Leslie Dickson always knew she would be a teacher.
It was in the family: Her dad was a teacher, then principal, then assistant superintendent. It was inevitable she would follow in his footsteps.
“I remember in kindergarten lining all my stuffies up and teaching them,” Dickson, 60, said.
That early experience led her to a 38-year teaching career that began in Abbotsford in 1984 and ended this week at Horse Lake Elementary. The Grade 1 teacher acknowledges leaving the classroom won’t be easy.
“It’s literally my passion so I will miss the children first and foremost,” Dickson said.
“The parents, my staff, my colleagues. All the excitement, the hugs, the affirmations every single day - they tell me every single day how much they love me.”
Dickson spent nine years teaching in Abbotsford before she and her husband moved to the Cariboo. She taught at 70 Mile Elementary for nine years before that school closed and she was then bumped to various schools in the district.
She has held two positions at Horse Lake Elementary, where she spent the past 10 years.
“This is my final school,” she said. “It’s an amazing school.”
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Most of her years in the classroom were spent teaching split classes. It was challenging to meet the curriculum, Dickson said, “but you can overlap on a lot and the older ones are such good buddies for the little ones.”
When she was put into a Grade 1 class, she missed having the different grades together. But the six-year-olds became her favourite ones to teach, she said.
This is because they come in on the first day a little afraid and barely able to print their name, and by the end of the year, “they’re reading, writing, doing double-digit math, counting money - it’s amazing.
“It’s pure magic what happens in a room,” Dickson said. “That’s what I think. You can close your door and magic happens. Every moment is so heartwarming and memorable and life-changing.”
Dickson said she decided to retire early following the summer wildfires, which had surrounded their ranch at 83 Mile, and took a toll on her, both physically and emotionally. She and the family spent months working to ensure the wildfires didn’t destroy their ranch.
“We fought it literally all summer. There was no rest,” she said.
Dickson didn’t want to leave the school, saying she needed to be there for her students. But during spring break this year, she realized she was also needed at home. Her husband has been working solo on their ranch, running 200 head of cattle. She also has a new grandson, who was born in September, and she wants to spend more time with him.
“That really pushed me. I really want to be there for him,” Dickson said. “My priorities changed. So much of me is here and now I need to spend more time with my grandson, and family, cows…”
She acknowledges her retirement is bittersweet.
“My brain knows it is time, I’m needed in other places in my life,” she said. “My brain knows that but my heart is so with the kids. I can hardly talk about it.
“It’s been a lifetime of love and pure joy.”
fiona.grisswell@100milefreepress.net
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