LITTLE CURRENT—Following a rewarding 33 year career as an educational assistant working with special needs students, first with the old Manitoulin School Board and then with the Rainbow District School Board, Bonnie Cook is retiring.
“At the time, when I started, they were looking for ECEs (early childhood educators),” recalled Ms. Cook. “It was pretty new for the Island and there were not too many of us.”
What followed was over three decades of a “very rewarding” career. Ms. Cook identified the most rewarding part as “seeing kids strive and thrive” even as they took baby steps forward in their educational journey. “You appreciate it a lot more when you realize how much they worked,” she said.
“I am still in contact with some of my old students,” said Ms. Cook, “and I often think about my students I have had over the years.”
Ms. Cook has seen and experienced “huge changes” in education over the course of her 33-year career. “The biggest changes are in the rules,” she said. There is a lot more paperwork involved now than when she first started out. “There are new rules and things that have been put in place.”
But the biggest positive change is in how so many students who, in the past, were not able to come to school are now able to engage in an educational course of study.
Ms. Cook was present when the former Flower of Hope program closed in Gore Bay and the students came to Little Current. “There was a name change, now it is ISP, Intensive Support Program,” she said, going on to explain that ISP involves support communities for exceptional (special needs) students who have similar behavioural, communication, intellectual or physical needs.
As word spread that Ms. Cook was going to be retiring at the end of this school year, each and every class at Little Current Public School where she worked came to her class to wish her well.
While her occupation has its challenges at times, Ms. Cook noted that being able to work with her students has been tremendously rewarding and said that she would recommend that any student looking for a career wherein they can make a real difference in people’s lives investigate following in her footsteps.
“It has been a real honour working the children and their families,” she said. “And the laughs you have, oh my gosh! They are so much fun to work with. I can’t believe that 33 years have gone by. When I started out, I never believed that I would be doing the same job.”
Ms. Cook is looking forward to being able to go and visit her son in British Columbia, now that she has retired. Her son and his wife are also a teachers. “We both work the same times, so when he was off he would come home to visit,” she said. “Now I can go and visit him.”
Ms. Cook may be retired, but she has no intention of completely stopping work. “I will be supply teaching,” she said. “I will fill in the odd day as an educational assistant.”
Finally, Ms. Cook notes that she hopes “to spend more time with my three grandkids in my retirement. They live in Southern Ontario, so I hope to see them more.”
