Much like Classic Coke, the 2019 graduation class at Bashaw School seem to be “the Real Thing.”
The 14 students that took to the stage at the banquet and ceremony on May 25 — Brogan Middleton, McKenna Gustafson, Walker Hull, Emily Kohlman, Brady Meger, Taegan Domstad, Jason Resler, Hanna Norman, Kurtis Poffenroth, Natasha Chitwood, Grant Golinowski, Bailie McDonald, Landon Schulte, Marshall Moch — enjoyed many laughs and a few tears in their formal goodbye to both the school and staff.
Taking a few shots at themselves involved some physical comedy from the podium, such as Meger and Kohlman attempting to point out the various emergency exits, to go alongside several ‘retro’ moments of hilarity. Some more memorable laughs from the past included Meger and Resler demonstrating Kohlman’s kissing the gym floor running laps because she didn’t want to tie her shoes, Middleton’s propensity for bathroom breaks during class and how Poffenroth must have had a few screws put back into place on the monkey bars in Grade 6.
The tears came when teacher Amanda Swedberg took centre stage as the guest speaker, a part she said “no” to many times and warned it was likely going to be a train wreck.
Part of the speech included a slide show with quotes from some other teachers that couldn’t be there, followed by an emotion-filled talk from Swedberg that focused on the past three years of her teaching them English and the fight to get many to read a book.
“My love of books is not necessarily shared by this group of people,” she said, adding a few students challenged the notion of reading right from day one in Grade 10 after which she needed some motivation for the next day. And what took place is something she will forever remember.
“I asked this class why and then I listened to their answers. There were lots of answers. And I just kept digging to get past the ones I knew weren’t the real answers until I got to the heart of it. We spent an entire 80-minute class talking about why,” she said.
Later, Swedberg explained an off-hand comment, “because you listened to us” caused a light to go off.
“When I’d decided to ask why and then genuinely listened to what they had to say, so I could learn from them, so I could figure out how to teach them, I’d done something that wasn’t normal for this class. I then realized I was making things way harder on myself than they needed to be,” she said.
“Nobody I talked to remembers content or things on a lesson plan. People remember connections … Don’t get me wrong, content matters in schools. But people matter more. And how do we let people know that they matter? We listen to them. We get to know them. We engage in their lives. We give them a chance to be who they are.”
In her conclusion, Swedberg hopes the 14 graduates remember the actions and not just the words they experienced while at Bashaw School.
More inspiration came from valedictorian Brogan Middleton, who thanked everyone that had a hand in their education at school and outside of it then nailing it down at the end.
“But most of all, we want to thank you all for helping us to lay the foundations that set us on the track to success for the rest of our lives. For being the voice that whispers ‘You’ve got this’ as we go forth unscripted, soaking it all in,” he said.
