On Aug. 26 I had the opportunity to attend the 2016 Horizon Celebration Day at the Humboldt Curling Club and what an amazing experience.
Celebration Day gave the school division the opportunity to recognize all of the people who work hard on a day in a day out basis to provide a learning environment for the students including teachers, educational assistants, administrators, and bus drivers, among others.
These people all play an important role in the education of a student and it is nice to see them being recognized for it.
Some people might wonder what possible role a bus driver could play in the education of a student?
And that is a fair question but if you look closely a bus driver is the first person who a student sees in the morning and is responsible for providing that student with a safe ride to school everyday. If a student is bullied they are less likely to want to go to school and will hurt their ability to learn once they are there.
I am not saying bullying does not happen because I am very aware that it does but we should not be ignoring the job bus drivers do. We should just be looking to fix the problems on the buses where bullying occurs.
Teachers obviously have the greatest role to play in the education of the students and was made all the more obvious during the day.
One of the aspects of the ceremony was a Wall of Fame induction ceremony where the inductees spoke about the effects their teachers had on their lives.
One of the stories told was about a teacher at St. Peter’s College who spoke to the student about becoming a doctor. After giving it some thought he went home and told his parents he wanted to be a doctor, telling them he would figure out a way to pay for it.
His message was very powerful as he noted that the confidence that the teacher gave to him was more powerful than the fear of his parents and he became a doctor.
It just goes to show how important a teacher can be on the life of a student.
Speaking of the students, celebration day also hosted students who had the opportunity to display their talents for the crowd.
These talents included singing, playing music, Ukrainian dancing, and First Nations dancing.
It was great to see the school board being supportive of their students and was just another example of showing the teachers what kind of positive impact they can have on a student if they help light a fire inside them.
The whole day was a really good way to kickoff the school year.
So good job Horizon.
I know what kind of an impact it had on me.
I can only imagine what it must have done for the staff of the school division.
