Remembering elementary school teachers (two schools)

 I tossed all my blogging notebooks several weeks ago as part of my Lenten house cleaning.  That's where I kept my notes while reading the Wall St. Journal and the Columbus Dispatch back in the day when I still went out for coffee every morning.   I pulled out one sheet that had information for 2005 and 2006.  It was about i-pad ear, and apparently younger and younger patients with hearing loss are turning up at doctors' offices, according to WSJ 1-10-06.  It seems there were 38 million MP3 players shipped in 2005.  However, when I turned over the sheet, I had started a list of all the teachers I could remember.  I checked my blog, and it seems I never finished what I'd started. I think I was doing a Thursday 13. So, let's try that:

Miss Marguerite Flora, First grade, she lived across the street from us with her parents. I wrote a blog about her when she died at 99. Collecting My Thoughts

Mrs. Greta (?) Huntley, Second grade.  She attended the same Lutheran church we did. I visited the church sometime in the 80s and she remembered me 40 years later.

Miss DeWall, Third grade (my favorite teacher of all times) As I recall, she died rather young, when I was in college.

Mrs. Hiteman, Fourth grade, very young, newly married.

Miss Michael, Fifth and sixth grade, she also had taught my father in Polo, Illinois. She lived with her sister about a block from our house.

Miss Jennie DeGraff, principal, and she apparently knew my grandmother because she was in her address book

Mr. John I. Masterson, superintendent, JoElla's father.  In retirement he was the pastor at Pinecrest, and lived in Mt. Morris.

Mrs. Beth Amsrud, music; she was like a circuit rider and taught in Forreston, Mt. Morris, Oregon, plus the country schools.  Used to put on charming musicals--great fun.

Our family moved from Forreston to Mt. Morris in March 1951.

Mrs. Beth or Betsy (?) Withers, sixth grade. I have her in a class photo MMHS1957: The old elementary school

Mr. Ray Appler, nor sure where he fit in--perhaps came in to teach math. Later Supt. of Schools Ogle Co., WWII veteran, Marines.  Photo at our 50th class reunion along with Katie Dirksen and Warren Reckmeyer.

Mr. David Rahn.  He taught the other 7th grade students, but our class had him, too.

Mrs. Verna Westfall, 7th grade. Class photo. MMHS1957: Mrs. Westfall's 7-A class 1952

Mrs. Mamie Knodle, 8th grade home economics.

Mrs. Rosella Opsand (Warren) Burstrom, 8th grade.  She also directed class plays when we were in high school, and Warren was our physics and chemistry teacher. Died young (1981). 

That's 15, but if I left out the two principals, I'd have a Thursday 13.

Blast from the past--the fifties

Carol Samsel Hayes sent me a scan of what looks like some old photos of me in elementary school, and my high school freshman class photo. Carol is a cousin by marriage of my cousin and reader of my blog, Gayle. As I recall, we spent a lot of time together summer of 1953 playing cards and going to the pool and getting together with Doree.  Then Carol's family moved--maybe around 1954 to the Chicago area.  We reconnected about 10 years ago on the internet.

I remember that pale pink (lower left) coat with a little black velvet trim on the collar--was considered very stylish then.  I think I'm wearing a tan denim skirt I made for 4-H and "bucks" shoes--mine were a rust color (middle top), and I seem to have Steve Brinker in a head hold and am wearing jeans, so it must have not been a school day since we didn't wear jeans to school in those days.  You can see the old elementary school building which was torn down years ago. It must have been before school in the morning because of the shadows. Then there's a group photo of 7th and 8th grade girls, with Carol and Doree among them.

How safe are our schools?

Highlights on school crime.  https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2018/2018036.pdf   It's decreased in this century, but would you know from the news? Reported hate-words have decreased. Would you know that from memes and posts on social media? Also, crimes among juveniles, girls and boys, have decreased 65% since 1996, and arrests significantly from 2006-2015.

• Based on the 2017 National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), students ages 12 to 18 experienced 827,000 total victimizations (i.e., theft and nonfatal violent victimization) at school and 503,800 total victimizations away from school.
• From 2000 to 2017, there were 153 casualties (67 killed and 86 wounded) in active shooter incidents at elementary and secondary schools and 143 casualties (70 killed and 73 wounded) in active shooter incidents at postsecondary institutions.
• In 2017, about 6% of students ages 12 to 18 reported being called hate-related words at school during the school year, representing a decrease from 12% in 2001. This percentage also decreased between 2001 and 2017 for male and female students as well as for white, black, and Hispanic students.
• Between 2001 and 2017, the percentage of students ages 12 to 18 who reported that gangs were present at their school during the school year decreased overall (from 20% to 9%), as well as for students from urban areas (from 29% to 11%), suburban areas (from 18% to 8%), and rural areas (from 13% to 7%).
• During the 2015-16 school year, 47% of schools reported one or more crime incidents to police. The percentage of public schools reporting incidents to police was LOWER in 2015-16 than in every prior survey year.

The 100th day

At this private Christian school in Indianapolis the children (I think it’s first grade) celebrate their 100th day by decorating t-shirts.  And they are all ours!  These beautiful dumplings are the grandchildren of our niece Joanie who teaches at the school.  That makes them our great grand nieces and nephews—or whatever you call the great grandchildren of your sister in law. Halli, Kalli, Jaxson and Anthony.

Designing failure

"If we were to chuck every single educational “innovation” visited upon us by political hucksters in the last eighty years, and simply teach what was then considered the norm for a person with a half-decent background in arts and letters, and call it “classical,” we would at once stanch the bleed from our enrollments and give our young people a standard deviation or two over their schooled counterparts." Anthony Esolen

I wasn't in school 80 years ago, but I was in first grade 70 years ago (first grade and sixth grade in both Forreston and Mt. Morris due to family moves), so what would I bring back?

• Bible reading and prayer to start the day, and as children learned to read, they did it. I think we said the Pledge to the flag. No one was converted if their family already didn't attend church, but it did set the tone. Each child had a New Testament in the desk provided by the Gideons. Today police would be called if they tried that, even though under the first amendment it's still legal.
• Money collected for savings bonds and we each had our own book (this extended well beyond WWII).  The stamps were 10 cents.  Not sure what poor children did. Very early we learned to watch our "savings" grow with pretty stamps. Today it would be considered discriminatory against immigrants or bad form to be patriotic.
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• Phonics, reading aloud, diagramming sentences to understand grammar and spelling bees. I really didn't enjoy being in front of the class, but I did learn from this to face my fears.
• Recess and physical education through all grades. We were a hot, sweaty mess.  Probably less hyperactivity in those days.
• School assemblies where we would gather for a lyceum event (speakers,magicians, inspirational, music, drama). The blind pianist was a favorite, I remember.
• School wide musicals. Classroom art instruction although we didn't have art teachers and the music teacher served several rural schools.
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• Story time by teacher and resting after recess (for younger children)--I remember this through 4th grade. Loved those stories. My first exposure to The Wizard of Oz.
• In room parties when moms brought cookies and we occasionally saw a movie. Halloween, Valentines and Christmas parties.  Principal read the Luke version of infancy story to the whole school.
• In the 2 elementary schools I attended, there were no cafeterias--I either walked home for lunch or brought a packed lunch which no one inspected for the USDA approval. If we had allergic kids, I didn't know about it.
• School wide vaccination programs--if there were religious exceptions, I wasn't aware of them. Small pox in kindergarten and polio in 7th grade.
• Math instruction even someone like me could understand.
• Geography and history, beginning with the world in the lower grades, then the nation, then the state and county.

There were other things that I hated then, and would hate now.  

• Team or group projects where my grade depended on the slowest and most irresponsible person in the group. I was a good student, and hated this.
• State testing--we didn't do as much then as they do now, but I hated it. Usually lasted a day. I was never a good test taker and it caused a lot of anxiety.
• No special instruction for slow students.  They just dropped out after a few years to work the farm with dad, or were passed along and aged out at 16 in 7th or 8th grade. 
• Grading each others work.  This was demeaning for both good and poor students.  I would sometimes "cheat" for the other guy, even if I wouldn't do it on my own, just so he could pass.
• Weighing in front of class (I think our height and weight was recorded on our report cards). 
• Mean teachers who bullied students. Yes, it happened then and probably happens now. I never experienced this because I was an excellent student and didn't cause trouble.