Today, reading an article about a public school closing for good tears came to my eyes. I definitely cry easily but there was something very close to home about the subject. My public school closed two years after I left it. I guess I never said goodbye. The building is still there and I love to sneak a look whenever I’m walking by – it’s very close to my mom’s house

Of course a school is more than its walls and rooms and desks. However, those structures are something special. Today, on the last day my grade 12s would be in the school, I told some of them to say goodbye to the room. I definitely love my room and try to take good care of it. I’m even nervous about who might be occupying it during summer school.

My students are absolutely more important than the room. But together in the room we have fun and we learn. That is why I feel so sad for the staff and students of Pringdale Gardens Jr. Public School in Scarborough. They are saying goodbye to their places and memories.

As The Beatles sang,

“There are places I remember

All my life, though some have changed,

Some forever, not for better,

Some have gone and some remain.”

I love you York Mills. I miss you Fairmeadow. I feel for you Pringdale.