EDUCATION OF A PRAIRIE BOY PART 5

      I will put years 3,4 and 5 together simply because I had the same teacher for those years. 

     First to cover something I should have mentioned in a previous post. When I started grade one in 1945 there was one other student in grade one with me. At the end of Grade 3 she went to another school so I was the only one in the grade. So I was top in my class from gr 4 to 9. Ha! Ha!

    Now the teacher I had for these three grades had almost ten years experience. She obviously liked teaching and she was good at it. In fact, she was a way ahead of her time when it came to teaching strategy. She had field trips. Who else had field trips at that time. We would take our lunch and spend the whole day wondering through the nearby trees, fields, grasslands and wetlands. We had our lunch out in the field which was cool. We each came back with a collection. The collection might include, leaves branches, flowers and insects. The next few days at school we did many different things with our collections. We traced and did art projects. In science we learned the names of some of the things we brought back. We also had to write or draw about our observations.

    This teacher was also exceptional at music. We did much singing and had a few rhythm bands. We also all bought small coping saws and made fancy designs in wood which we would paint and take home to our Moms. My Mom still had one of mine when she died.

    We also went to other schools to play ball. We also had some picnics. 

    In these schools we all ate lunch in the classroom including the teacher. This teacher had her own little house on the school yard and she would go to her house to have lunch and leave us to eat our lunch in the classroom. Well, one day some little guy threw a chalk brush and instantly bedlam broke out. Chalk brushes flew. Many hit the walls so there were chalk brush marks all over the room. Dust? Lots of chalk dust.  We were so involved in this activity that we forgot all about the teacher. She came in the room and stood for a minute before we knew she was there. She had ample time to see who the culprits were. To say the least she was upset and we got the strap.

    Lunch was an important part of a one room school day. Most of the time we ate in the classroom. But if it was nice we ate outside. Kids would pick a favorite place to eat with their friends. Sometimes it was in the shelter of deep grass. sometimes it was in a sunny location. I remember one of these lunches eating the biggest juiciest pear ever. We traded lunch all the time.

    We always had to say grace before we ate. The grace we said or sung depended on the teacher we had. So sometimes it was "Come Lord Jesus be our guest" Sometimes it was "God is good. God is great." And sometimes we sang "Be present at our table Lord."

    I didn't take a horse to school but some kids did. That meant that they had to feed their horse at noon.

   This teacher was on the go all the time . Lessons were taught even though they were brief. 

   I was on my own for gr 4 and 5. I liked being told what to do and then go and do it. I liked to be by myself. If I finished my work I could read. 

    This teacher made sure that pictures were taken and that she got copies for each of us. Somehow she found a commercial photography who would take a school picture. No other school had this. So this photo was done by a special photographer.

    You've seen these photos on another post.