INSIDE DOUGLAS COLLEGE / AUGUST 7, 1990

 

 

Thomas Haney Centre to open September, 1992

icture this — it’s September,

1992, and you are walking

into the newly completed
$27 million Thomas Haney Centre.

The outside entrance to the
spectacular two-storey structure is
surrounded by a large reflecting
pool and waterfall, and as you
step inside the building, you gaze
through a two-storey glass rotun-
da overlooking a park-like ravine.

Immediately, you sense that
the Thomas Haney Centre isn’t a
typical educational institution. It’s
a unique facility that combines ele-
ments of a high school and com-
munity college under one roof.

"It will be the first institution
of its kind in B.C.," says Dave
Estergaard, principal/director of
the Thomas Haney Centre. "The
high school component will be one
of the most challenging high
schools in B.C. It will be tech-
nologically advanced through the
use of labs and computers."

The Thomas Haney Centre
will offer high school students
more than a high-tech learning en-
vironment. It’s a facility where stu-
dents will be encouraged to learn
at their own pace.

"New curriculum is being
developed to meet with the
guidelines in the provincial
government’s Year 2000 report,”
says Estergaard. "The curriculum
will be reshaped in the way it’s
delivered to allow students to
move ahead at their own pace.
They will be self-paced. Students
will progress when they’ve
learned the content, not because
time dictates that they’re supposed
to move on."

Teachers at Thomas Haney
will act more like tutors who work
with individual students and
small groups. "They won’t be lec-
turing in front of a class," says
Estergaard.

A satellite campus of Douglas
College located on the same site
will encourage high school stu-
dents to pursue post-secondary

education. The joint-use facility
will also make it easier for adults
to "return to learning.”

Architects Peter Rayher and
Wayne Werbovetski say the design

continued on page 4

 

Pioneers, continued from page 2

several PNE prize-winning teams and spending summers showing
horses all over British Columbia. Blishen has also shown hogs and
cattle but now, he laughs, "We’re resting on our laurels and cooling it.
But I still break my own horses and I can still do a good day’s work."
Hampton’s family arrived in the Maple Ridge area much earlier,
in 1879. He’s a dairy farmer with about 130 cattle on 75 acres, but he
also loves to raise and show horses. He plows his fields using Bel-
gians, although not necessarily because he eschews modern farming

 

 

 

 

 

 

Douglas College President Bill Day, Principal Director of Thomas Haney
Centre Dave Estergaard and Mayor Bill Hartley guide the plow as Charles
Blishen leads the horses.

machinery. "Pulling the plow teaches them how to work," he says
quietly. "Horses don’t learn to work overnight."

Hampton, who is 58, feels that the traditional farming methods
can be preserved, however. "Somebody’s got to keep them going,"
he says.

Both Blishen and Hampton are looking forward to the comple-
tion of the Thomas Haney Centre. "We need the facility," says
Blishen. "Douglas College has a good reputation, and I’m glad
they’re expanding here. Let’s have something we can be proud of." Ml

 

 

 

dk