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A Chronological Glimpse
The Ursulines
The Growth of Glengarda
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Photo Album 1919-1997
The Windsor Star
November 17, 1951
by Angus Munro
"Glengarda is one of the very few schools of its kind in Canada. There are only two others which do exactly the same type of work."
Glengarda, where prayers and patience, perseverance and practice, dispel much of the gloom that would otherwise overshadow young lives, is among Windsor's least known, yet most widely-appreciated assets.
The beautiful school on the riverfront, near the city's eastern limits, cares for exceptional boys and girls whose disabilities do not permit attendance at regular school classes. They come from all parts of Canada and the United States. The waiting list carries names of applicants from Newfoundland to British Columbia. Glengarda always has a "full house."
Ursulines in charge
Next to the students, Glengarda's most important residents are its teachers-Sisters of the Ursuline Order. These devoted women are more than mere teachers. They are spiritual mentors as well as academic instructresses. Their students are in their special care 24 hours a day. Each staff member at Glengarda is personally responsible for her group, consisting maybe of eight to 10 boys or girls.
Here, in the beautifully landscaped surroundings of the 600-feet of river frontage-donated back in 1919 to the Ursulines by a wealthy Detroit woman, Josephine Gaukler, mother of the then Superior General of the order, Mother M. Clare-the students make their home away from home. Their abnormalities, nowhere serious, are never forgotten or underestimated, but they are mitigated by the surroundings and the spiritual atmosphere of the school.
Here, the simple feats of academic skill become heroic performances. Simple addition, the drawing of a letter, the completion of a sentence, the most ordinary of spoken words, all are achievements of great moment for some of these students. Each is a separate personality, much more so than in the classes of the public schools most children attend.
Building program
Their ages range from 6 to 12 for boys and from 6 to 18 for girls. Lack of adequate facilities does not permit keeping students after these age limits as problems arise in the adolescent years that would require much more space and equipment than is now possible. Yet Glengarda always is looking forward. At present a building program is well advanced on a new residence for boys. It is expected to be opened soon after the first of the year. Adjustments made possible by these new quarters will permit the school to add another 20 students to its present 41.
Some remarkable discoveries have been confirmed at Glengarda. Bereft of many of the facilities that go to make up the normal school child, these youngsters acquire other degrees of competence and other capacities that enrich their lives. For example, they are deeply sensitive to music in all its forms. It is not unusual for the youngsters to know every bird call among the numerous songsters of the feathered world inhabiting the grounds of the school. Their principal and director of Glengarda, Mother St. George, admits their swift adaptation to musical presentations. It is a language that has an especially strong appeal to their senses.
The students at Glengarda are deeply affectionate. They respond to the slightest attention and welcome their instruction sessions, eagerly looking forward to the next one. The attempt is made throughout all their training to keep their routine as much as possible as it would be in a home atmosphere. Because each child is on a different level intellectually, the job of training them, even in small groups, presents understandable difficulties. But patience usually wins. Rarely is a student found unresponsive to the approaches made by the skilled sisters.
Stay three years
Average term of residence of the present student body is from seven to eight years. One student has been in residence nine years. Because of its uncertainties, no standard of graduation is set. There are no formal diplomas or graduation certificates given out at Glengarda, but there are many memorable marks made in progressing toward an education.
"We try to give them everything they are capable of assimilating," Mother St. George explains. "And they are made to feel that this is their home."
A routine day is very much as it would be for children going to other schools insofar as time schedules are concerned. School classes are from nine until four, with 30-minute recess periods morning and afternoon. Most youngsters are able to enjoy fully the recreational privileges of the school and do so with enthusiasm. Following supper at 5:30, there is a brief period for extra-curricular activities such as films or music. Then everyone is in bed by 8:30. There are Sunday services for all and the school is non-sectarian.
Present enrollment includes students from Ontario, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and is made up of 14 boys and 27 girls. Glengarda is one of the very few schools of its kind in Canada. There are only two others which do exactly the same type of work. Glengarda receives no government grants. Fees from the students and private support so far have been able to keep it operating. The present building campaign is the first public appeal ever made. An active Glengarda Guild, comprising interested public-spirited women of the community, ministers to many of the school's current needs.
Windsor Star
Oct 15 1977
by Kevin McIntosh
We have to get them to believe in themselves.Glengarda School for Exceptional Children, on Riverside Drive East, is not what it appears to be.
On the surface, it seems a fairly simple task to fit the school into a neat category, complete with all the proper headings.
However, it soon becomes apparent that trying to categorize Glengarda is a little like trying to stuff two pounds of whipped cream into a one-pound bag--there's just too much. Glengarda is officially described as a residential and day school for multiple-handicapped children, including slow learners, educable retarded, and children with learning disabilities and mild emotional disturbances.
The residential portion of the school, which now houses 38 students, receives financial support from the Ministry of Community and Social Services. The day school program, with an enrolment of 25, was shifted under the wing of the Ministry of Education before school resumed in September. Technically, it is now part of the Windsor Separate School system.
That covers the facts, figures, and the bureaucratic divisions--the vital statistics--but it says nothing about the personality of this elegant old place, built in 1938-39 by the Ursuline Sisters.
What Glengarda is, above all, is a place for people.
It's a place where every child in a class scrambles to his feet when you walk into the room--and they all want to shake hands when you're introduced.
It's a place where the students are extraordinarily polite when they ask if they may leave a conversation to return to their work.
It's a place of infinite patience because it takes these students a little longer to grasp simple facts.
It's also a place where the school's principal and executive director, Sister Mary Hogan, knows every student by name and remembers the intimate little bits of trivia about each one that make their faces light up with joy.
And it's a place that makes Sister Mary's face light up with love whenever she talks about it, which is most of the time. Sister Mary has been principal here for 10 years and she was a teacher here for several years before that.
"We don't like to be called an institution," she says. "We consider ourselves more a community...a family."
"And one thing we don't want to do is get any bigger. These kids need a lot of one-to-one counseling."
Most of "these kids" have been referred to Glengarda by regional children's centres. They all come from Ontario, one from as far away as Kapuskasing.
That, Sister Mary points out, is a departure from the school's earlier days when many children from Detroit attended the school, earning it an unwanted reputation as a rather exclusive private school.
"That is definitely not the case any more," she insists. "We've changed our focus in the last decade. We now admit anyone we feel needs our services."
There is no cost to families enrolling a child in the day school, she says, because the Ministry of Education provides full grants. She also points out that these grants come under a special category and are not part of the taxes paid by local ratepayers.
The Ministry of Community and Social Services subsidizes 80 per cent of the cost for resident students.
The remaining 20 per cent is supposed to be paid by families, Sister Mary says, "but scales are worked out to help those who can't afford to pay that much."
The school runs bingo's and other fund-raising events to help meet the costs.
"We never refuse a family if we feel they can benefit from the program, regardless of their ability to pay."
Children can start at Glengarda when they are five years old. Boys can stay until they are 16 and girls until they are 18.
Sister Mary says they get more boys at five or six but it is often not until a girl is 12 or 13 that she will be referred to the school.
"Girls seem to be more subdued," she says. "Their problems might not be so evident until they are older, but by then, their problems have become more severe."
Glengarda has entered into a unique relationship with the Windsor Separate School Board this year. It's almost an open marriage type of arrangement.
Don Diubaldo, a Separate School Board superintendent now responsible for Glengarda, says the board is acting more or less as an agent of the Ministry of Education in this case.
"We are supplying the educational package there, but Glengarda is still...Glengarda," Diubaldo says.
"The school still has to observe the philosophy of the ministry's guidelines but they are free to adapt them to their special needs," he says.