SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - "When I grew up in Saskatchewan, you had the choice to be either a teacher, preacher or an RCMP officer," said Les Cameron, the longtime Sir John Franklin High School teacher, as he explained his career choice.

Les Cameron teaches a student about physics at Sir John Franklin high school late last month. - Adrian Lysenko/NNSL photo

"I didn't want to be a preacher, and guns scare me."

Cameron has been teaching in Yellowknife for nearly 40 years. He moved to the NWT capital with his wife Mieke, who went on to serve as principal at Sir John for 11 years, to take teaching jobs in 1971.

"We had a friend who was teaching in Fort Smith and told us that Yellowknife was an interesting place," said Cameron. "So we talked about it and decided we would apply."

The year the couple arrived students were brought in from all over the territory for Grade 9 at Sir John's for the first time.

"It was different but we liked it."

Cameron said he and his wife were lucky to arrive when they did, because the federal government had just shifted responsibility for education to the territorial government in 1969 – and the territory had an innovative curriculum director named Paul Robinson.

The director, Cameron recalled, would say "the honeymoon for education was over."

"He thought each child's education should be a smorgasbord where each child picks what is important for them, and that might not include English," he said.

Prior to the shift, the curriculum discouraged aboriginal students from speaking or learning in their mother tongue. Once the territorial government took over, aboriginal students were permitted to learn in their first language.

At that time, aboriginal students would travel to the city from remote communities around the territory to take their high school courses. In some cases, students would be away from home for more than a year, taking up residence at Akaitcho Hall next to Sir John. It was often the students' first time away from home, and Cameron said teachers would sometimes fill the role of parent as well.

"We would introduce them to the city, teach them how to swim, how traffic lights worked and let them go for rides in the elevator at Fraser Towers."

Cameron said he is proud one of his first students was Nellie T. Kusugak, who was just appointed deputy commissioner of Nunavut.

Cameron currently teaches physics and dark room photography at Sir John.

"I love physics and I love photography," he said. "In physics I work with smart kids and in photography I work with the creative kids, so it's a nice a mix."

The teacher has no plans for retirement. He said he plans to retire at some point, "but I don't know when.

"I keep on saying when the (Deh Cho) bridge is built, but that keeps putting me off."