While a majority of the students in our one-room school were pretty normal kids, there were a few with deep emotional problems that caused me frustration.
Working in an isolated mill was often a job of last resort for many of the workers. A lot of those mill workers had problems that kept them from getting jobs in Williams Lake, so they signed on to work at the isolated fly-in Silvacan Resources Mill on Takla Lake. Some of them moved their families to the camp and their kids were my students.
Some of my students in my school had come from fragmented and alcoholic families, and they had experienced some rough turbulent times, which had a negative affect on their personalities. I was sometimes shocked by their violent outburst and explosive tempers.
Victor, was one of those who had such problems. Despite his smallish size, he could be a bully, and sometimes seethed with hate. Once when I assigned the kids to write a paper with the theme: “A Wish”, I was horrified to read Victor’s paper and discover that “his wish” was to see Shawn (one of his fellow students) dead. I have often wondered how some of those kids ended up when they became adults.
While I was constantly trying to get my students to enjoy the nature that surrounded them, by giving them the wildlife magazines I had subscribed to, and in our science classes, I was a constantly frustrated at catching them doing things like throwing rocks at the swallows who where trying to build nests in the birdhouse I built.
View my paintings at:davidmarchant2.ca
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