Community Heart

Thank you to everyone who came out to our History sharing night and Jamboree on February 1st. We had an amazing time, heard some great stories, and listened to some excellent music.

The KAN community newsletter is out now, and the February schedule will be posted here and on our website at www.knowlesvillenature.ca.

As many of you may know, there have been murmurings and meetings about the possible closure of the Juniper elementary school. Please read Tegan's article, below, and join us at the next meeting to discuss this issue, on February 8th at 7pm, at the Juniper elementary school.

"When you take the school out of a community, you take out its heart"

by Tegan Wong-Daugherty

I met with Tom Dodd of Windsor in January and he shared some reflections of coming to the Glassville - Knowlesville area back in the early 1970s. Tom moved to East Glassville from Fredericton in December of 1971 to one of the coldest old farmhouses in Glassville. There was ice on one of the walls, it had no heat, no water and no power. They bought a $15 woodstove from ____ and tried their best to survive the ' good life'. The book by the same title "The Good Life" by Scott and Helen Nearing was one of the books that influenced the strong desire by Tom to move to the country and live off the land. Those first two winters were rude awakenings to how hard it could be to achieve, but the desire never left Tom despite the challenges. In the 1980s, Tom was known thoughout the area as a skilled blacksmith. He ran the blacksmith shop for a few years in Glassville and continues his craft at home still to this day. He reflected on how Glassville and Knowlesville have changed over the years and feels that the loss of the village schools really impacted on community life. ""When you take the school out of a community, you take out its heart". This sentiment was shared by Donna White at our local history night held on February 1st. She said the loss of the one-room school houses was something she missed as she felt that those schools kept the families together and did a good job in educating the kids. "The younger kids could see what the older kids were learning and learned more then than I feel they do now". It is interesting that this debate over the community school continues right up to today. Juniper Elementary is one of the last schools of it's kind in the area. Small, yes - but with multi-grade classes and a great teacher to student ratio, it is a great school to hold on to. Donna laments the decision to close the one-room schools back in 1950s. Tom laments the decision to close the Glassville school in the 1970s. Hopefully we don't lament the loss of the Juniper School in the 2010s. But maybe we need to come up with some innovative solutions that will keep Juniper school running in the long-run and not post-pone just by one year. Some of the proposals that people attending the consultation meetings came up with include: 1) Enlarging the enrolment area for the school to include Knowlesville and maybe even Glassville; 2) Considering the French community in Juniper, looking to expand French language instruction at the school - French immersion or a variation that would allow for kids coming in to get instruction in both French and English; 3) Waiting to see if new jobs in the area will bring in more families and promoting the school as a community asset.

I hold on to Tom Dodd's quote "When you take the school out of a community, you take out its heart". If you can, please come out to the next consultation at Juniper Elementary on Tuesday, February 8th at 7pm.