School NEWS
Pat Shannon retires (Continued from page 11) their drawing to his motel room by curfew. And someone did? Yup. The thing was, after announcing the contest, Byron added, “And the reward is…your honour.” Our grip on order, our very lives, hung on that ellipsis. I never got over the fact that Stevenson actually drew it, as in my memory the tapestry had been lowered for about seven seconds before being yanked up. You’ve mentioned Dr. Harker twice now. Any last thoughts on what makes a good teacher? Well, Byron had enormous depth in his field, he had a PhD, which satisfies what Headmaster Hannaford rightly signals as
half the magic: know your stuff, and be keen about it. But as I head for the door, the other half, the relational part, also matters: boys absolutely know when you like them. And if they know that you do, you can take them anywhere. You coached hockey here for 18 years. I did, and that was a lot like the classroom—good years and bad. Of course we had Torrey Mitchell and Mark Spence, but I have to say my best years had nothing to do with the record. Getting some kid to clear the zone while taking a hit was huge. We won most games on pure willpower, pure emotion. Again, any memories? I’d say the Jamin Kerner (’94) year we won the Bantam finals at LCC. Some crazy multiple of overtimes, three on
three, Haimson (David ’94) our goalie. Both teams so tired. By the same token, having hockey bags fly off our bus racks was beyond stressful. My own kids played both for Selwyn House and various community teams for, I guess, a total of 21 years, so one of the adjustments I inevitably had to make is giving up my role as a hockey father. Will retirement become you? I don’t know. Different saying you’ll do something and having the actual time to try it. I think that having 34 years of summer breaks has conditioned me to putter successfully. I’ll probably travel more. Typical middle-aged stuff. Vonnegut wrote at 60 that he was finally reading Anna Karenina. He’d heard it was good.
Parent Volunteer Executive 2017-2018
Parent Volunteer Executive, from left: Tiphanie Willems, Nancy Berney, Anne Garschagen, Joyce McCauley, Karen Anderson, Kimberly Auclair (staff), Rinku Mondal and Lorna Denham (chair).
Veritas, page 12
