MONTREAL -- One student at Rosemount Technology Centre really stands out.
He's at the head of the current class, but that isn't it. He also signs up for course after course, never moving on from Rosemount -- but that isn't exactly it either.
Gaby Santile is 50 years older than most of classmates. Growing up in Italy, the 73-year-old didn't like school much, including math, because "I didn't like the teacher," he said.
After moving to Canada in 1966, he learned electronics and worked in the field until he retired in 2013.
But retirement was a little too quiet for him, he said.
"Staying at home and doing nothing, it was just …I couldn’t take it," he said.
Then he learned about Rosemount. The first course he signed up for was cabinetmaking. Then furniture finishing, then digital graphics technology, and now electromechanics.
Next will be cooking, he said. Then history.
Why, exactly?
"It’s beautiful to me," he said. "I’m enjoying it very much."
He just loves to learn new things, he explained.
"I’m trying to keep this guy up here alive and well," he said, pointing to his head.
Rosemount takes students age 16 and up. At first, the teachers thought it was odd to see Santile -- they even mistook him for a teacher himself.
But now, they say, they see how much his love of learning motivates the younger students.
"It actually facilitates the teacher’s job, because they’ll go to Gaby first before going to the teacher," said Real Heppelle, the vice-principal.
Santile said there's nothing remarkable, to him, but he wants to tell others that no matter your age, you can always learn.
It's "in my nature, it’s always about the urge I have to learn new things," he said.
"If this type of courses are available to you and you can do it, why not do it?"
