One afternoon, the student told him about the self-advocacy group, People First, which was protesting the following weekend against a controversial wage policy. Proposed by the previous provincial government, the policy would allow employers to pay people who had been labelled less than minimum wage. His student was certainly going to attend the rally, being an active member of the organization. The teacher was interested and engaged; when it came to the lesson on writing business letters, he suggested she write hers, with his help, to the provincial government about that very issue. She embraced the assignment whole-heartedly. Her finished product met the requisite specifications: she stated her case, and, having had access to the computer lab, presented a polished letter.
When a second student in an Effective Speaking course decided at the last minute to sing Christmas carols instead of playing the taped address which he and his peer tutor had so diligently prepared for his presentation, only his tutor squirmed. All the other students applauded his efforts, and his instructor awarded him a resounding grade of seventy-one percent with a written congratulation for knowing better than anyone else in the class “how to really get into the act of presenting”.
Support Staff
The support staff at Humber proved to be unsung heros, providing help on
a regular basis. This was the case when one student, intending to take
twenty dollars out of a bank machine, accidentally got the decimal point
in the wrong place and ended up with significantly more money. She
immediately received a lesson on making a deposit. The people at the
library desk became well-acquainted with one student who, while searching
for her library card in her wallet, would always fumble, dropping all the
photographs of her family, her cat, and even one of herself “when she
had short hair”. Reassembling her paraphernalia always took a few
minutes, enough time to chat and to offer to show the photos around,
again.
