Settling Into a Polar Winter (storey 29 of 40)

Our school continues to grade eight. Grade eight and grade seven share the same classroom. If we were still living in Fort Good Hope N.W.T. I would have to go to residential school in Inuvik for grade seven. I now live in Coppermine, which is located on the shores of the Arctic Ocean in the North West Territories of Canada. It is also known as Kugluktuk and is today located in the newest Canadian Territory of Nunavut.

Grades seven and eight have one teacher, Mr. Adams. Mr. Adams is a legend amongst his students; he arrives at this stature in a short time. He is British and has a decisive and clipped accent; he comes to school in pressed shirts and demands our full attention at all times. If you do not pay attention or address your classmates and teacher with respect there are consequences. The dreaded “dictionary” was common punishment. There is also the opportunity to get the slipper, but it was a dire situation that dictated the boys bend over in the classroom and get their butts smacked with a running shoe. Girls had to hold out their hands and get the “slipper” across their palm.