I took extended French and I practically failed that. I didn't fail but I did really badly in it. And then I went into core French and I really liked it. But when I was in O-A-C they- there was only may-- the I took two O-A-C Frenches and the second year I was in O- A-C there was only maybe eight O-A-Cs who my classes the rest of them were grade twelves so he went by the grade twelve curriculum and we used their book.

Yeah. He's a great teacher and he lives th-- i-- this is a cool thing about Belleville, you-know I know where my- my old chemistry teacher lives and he's three doors down- was three doors down from Mrs.-Kuiper and- who was my O-A-C English teacher another- ah she was a brilliant English teacher. Um and th-- they both retired Speaker: Um Mrs.-Kuiper was- she was a really good teacher. Yeah. Taught English, O-A-C English. Anyway. Interviewer: Very high praise, for both of them. From you. Speaker: Mm. Mm-hm. I had- those were two of my favourite- and they- because they both were able t-- to um- w-- when I submitted work they were able to critique it and- and-

I-don't-know they were really good teachers or really good people. Maybe both. And they- they helped me realize that that wasn't a barrier anymore and that I could achieve. Which was awesome 'cause it was in the O-A-C year so I was able to bring all of these marks and top them right up um I think I got a ninety or-something in O-A-C English which was absurd for me, like totally, "Wow, that's amazing!" You-know I used to puddle around in the sixties and seventies. Um but it was Mrs.-Kuiper's encouragement um- it was just amazing to get me- to push me that little bit more.

Landscape design, and then biology 'cause I obviously like biology so much, and ah I wanted to be a doctor. The doctor got taken off the list because I really did not like O-A-C chemistry- k-- calculus, pardon-me.

-one and then went to Queen-Victoria 'til grade-five. And then I went to Queen-Elizabeth-School from grade-six to grade-eight and then Moira-High-School from grade-nine to grade-ten and then Nicholson-Catholic-College from grade-nine-and-a-half I-guess to

Speaker: I graduated a year after I was supposed to, I stayed back to take some different courses because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. Interviewer: Oh at ah Chippewa? Speaker: Yeah. Interviewer: Yeah yeah. Speaker: Yeah I stayed longer than I needed to but. Interviewer: Um y-- you didn't have O-A-C right? Speaker: No. Interviewer: Y-- y-- you. Speaker: No.

Speaker: Yeah so I- yeah my grade was like the first one to h-- to not have U-A- O-A- O-A-C. but I wasn't sure what I wanted to do so I stayed and took co-op and stuff like that to see- and fun courses that I wasn't able to take before because my schedule was too full.

Speaker: I-mean I think that's why for us our- that at our school there was such a focus on independent study, you-know "Come up with some interpretation on your own. You tell me what you think. You- I- I miss the ah O-A-C course. Were you new curriculum or old? Did you do O-A-C? Interviewer: I was- I was the first new. Speaker: Euh. Interviewer: But I wound up just doing two grade-twelves. Um. Speaker: But the old but you missed the course.

The old O-A-C course had a- a- a really neat independent study where the kids had to pick three works and so they moved away from you-know the compare contrast and they moved into looking at themes and motifs and I-don't-know somebody like you would have been very good at it I can remember some just marvellous O-A-C independent studies, pieces that was quite literally a privilege to be able to read, you-know kids ah pulling together ah you-know a classic novel and a Pink-Floyd album and something else and you-know making it into an independent study. Just tremendous stuff.

Speaker: Well you might have if you were the first year because people were still trying to just you-know people were still trying to use some of those old O-A-C components in the grade-twelve university level course. Interviewer: Yeah, we had ah (inc) Titus-Andronicus and About-Schmidt. Speaker: Oh yes. Interviewer: (inc) Speaker: I- My oldest daughter, um her grade-thirteen er O-A-C independent study was on the character of Merlin, and she read oh more than three, I think f-- maybe half a dozen pieces from various King-Arthur legends ah and examined the character of Merlin, you-know things like that, that- that are just so very different and that ...

Interviewer: So Saint-Alexander from one to, like, one to six? Speaker: Kindergarten to six, yeah. Saint-Bride's was seven to eight. And then nine to O-A-C was Saint-Joseph's Scollard-Hall.

Speaker: I never had him for math. He had my oldest brother Jim and apparently they had like a good- like, he really liked Jim. Judy, my best-friend, had this huge crush on Mister-Keele and then in O-A-C we had him. Judy and I both had him for home-room teacher and he hated me.

Speaker: ... it was like "Please stop or else I'll send you to the office". Speaker: Yeah. Interviewer: "Okay, go to the office". Speaker: Yeah. I think he'd- I think it was like the only one time he did it was the first day and the home-rooms had been changed 'cause we're O-A-C so ah a couple home-rooms had merged and, like, the teachers had changed so, like, I think he was picking someone to make and example. I think maybe 'cause he knew I was a Mclean. He did comment once on my hair.

Speaker: We barely talked throughout high-school, like our last couple- until O-A-C of high-school and then- when she was gone out of high-school it was a lot easier. Interviewer: Do you think the problem was that you were too cool?

... I-mean I was a straight A student up until, I think the end of grade nine. And then I started getting like the B's and the low A's. And then I think I became the B, C student around grade twelve and then O-A-C- was it just easy for me? I don't know why. Maybe it was the teachers and just my confidence went up.

Interviewer: So how'd you and meet your husband meet anyways? Speaker: Um he went to R-M and I went to O'Gorman, and for his final year, because there was a certain course that O'Gorman had, he came over. Interviewer: Okay. Speaker: For um my grade twelve year and his O-A-C year. And so, we met up through friends, but he insists that we met the summer before at one of the Guinness-Book-of-World-Record, Macarena-street-dance thing.

Grade-seven and eight. Then ah I went to O'Gorman ah high-school ah from grades-nine to actually O-A-C which was the first- we were the first group that went through O-A-C.

Speaker: ... you guys think about the fact that there aren't O-A-Cs anymore? Do you- Interviewer: (inc) Speaker: Think it would have been a good thing? Interviewer: With T-D right now, because they've cut so many courses, I-think it doesn't make a difference. There's no point having an O-A-C like for a lot of grade thirteens, there's not much courses for them to take. Most of them just take co-ops.

Speaker: And wondered if I would like to go to a hockey game, whatever. I said, "Oh that would be nice." So Shauna and Ben-Timothy were- were- Jack- he- his nickname was Jack. They went to O-A-C together. And they were friends here you-see? So they came up to call for me, when I opened the door and saw this good-looking man with a raccoon coat and-all-that. "God, who are you?" (Laughs)

Speaker: sort-of taught how to sort-of be ah more of a critical thinker and a skeptic. And that sort-of- that actually helped me in the big scheme of things, I think what he taught me in- we used to have a class called Science-and-Society which was an O-A-C class like a- like a- Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: University academic course. Um I think what he taught me in that class was more valuable than what- everything else I learned in high-school because he just basically ah taught- taught people how to be skeptical.