By Ron Realesmith, opinion for The Sarnia Journal

(2016) I was walking into a local coffee shop the other day when I saw my old grade 7/8 history teacher, John Lawton.  I have kept in touch with John over the years as he was one of my favorite teachers.  We engaged in our regular banter about who is up to what and which former student is married or pregnant.  He congratulated me on my involvement with the Sarnia Historical Society as he has been following along with its progress.  He told me to get in touch with two of his former students Glen C. Phillips and John Rochon.  I was impressed that Mr. Lawton had taught them as they are very well known in the local historical community.

Glen C. Phillips is a Sarnia author who has covered much of our history in his books.  If you haven’t read them I suggest you do as they are filled with historical gems about Sarnia.

John Rochon is a well-known Sarnian for those who are fond of Sarnia History.  John has a vast collection of photos and records of the city and his personal knowledge about Sarnia is second to none.

I thought it interesting Phillips, Rochon and myself all had Mr. Lawton in common.  I decided to reach out to them and ask what impact Mr. Lawton had on them and their love of history.

Glen C. Phillips

What year did Mr. Lawton teach you? What grade and which school?

1979-80 – Grade 7, Hanna Memorial 1980-81 – Grade 8, Hanna Memorial

What do you remember most from his History class?

He instilled in me a love for history as a human story – one of emotion, belief, ambition, majesty and even sorrow – and not just names and dates. I vividly remember him asking us to put ourselves in Tecumseh’s shoes and then having us explain why the First Nations’ leader made the choices he did. John Lawton’s nurturing of my historical imagination in this manner resonated with me because it connected me emotionally and intellectually with the past. This is important since history is about understanding people. I’ve carried that insight ever since.

What do you remember most about John Lawton and do you feel having the exposure to local history at such a young age impacted your love for history as an adult??

I have so many memories of John. Perhaps the most memorable is that John was wasn’t afraid to teach and coach in ways that got the job done, regardless of what the conventions were at the time. Years after being in his classroom, I bumped into him at Lambton Mall and he told me that he wasn’t afraid of the “curriculum police.” As a teacher myself, I know what he meant by this, and it’s paradoxically the most professional of statements and pedagogical thinking. John was about exciting young minds and getting kids of all learning abilities to understand bigger pictures, no matter the subject under study. Sometimes to accomplish this, a teacher must put aside the cumbersome slates that are curricular programs of study – the distracting minutia of seemingly endless facts and topical details – and focus on the grand themes. This prepares young people to deal with the world on their own terms better than any other teaching method. This is what John did best, not just in History Class, but in Math, Science and so on. I am grateful to have had him as a teacher for this and find my own teaching practice inspired by his example.

Anything else to share?

In the 1970s and 1980s, schoolyard fights were, unfortunately, more common than today. As a student of his, I once noticed that John didn’t immediately break up fights. However, I must emphasize that he did not ever let them continue very long, either. Rather, John had a sense of purposeful timing and intervened just after each fighter had peacocked a bit and each boy had gotten in one precursory shove. I asked him near the end of Grade 8 about this. His answer made sense, given that it was based on what I still think is a profound insight into the mind of the early adolescent boy. John explained that his timing of intervention was designed to allow each contestant to feel that he had defended his pubescent honour and yet had received a sufficient giveback from his opponent that a seed of doubt was planted. This gave each boy something to think about once back in the classroom. The thinking went as follows: I got a shot in, so I won, but so did the other guy, so I’m not sure I would have won had things escalated, and besides, I don’t want to get into any more trouble. Each boy would eventually conclude that continuing the fight after school was aimless. And not continuing after school was the key. As John pointed out to me, that’s when no teacher would be around to supervise, and that’s when fights were most likely to heat up to the degree that they became dangerously one-sided. I know this worked because I went through it, as did all my friends at Hanna when we got into tussles.

John Rochon

What year did Mr. Lawton teach you? What grade and which school?

If memory serves, I had the great fortune to have Mr. Lawton as my Grade 8 teacher at Hanna Memorial in either 75-76 or 76-77.

What do you remember most from his History class and do you feel having the exposure to local history at such a young age impacted your love for history as an adult?

 

Up to that time, I struggled very hard in school, and was labeled as slow.  By Grade 8 I was believing everything people said about me and I had no sense of what I was capable of.  I thought I’d never amount to anything.  I had no self-confidence and hated participating in class, and due to some previous experiences, I was fearful of teachers.

 

Mr. Lawton was a young man of probably 29-30 at the time and he was his same energetic and enthusiastic self.  He made everything vivid and interesting.  One day while I was out playing on a vacant lot off Blanche Lane, I found an old Canadian penny from the 1915.  I was fascinated by the look of it and how it was larger than a quarter.  I mentioned it to Mr. Lawton and he showed me a coin collectors catalogue, showing all the coinage of Canada through the years and their current values.  The catalogue was about ten years out of date, and he gave it to me.

 

I was hooked.  I had to learn everything I could on the different monarchs whose heads appeared on our coinage.  I began to look forward to class and I think I raised my hand for the first time to answer a question in Mr. Lawton’s class.  He took a real interest in us and did whatever was needed to help us achieve.  I was beginning to discover local history through walks with my mother, who would point out different buildings and tell me who had lived there or what business had been there when she was a little girl.  Mr. Lawton helped me build on this, to really look at the buildings and want to know their history.  This started me going to the library and searching through the old newspapers for information, which eventually led to me being hired at the library in 1986.

 

I began reading more and later started taking my own photos of our historic buildings.  I would never have started into any of this if it hadn’t been for the kindness and understanding and caring of Mr. Lawton.  I am eternally grateful to him for this gift of curiosity and sense of being able to explore and wonder.  When I graduated to secondary school, I had a confidence I never had before, and went on to earn awards.  In the past, I had just been passed on.

 

I think every child is enriched when he or she is introduced to their local history and it can open the doors to so many more interests.  The great thing about it is that everything has a history, be it cars, fashion, architecture, writing, space travel, coin collecting.

Anything else to share?

After all these years, I still have that penny and I still have the catalogue.  There is one thing I wish I had learned from Mr. Lawton, and that is how to dance.  He can sure cut a rug!

Ron RealeSmith

What year did Mr. Lawton teach you? What grade and which school?

1997-1999, Grade 7&8 and Queen Elizabeth II

What do you remember most from his History class?

I remember a bus trip Mr. Lawton took the class on that showcased our local history.  We went to the grave of Alexander McKenzie (who I did not know was buried in Sarnia) and we went to Mackenzie’s house located on Christina Street.  Mr. Lawton knew the owner and he allowed us in to look around.  All the kids shuffled up onto the second floor where Mr. Lawton pointed out a window pane that had a signature inscribed on it from Mackenzie himself.  Thinking back, I don’t know if that was true but as a 12 year old I was certainly impressed.

What do you remember most about John Lawton and do you feel having the exposure to local history at such a young age impacted your love for history as an adult?

Mr. Lawton was not a conventional teacher and I think that is why he had so many students request him specifically.  Every Friday morning was Jeopardy where students would compete against each other and answer questions about what we learned from earlier in the week.  The victorious students would receive the prize of Tim Hortons donuts!

Mr. Lawton taught in such a way that drew you in.  You couldn’t help but learn.  Some days we would go outside and sit under a tree, he would play music when students worked on assignments (Don McLean – American Pie) and he incorporated games into learning.

Two things he did that stuck out to me.  Whenever there was a historical event of significance, he would take the paper that covered the event, place it in a plastic bag and throw it into the storage closet located in the classroom.  I am certain they are still there today.

The other was a time capsule.  Q.E.II has one and Mr. Lawton was responsible for it.  We planted it on earth day.

At the time I don’t think I appreciated his teaching style.  He approached teaching so differently that you just took it for granted and thought it was the norm.  Now as an adult I recall the historical stories that he shared and they are as fascinating now as they were when I first heard them.

Anything else to share?

Mr. Lawton loved sports and made himself available to coach, open the gym or supervise.  Every recess he would bring a high jump mat or soccer balls, basketballs, baseballs, etc. and would organize pickup games.  Everyone either played or was a spectator.