Nancy, Our Wonderful Teacher

Nancy McDonald was a a teacher all her life. She was cheerful, optimistic and inquisitive about the wonders of the world. She was open and responsive to change as she adapted her teaching style to meet the needs of her constantly evolving student population. Nancy passionately shared these characteristics with the children she taught as well as with her colleagues and everyone around her.

Nancy’s teaching career started in a conventional way, but it developed in unexpected directions, partly because of her adaptation to an environment of rapid social change. Fundamentally, she believed in the inherent worth and dignity of each person and strove to understand what made each individual unique.

Nancy came from a long-established Canadian family – her grandfather, Canon Greene, was the Orillia minister referred to in Stephen Leacock’s “Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town.” Nancy grew up on a street in Etobicoke close to the home of Lucy Maude Montgomery, the creator of “Anne of Green Gables,” the distinctive Canadian story about the world’s beloved little red-haired girl.

As Nancy grew up and became a teacher, Etobicoke was fast becoming a powerful magnet for immigrants and refugees. In contrast to her own United Empire Loyalist roots, Nancy encountered students at Dixon Grove from more than 70 countries of origin, from 6 of the 7 continents. Her remarkable adaptability was put to the test. She was called to mitigate the impact of culture shock and domestic upheaval experienced by many students, including those from Africa, the Middle-East, South and Central America, Europe, and all around the Caribbean. She reassured parents from conservative religious traditions – from both Canada and abroad – who were concerned about their daughters’ participation in gym class or on school trips. She had to deal with the post-traumatic stress disorders suffered by students fleeing war and terror in such places as the former Yugoslavia, Somalia, Eritrea and Afghanistan. Other students required special help in English and Math as their education differed markedly from Ontario’s or was interrupted by long periods of temporary asylum in Pakistan, Kenya and Saudi Arabia. Nancy also assisted students experiencing the effects of poverty and family conflict independent of ethnic origin. School was a daily challenge that she welcomed year by year as she influenced a new generation to take their place as well-adjusted Canadian citizens.

Nancy was never one to pass up an opportunity to learn. A few years after getting her degree at Teachers’ College she studied to gain her BA from U of T. Then, she carried on taking any, and all, available courses to enhance her understanding of how people learn. In true Nancy tradition, she would then go on, through U of T, to teach teachers how to sharpen their professional skills. Through it all and her modesty, Nancy always believed that she learned more from her students than they learned from her. Learning from others was one of her many, incredible skills.

Following several attempts at retirement from the Toronto District School Board, Nancy and her husband moved to a farm that they had acquired north of Bracebridge, but this was not the end of her teaching career. She became a teacher at the Chippewa First Nation school in Rama – a progressive school for Indigenous children in a climate  of Truth and Reconciliation and all the inherent challenges. Nancy’s character and experience fitted her perfectly for this assignment. The school gratefully embraced Nancy’s contributions right up to the point of her final retirement, three years ago.

From our own experience, we all know that a brilliant teacher has an enormous influence on the path we choose to make our way through life. Nancy charted the paths of so many Canadians from various backgrounds that we now want to honour the path she blazed in the hope that it will be an inspiration to new generations of Canadian teachers. She leaves to them her legacy to continue to build and strengthen this diverse country.