Johann (Joe) Paulson - The Teacher

Johann (Joe) Paulson retires (left) - Kenora Miner and News July 6, 1989

In 1989, after a 35+-year career of teaching, Johann (Joe) Paulson (my dad) retired from the position of Mathematics Department Head, from Beaver Brae Secondary School.  Joe graduated from Manitoba Normal School in 1951 and taught one year in Waskada, Manitoba, followed by four years in Plumas Manitoba. In 1957, he returned to his home village of Hecla, Manitoba, where for three years, he taught 28 students in grades seven through eleven, all subjects in one room, and was administrator to a "grade one-to six" room in the same building as well as a grades one-to-eight one room school, three and a half miles away.  (He is listed as the Principal for the Hecla Island School (1957-1960)). In his spare time, the recreation activities of the community were also his responsibility. 

In 1960, he moved to Arborg, Manitoba for one year, and taught senior physics and math in a five room high school, followed by two years at the University of Manitoba to complete his Bachelor of Science degree. In 1963, he moved to Keewatin, Ontario, and started teaching at Lakewood High school, located in Kenora, where he taught math until Beaver Brae and Lakewood high schools amalgamated, at which time he moved to Beaver Brae where he remained until his retirement.

During the first 18 years of teaching, he spent 17 summers at "summer school", taking  professional and upgrading courses in Winnipeg, Gimli, Vancouver, Thunder Bay, Waterloo, Toronto, and London. 

He noted at his retirement, that some of the highlights of his career were, in addition to his association with students in the classrooms, and the staff members, were the extra-curricular student-related programs.  Those included coaching two baseball teams and two hockey teams during each of the four years of Plumas; running the "rifle club" at Lakewood; coaching the "Reach of the Top" team and having a district winner in the Ontario playoffs: and above all, the three summers that he and my mom (Margaret) ran a canoe program for students from the age 10 to 15, one of which had 28 students in fourteen canoes that they were "in control of" for two weeks on the Winnipeg river.  All and all, he noted that all the years were good to him.