Donna Hutton

     I didn't always want to be a teacher.  Many teachers did have an influence on me through the years.  Mr. LaMare (I hope I spelled that correctly) my grade 7 science teacher at Oakwood School in South Windsor (who later became a high school principal) is the reason I went to university for Biology.  After getting my BSc I discovered that with only a bachelor degree any job prospects would entail, to a great extent, washing test tubes.  No field of study interested me enough to continue on to a graduate degree, so I went back to school for another year and added a BA (psychology) to the end of my name.  Then again, a year later, there was that same question, "Now what?"

     I was playing in a band at the time with Danny Bonk and he had just finished teachers college, so I figured, what the heck, applied to the Faculty of Education and got accepted.  As part of the prerequisites I had to go and observe at a school for one week .  I knew the principal at D.M Eagle through a mutual friend and so I called him up and arranged to observe there. He told me he had the perfect teacher in mind for me, Donna Hutton.  Donna taught Kindergarten in the morning and grade 4 in the afternoon.  After the very first day of observing I bounded through my front door and announced "I love this!  This is what I want to do!".

    The final part of teacher training required a placement in a school for a month.  On a whim, I scanned the list of associate teachers who had agreed to take on student teachers that session... and saw "Mrs. Donna Hutton".  I went to the Faculty of Ed office and put in a request to be assigned to her.  (I found out later that Donna had never before, nor ever did after, put her name in to have a student teacher.)  That month at D.M. Eagle, refining my teaching skills under Donna's direction, was the most instructional of my whole year of teacher training.

     It so happened that D.M. Eagle's enrolment was increasing and they would required two more teachers that coming September.  Donna went to the principal (in those days principals hired the teachers for their building) and told him, "If you don't hire this kid you're crazy."

     I didn't always want to be a teacher but now, I couldn't imagine doing anything other than teaching.  Thank you, Donna.

     Footnote:  My wife, Connie, long before we were dating, was working as a supply teacher at Belle River Public School and Donna Hutton, having retired from teaching, was volunteering in the library.  Donna, once again, went to a principal and told him that he'd better not let this crackerjack of a teacher get away.  Connie was hired.  It was years later that we discovered the significance Donna had had in both of us becoming employed teachers.  So, what else could we do, but invite Donna and John Hutton to our wedding.