The photo shows some of my students headed for the Camp Recreation Hall, which doubled as Silvacan Elementary School.
Since there were no real school supplies available, because the school district had not been able to find a teacher, and hadn't totally committed to supplying anything in the remote community until they were sure of one, for the rest of the week, our school activities depended almost entirely consisted upon what could be done on blank sheets of paper, and the things that my wife and I had brought with us, ie, some magazines, and my guitar.
The following week, various sized boxes started appearing from the Stikine School District office. I excitedly open them to discover some text books, art supplies, and a chalk board on stands. Getting a chalkboard was not only a real boon to my job, and made the camp recreation hall which was filled with a pool table and a Coke vending machine, seem a bit more like a classroom. It allowed me to write and demonstrate things to my group of students, instead of having to show them things individually on a piece of paper.
The arrival of some text books, while another big step in creating a school, also caused me some problems. I was flying blind, none of the school books had any of grade designation, and I didn’t have any kind of information to tell me what subjects were supposed to be taught in the various grades. I didn’t know what books were meant for what ages, but at least I had some things to work from. I found it also frustrating that none of the books had any kind of teacher’s manual to help me, but I plowed through, the best I could.
After a few weeks had passed, a few of the mill workers moved their families to live at the camp, and our school enrollment increased. Silvacan’s Elementary’s student population reached a staggering 12 students. It was a K-7 school, but I didn’t have kids in every grade. Enrollment was something like 5 students in 1st grade, 3 in third grade, 2 in fourth grade, 1 in fifth, and 1 in 6th. The school population was in continual flux, as families moved into the camp and others returned back to civilization, but through it all, the First Nation's Jack family made up the bulk of the students in our school.
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