After 21 years as a teacher and school administrator, and a further decade as a superintendent in the Living Sky School Division central office, Brian Quinn is retiring. He has no plans to leave the Battlefords, but other than taking six months to "rant and rest" (Quinn is known for expressive opinions), the future is an open door.
What he does know is that he's not the kind of person who could go right on "resting."
"Golf is really only fun when you know you should be doing something else," he says.
He may choose something in education. After all, he has years of experience in the field. There are many opportunities for superannuates teachers to do contract work in Saskatchewan, he says, so he could choose to work as little or as much as he wanted if he went that route. But then again, he might do something else entirely.
Quinn is retiring from a position of superintendent of School Operations, Curriculum and Instruction for the public school division, which serves northwest central Saskatchewan with 900 staff and 5,700 students in 31 schools throughout 19 communities.
Although he has put in 31 years, and needed only 30 to retire, he could continue. But he wants to retire while he is still on top of his game. Quinn hints he is not quite as energetic as he used to be. In fact, he says outright, with a laugh, "Put me in a 24-year-old body, and just see what I could do in a classroom."
Plus, he says, there are "wonderful young people" coming up who are bringing new energy into the equation. Quinn has great faith in the teachers he will be leaving in charge.
"I wish people knew how much teachers care about their kids, how they try to do the right thing," he says. "You can't pay people to care."
He is optimistic about the future of education in Saskatchewan - his home province by choice. As an import, he says, he can get away with bragging about Saskatchewan.
"Strong arms and willing hearts."
That's how he sees Saskatchewan people - helpful, get it done, pitch in types. It's part of the character of Saskatchewan, he says.
Quinn holds dual Canadian/American citizenship, because he was born in the United States, specifically in Terra Haute, Ind.
It's rather like Saskatchewan, he says, except there it's "soy beans and hogs" instead of "wheat and cattle."
As a boy, Quinn lived in a variety of places. His father was an engineer and his work had the family moving so often that none of the five children were born within 800 miles of one another, says Quinn.
His high school days were spent in New York, and his first university degree came from South Carolina.
He's been in Saskatchewan since the 1970s, having come here because, through his B'hai faith, he met and married a Canadian girl in his first marriage.
He took his teacher's training at the University of Regina, then taught in rural Saskatchewan, including Makwa (where there's nothing left but a cement pad, he notes), Landis (which is due to close, he adds) and Edam. He then moved to the Battlefords where he was an administrator at Battleford Junior High School for eight years and Battleford Central School for three, before moving to Living Sky central office.
He intends to remain in Battleford, having recently bought a house there with his wife Rose Silzer-Quinn, who works at the credit union. Between them, says Quinn, they have four grandchildren.
He has a variety of hobbies, including writing, that will keep him busy until he decides what kind of work he wants to turn his hand to. He plays the saxophone, enjoys motorcycle riding and all sorts of outdoor activities. He also loves cooking, which will make him a good house husband, he laughs.
Looking back over his 31 years in education, Quinn has seen more than a few changes. The last several years have seen a huge shift in philosophy. No longer about measuring what teachers are doing, it's about measuring what children are learning and using that data to get increasingly better results.
About this latest shift, Quinn ask, "What if a great deal of what we have worked to bring about really centres around moving the locus of control in learning from the teacher to the student? As an example," he says, "I have in my desk the canvas strap I was given with my first principal's position, now more years ago than I care to remember Suffice it to say, we were given the authority to control student behaviour. It worked after a fashion, but in addition to the obvious moral ambiguities, did it foster real responsibility, the kind that sticks with you when no one is looking?"
Teaching by example is part of it, he says.
"Today we strive to model the behaviour we want from our students, to teach behaviour explicitly using clearly articulated standards, and to reinforce those standards with some form of restitution when students, as we all do, fall short of best practice. What is that, if not moving the locus of control to where it belongs, with the child or youth who must learn to moderate her or his own impulses for the common good and their own well-being?"
Quinn says teachers now begin lessons with the outcome or learning target clearly indicated, so everyone knows what the students are to know or be able to do by the end of the process. Teachers also, up front, explain how the learning will be assessed, using rubrics, exemplars and anything that will help them become active participants in their own learning.
"The goal is helping our children to become life-long problem solvers, who can work in groups and teams to answer questions we probably haven't even thought of yet, he says. "In fact, isn't all our digital technology an amazing set of tools to help us do just that?"
Quinn says it takes a master teacher to have the defined routines, the clear expectations, the engaging strategies to get students to take the helm - which is far more difficult than telling them what to do and what to think.
"In the end," he asks, "what do we want? People who can follow instructions and obey orders? Or people who can solve the moral, environmental, personal, and economic opportunities/challenges we've left them with? Why, in an age of technical marvels and revolutionary insights, should we settle for less?"
Another shift education is making, says Quinn, has to do with the diversity among students.
"Far later than it should have been, we are learning how to acknowledge the culture of the children we are teaching, whether they are new Canadians or First Nations," says Quinn. "For so long in education we pretended our ways were the right ones, which did violence to the spirit of every child who didn't share the background of the dominant community, whether that was our conscious intention or not. I say we are learning how to deal with this in a more affirming, child centred way, because we are only nicely started on this journey. It will be the story of the next thirty years to see what comes of it, and we are going to need a lot of help along the way."
