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About 60 per cent of Beaconsfield students are ESL
Elementary students tap school history through seniors Naoibh O’Connor Staff writer
Jack Uppal picked up an old class photo and pointed to a cross-legged boy in the front row. “That’s me,” the 85-year-old told 12year-old Angel Mei. The octogenarian and Grade 6 student were sitting at a table Tuesday in the library at Lord Beaconsfield elementary, the East Side school he attended generations before she entered its doors. Most of Uppal’s formal education took place at Beaconsfield, located at 3663 Penticton St., near East 20th Avenue and Nanaimo. He was one of the first Sikh children in a public school in Vancouver. His father died in an accident when he was a teenager, forcing the then 13year-old and his brother to quit school to support the family. Uppal, who was born in India but moved to Vancouver when he was less than a year old, dropped out at the end of his Grade 9 year at Van Tech. Despite
“ANYTHING I HAVE TODAY IS BECAUSE OF THE SCHOOLING AND TEACHING I HAD AT BEACONSFIELD.” Jack Uppal
the setback, Uppal became a successful businessman and leader in the Indo-Canadian community. He’s president of Goldwood Industries, a lumber company. “Anything I have today is because of the schooling and teaching I had at Beaconsfield,” he explained to Mei. Uppal is among 22 seniors who were interviewed by 20 Grade 4 and Grade 6 students about their experiences at Beaconsfield. The interviews came through a project proposed by Karen Sanderson and taken on by three teachers and the principal. Sanderson, 59, attended
Former student Jack Uppal talks with 12-year-old Angel Mei in the library at Lord photo Dan Toulgoet Beaconsfield elementary. the elementary school, as did her children. Seniors who were enrolled at the school or whose children attended were involved in the project. Sanderson wanted students to better understand the school and the neighbourhood’s history. “And I wanted the seniors to feel valued and respected and to connect to the current students in the neighbourhood,”
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she said, adding, “I hope it inspires other schools to do the same thing.” Principal Patty Neibel agreed about the importance of local history. “Just like every neighbourhood in Vancouver, the whole demographics have changed and a lot of the young people are of ethnic origin and don’t know anything about the history,” she said.
About 60 per cent of Beaconsfield’s 250 students are classed as ESL—English as a second language. The months-long seniors’ project was celebrated at a potluck dinner at the school on Tuesday. A booklet, entitled Stories from our Streets, which documents the students’ interpretations of their interviews with the seniors, was
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unveiled at the event. Mei’s three-page interview with Uppal details his memories growing up, including skating on Trout Lake, his friendly classmates and favourite teachers. “You can’t learn properly without strict teachers,” Uppal told Mei in the interview. Bill Silvester, 81, was interviewed by Sanjana Bhasin, an 11-year-old Grade 6 student. Silvester attended Beaconsfield in the mid-1930s. He met his future wife, Margie, now deceased, when he was in Grade 1. Their children, Danny, 59, and Gary, 52, also attended Beaconsfield. Silvester still lives in the neighbourhood. Bhasin reported how the community had changed since Silvester was a child. “There used to be a creek that ran through the field across from the school and 21st Avenue was just a sidewalk from Penticton to Nanaimo,” she wrote. “The school field went from 21st to 22nd and it was home to two horses, two cows, many chickens and goats.” noconnor@vancourier.com
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