My Dad, as Principal

I’m not sure how you found it having your Mom and your Dad as teachers but it probably was a little easier than having your Dad as the principal of the school. I grew up in the same town as my Dad, and he was known as a terrific athlete, an excellent student, a hunter and a fisherman as well as a very successful basketball coach he was and the Principal of the high school. Huge footsteps but I was very proud to be a Watson. I was always very aware that I was Henry Watson’s son. Most of the time it was good but there were definitely times it wasn’t fun being the son of the principal.

Most of the time Dad took on the role of the disciplinarian in the school and there were definitely kids that weren’t too enamoured with him in that role. I remember our back fence being torn down on a couple of occasions at Halloween, which surprised me at the time because of all Dad did for community and how well known he was. I was given a hard time and teased a few times because of who Dad was. There was a cartoon character on TV that was a large chickenhawk whose named happened to be Henry so Dad’s nickname for a time was chickenhawk, which I had a real hard time with although its kind of funny now. They would never mention it near my Dad but I definitely heard it a lot from kids who had dealings with Dad. I was pretty good in school and sports and had a large group of friends so it didn’t ever get further than the occasional comments but I remember thinking at the time how tough it could have been.

I’m sure you have heard that I got the strap from my Dad while I was in grade 10 at his school, and to this day I don’t think I deserved it. During a French class some kids starting throwing orange peels at each other and I guess it got a little out of hand. We had a new French teacher who I guess wasn’t very good at handling problems in the class so I was sent to the office with about 3 other kids although I think she could have sent out half the class. Dad talked to the 4 of us and decided he had to give us the strap - I think we got 1 on each hand. It sounds barbaric now but it was common in the day. i don’t think any of us would have gotten the strap if I wasn’t there - I think he thought he had to give us the strap as I was there and he didn’t want anyone to think he was favoring his son.  I think other kids thought it was kind of funny but cool that I was treated the same as them. For me the best part of it was that Dad never mentioned it at home - it was dealt with at school and that was the end of it. I’m still very proud  today of my Dad for the way he handled it.

Dad was my basketball coach at the school for all 3 years I was there and he was also my Math teacher in grade 8 and grade 9. I don’t think I realized at the time that he was actually an English major but taught Math either by choice or necessity. I don’t remember much about him as a teacher except he knew his stuff and you didn’t mess around in class. I do remember him marking a big exam of mine at home and Gary and I were watching him mark every question. I did very well and Gary was cheering for me as Dad was marking. I also remember a time in class where Dad couldn’t stop sneezing. It got to the point where he had to leave the class but when he came back in he still couldn’t stop. I think everyone in the class starting counting how many times he sneezed although they did it very quietly and discreetly and nobody would laugh. He must have sneezed 20 times. He later on had no idea why it happened and it never happened again. I’m guessing it was the chalk dust as I used to come home covered in chalk.

Dad taught in Cumberland schools from the time he was 18 until he retired when he was 65, except for two years when he served overseas during WW2. He started in elementary before going to the secondary school as a VP and then Principal of the high school. In about 1967 the school district decided to move the Cumberland senior students to Courtenay to finish high school and Dad, along with the whole town fought hard against it but to no avail. The District started rotating principals  throughout the different schools in the district 4 or 5 years before Dad retired, but they let him finish his career in Cumberland, where he started.