Page 2 - With Winston "Scotty" Fitzgerald

ISSUE : Issue 46

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1987/8/1

Bay St. Lawrence Sugar ' / Loaf ' ASPY BAY to work in the lumbering woods--the Murray, St. Ann's. And he'd be in there, and there's bound to be a violin player or two. And he would learn the tunes. And he would come home from the lumber woods. Of course, he shoved them over to me. And I picked them up. (No slow airs?) No. (Laments?) No. (And classical music of any sort?) No. (So what kind of music were you hearing then?) Strathspeys, reels, marches, horn? pipes. There wasn't too much of that, 'cause the old Scottish people went in for jigs. But hornpipes and clogs, well, they couldn't play--they weren't that good to play--you know, clogs are tough music. And they couldn't handle that. So they'd just play the strathspeys, reels, and marches, and jigs. That was the meal, right there, in the music. (Your father was a fiddler for dances.) Yes. That's the only violin player there was at White Point--my father, George-- till I started taking up violin about 8 years old, I suppose. (He nome quite a bit. And then the u>au oquare dance, kitchen dance, he'd play for that. And I remember the first dance I ever played for. He was secretary of the school there. And they had a meeting--they used to have dances and stuff, to pay the teacher. They got a small grant. And we had summer school. We had no yearly school. There were only 12 families at White Point in the wintertime. I went to school from the first of May to the last of September. (While this may seein an odd school sched? ule, it coincided with the movements of several fainilies in the region, to White Point at fishing time.) Between 15 and 20 families would move down in May. Move back in October, after the summer fishing. That would leave us local people (about 12 fam? ilies at White Point) by ourselves for the winter. So the grant (for the teacher) wasn't so big. So they used to put on pic? nics. And taxes, of course, would pay the rest of the money. (2) MESSAGE FROM THE MINISTER As an expansion of the Department of Education's continuing evaluation of the public school program, I appointed the Advisory Committee on the Public School Program in January, 1986. The Committee was made up of representatives of the Nova Scotia Teachers Union, the Nova Scotia School Boards Association, the Nova Scotia Federation of Home and School Associations, the Nova Scotia Union of Municipalities, the superintendents of schools, the universities, the Department of Education and the public at large. The Committee has recommended that the number of compulsory credits for graduation be raised to 10 from the present requirement of four, and that high school students be required o take 18 credits • two more than the present 16. New compulsory credits wo Id be Mathematics, French, designated science and social studies courses, fine arts; and practical and technical arts. I have released the Report as a discussion paper. I would welcome public comments on the adequacy of the proposed curriculum requirements to prepare Nova Scotia students to take their place in the workplace, in the arts and in society. Copies are obtainable from: Mrs. Fay P. Lee, Secretary, Advisory Committee on the Public School Program, P.O. Box 578, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3J 2S9. Tel: 424-5571. Department of Education ::'::::'Mfc,

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