catalogue material and use the archival material to work on projects.
Working in the archives also seems like a lot of fun detective work. One of the students had found a picture of her dad when he was in grade 8, another student a picture of her great grandfather! This familarity with history has also encouraged students to learn and write about Portage la Prairie's past. A student and teacher, Lisa Pao and Barry Bills, used the archival material to publish a book, Ante Nos Scientia: Portage Collegiate Instutue 1882 - 2005. And Josh Wright's love of his town and its history lead him to write an article that was published this September in More of Our Canada magazine.
Having an archive and historical collection has huge advantages. James Kostuchuk, another History teacher at PCI, also uses the archives for his classes and says that it has, "allowed for outreach to the community". Students interview community members to fill in historic details and also help the community by finding pictures or materials that have gone
The other part of my day was spent observing a lesson created by Larry and James called "Artifact Analysis: Pre and Post Contact". By using two of the Historical Thinking Concepts, "Evidence" and "Continuity & Change" students analyzed 12 different artifacts in an attempt to understand their use and what changes, if any occurred by their introduction to First Nations Peoples. The students were very engaged in this hands-on exercise, especially since they could see, touch and even smell artifacts from PCI's collection.
I had a great time at PCI and was very impressed by the school and the students. This prairie town's past is clearly a part of the school's conscousness. It can be seen in the art work, the attention to preservation and in the interest of the students to incorporate history in their daily lives.