Alberton Central’s first principal an educational innovator

When Alberton Central School first opened its doors in 1961, its first principal was an extraordinary women whose influence eventually would extend far beyond the little country school she administered.
Shirley Wickstrom (then Stewart) proved to be not only an able administrator, she also broke new ground in the curriculum when she developed a special program she called Family Life Education.
The program was designed to help young people come to terms with the changes in their lives as they developed physically and emotionally.
Today, such a program likely would be labelled as sex education, but Wickstrom stressed that was not its intention, nor did sex education play a major role.
“It emphasized the entire person,” she remarked. “It dealt mostly with relationships between family and friends, and how those changed as you grew up.”
However, back in the early 1960s, when it was a criminal offence for a teacher to even discuss such things as birth control in the classroom, this was “terra incognito” indeed.
And considering the strongly-held religious beliefs of many families in the district, particularly at that time, it also was risky business, but Wickstrom said she never had a problem with it because she always kept the parents informed as to exactly what she was doing.
She also always invited input and opinion.
The result was a unanimous level of support from the community.
“Not one parent withdrew their child from the program,” Wickstrom insisted. “Even the Mennonite people accepted it.”
Because of Wickstrom’s sensitivity and skill, her Family Life Education program became so successful, she eventually had to leave the school she loved to work on it full-time.
She moved to Rainy River, where she developed it, improved it, and eventually began teaching it to other teachers who, in turn, taught the course in the district schools.
Wickstrom noted the program was divided into three segments (SK-Grade 3, Grade 4-6, and Grade 7-8). The trick, she said, was to take your cues from the children—let them be your guide as to how to guide them.
“You just went to where the children took you,” she explained. “You didn’t lead them where they weren’t willing to go.”
It is that aspect she continually emphasized to the teachers she taught.
And now, two whole generations of youngsters have been helped through the often-tempestuous transition to adulthood because of the efforts of one extraordinary principal of a small country school.