Over my life I have had many experiences and adventures.
I was a teacher for a while...37 years. Teaching was a challenge but a very satisfying experience.
I entered teacher's college before my 18th birthday. This was a one year course that did a pretty good job of preparing people to teach.
I got a job in a one room country school. I started teaching before my 19th birthday. Most people would look at 19 year olds as if they were a joke in a classroom. 19 year olds would not be hired today.
I had nine students. The school building was old and in very poor condition. It was built using green lumber which shrunk so there were many cracks in the walls.. You could see daylight out of the northeast corner. There was no insulation. It was heated by a heater not a furnace. Sometimes we would sit around the heater to keep warm. Most mornings we sat around the heater until the building warmed up.
I liked working with those nine kids. I particularly liked the grade ones. It was most satisfying to see how much they had learned in one year.
I enjoyed this year. The parents were most supportive. It was at a time when the rural population was in decline. Schools with this level of enrolment should have been closed but, school divisions could not purchase buses and there wasn't equipment to clean snow off the roads.
I taught one year and resigned. The district wanted me to stay. They had a series of poor teachers before me so wanted me to stay.
The next year the school was closed and the students bused to town.
