The Lansdowne Letters: Teaching the Non-English Speaking Student

I've spent a lot of time since I retired from elementary teaching
thinking about my father as a teacher and a principal.
In Lansdowne House over fifty years ago,
he was intuitively doing many of the things
ELA teachers do today, but with no training or direction.
He was a gifted and a forward thinking teacher.

I say this, not because I'm his daughter,
but because I've worked with hundreds of students
over my teaching career who were ELA
or English language Acquisition students.

I've been trained in strategies and techniques
that I experienced him using as his student
in Lansdowne House so many years ago.

He did everything he could to help his Indian students learn,
even going so far as to put my four-year-old sister Barbie
in kindergarten with his youngest Indian children,
so that she could model and explain in her way what to do.

Donnie, Bertie, and Barbie (right)

A Few Months Before Going North

Smith's Cove, Nova Scotia, Canada, 1960 

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

Not that that always worked the way he had hoped,
because Barbie was strong-willed and a scamp.
My most vivid memory of her in Dad's classroom 
(aside from the fact that the Indian girls adored her)
was her stuffing an eraser up her nose
and having to be rushed across the field to the nursing station
so Mike could extract the eraser.


On Wednesday, January 18, 1961 
My father wrote to his extended family:

Hi There:
I hope you are ready for the daily blurb, because here it comes.  
It will be a short one though, for Uno wants to use his machine, 
and I don’t feel too well.  
Hope the old girl’s curse isn’t starting to work.  

I will be so glad when my typewriter gets up here, 
so I don’t have to use Uno’s any more.  I
feel guilty, and besides, there are often times 
when I feel like typing and Uno is using the machine.

My One Photo of Dad and Uno together

with Baby Duncan

Lansdowne House, Northern Ontario, Canada, 1960

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

It is awfully hard to teach children when they only understand
about a third of what you are saying to them.
I nearly drove myself up the wall today trying to teach one
of my beginners to recognize the largest of a series of numbers and to mark it.

I just couldn’t get it across to her what I meant by big and small.
I finally got it across by using about three sheets of foolscap
and putting down about twenty-five series of numbers.  

Alongside each number, I would put a group of dots corresponding to the number.
After I finished each series, I would count the dots after each number
and cross out the number having the largest group of dots.

After each series, I’d draw another series and see if she could do it;
and if she couldn’t do it, I’d repeat the whole process.
She finally caught on to it at the twenty-third series of numbers.
By this time I was really seeing dots before my eyes.  

I wonder how many series I’ll have to draw next week when I
attempt to teach her to recognize and mark the smallest number.

Some of My Father's Younger Girls

Lansdowne House, Northern Ontario, Canada, 1960

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

The weather is quite cold today.  
It was about 34 below 
when I was passing the nursing station.

When I went down to the water hole, 
there was about two or three inches of ice.
This formed in only about 18 hours.  

Oh yes, as I was drawing the water out of the hole, 
I spilled another half bucket down my right overshoe again.  
I’ll have to figure some way to stop that, 
because it is down right uncomfortable.

I weighed myself today, and while I’m not making any 
spectacular progress, I am holding my own.  I
haven’t reached my goal of 190 pounds yet, 
but I have only two pounds to go.  That’s not too bad – 
239 to 192 in about three and a half months.  

I have been up here longer than that, 
but I have only been working on losing weight 
for about the time mentioned.  
Nothing I own fits me now.  
Maureen will have a large job taking in my pants.  
I have lost about five inches or more in the waist.

Well, I must sign off now, 
as Uno is getting impatient
to use the machine.
Bye now,
Love, Don.

Dad Typing His Lansdowne Letters
Lansdowne House, Northern Ontario, Canada, 1960
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved

Lansdowne House was not the only place
I was fortunate to have my father as my teacher and principal.
He was my principal throughout high school,
and my home-room teacher my senior year
when he taught me history, economics, and current affairs.

He was also the Supervising Principal of Indian Schools
when I lived in Sioux Lookout.
It was so odd to stand with my classmates 
and say, "Good morning, Mr. MacBeath,"
when he came to observe my teacher Mr. Keast
working with my Indian classmates.

I've had a lot of teachers and professors over the years.
To me, my father was always the best of the bunch.

My Favorite Teacher and I 

at My Graduation

Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, 1971

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

Till next time ~
Fundy Blue


Bay of Fundy out of Westport, Brier Island
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

Notes:  

1.   Mike Flaherty:

      Mike was the nurse at the nursing station in Lansdowne House,
      and he provided basic medical services for the White and Ojibway people

      who lived in the community.

2.  Uno Manilla:
     Uno was the teacher at the Roman Catholic Day School at the mission.
     He shared a two-room shack with my father.

3.   34 Below:  -33º F. = -36.6º C.

      

4.  Weight Conversions:
      190 pounds =   86.1 kilograms
          2 pounds =     0.9 kilograms
      239 pounds = 108.4 kilograms
      192 pounds =   87.0 kilograms

5.  Inches to Centimeters:
     2-3 inches =  5-7.6 centimeters
        5 inches = 12.7 centimeters

6.  Maureen McRae:
     Maureen was the wife of my father's best friend Duncan who worked for the Department
     of Transport in Lansdowne House.  She sometimes helped out Uno and my father who rented a
     small cabin at the Roman Catholic mission in Lansdowne House by sewing for them.
     Maureen and Duncan were the parents of Baby Duncan.

     

For Map Lovers Like Me:

Location of Neskantaga (Lansdowne House)

Human Rights Watch Report on the Safe Water Crisis 

in First Nations Communities in Ontario

Make It Safe