"Grade two close your scribblers and open your story books. Grade three close your books, open your scribblers and pay attention to the black board”
So goes the one room rural school on the depression prairies , North Slope S.D. In south eastern Alberta In my case. Situated 1.5 miles south-east of our farm on a large wire fenced- in property. One large one room building with eight rows of desks and a pot belly stove for heat in the middle of the room. No generator for lights. Smokey oil lamps when required Two other smaller buildings nearby. The “teacherage” where the only teacher lived and a barn for older students who brought horses.
The eight rows of desks accommodated a grade or so for each grade. Grade ones were at the window side. Then two, three, four, five, and seven row by row to the other side of the room with additional black board space next to the last row. The teacher taught all grades without assistance . Instruction was the basics that farm kids would need- reading and writing and arithmetic (but no hickory stick !)
I don’t remember much science except there was a large earth globe on the teachers desk with appended wires of various lengths sticking out with the models of the sun and planets set at appropriate distances. The was a large map of the world on the back wall with the countries coloured . Canada was red corresponding to the coloration of the British empire. We had the most red so we were proud. Lots of other colours were for other countries with funny names.
Many of the kids were from immigrant families from Eastern Europe, Scandinavia etc There were a large number of Mennonites and one large Hutterite colony who kept to themselves. . They were very poor. My dad used to give them seed grain and garden produce. I remember that many of the kids had one pair of low boots for winter but went barefoot in the summer. In retrospect many of them looked undernourished. One time there was an outbreak of “ringworm” a scalp fungus and the only treatment was to shave the hair off. There was a picture of one the classes with all these bald headed kids.
The teacher Mrs T was remarkable. Middle aged, red headed, she was really good. I don’t recall a Mr. T anywhere. Sometimes she would need help chopping wood etc so the older boys would pitch in. Also the barn needed cleaning several times a year- another job for the grade seven boys. My not so glorious contribution was to offer to chop the head of one of her chickens so she could prepare it for her dinner. I had seen this done at home so I was confident. So one swift axe cop on the block and the headless chicken spouting blood headed bouncing straight for Mrs T who with a shriek hit her door on the dead run .She didn’t hold it against me but didn’t ask me to kill another chicken
There were two visitors to the school that we didn’t look forward to- the regional nurse and horror of all horrors THE INSPECTOR. The nurse gave vaccine injections such as were available then, probably diphtheria. She appeared with a black bag in which she has all her evil supplies but it was the NEEDLES that were given closest attention. They were not disposable then so she put them in a kidney basin in water and boiled them on the top of the pot belly stove. They made a clinking sound as the boiled and vibrated against the basin. Small trembling bodies white knuckled at their desks wide eyed and awaiting their fates.
The Inspectors visit was like an inquisition. He would sit at the back of the room and monitor a nervous Ms.Ts lessons. Her anxiety transposed to us kids and we were frozen in place when she asked a question . I’m sure the guy came away with the impression that she was trying to teach a school full of mute or blathering idiots
School yard games were a big part of our school life. No gyms or swimming pools etc we played soft ball but invented other ones. In the snow the fox and hare was popular. You tramped out a big circle maybe 100feet in diameter . Then you tramped separated paths into the centre which was “home”. If you were “it” then you had to chase the others on the paths or ring before they could touch home. If you tagged one they were it and you ran the paths
In the fall tumble weed races were keenly played. Russian thistle grew aggressively and profusely into a bundle of foliage several feet across . It was shallow rooted and when the prairie wind blew the root anchor would give way and the dried dense ball of seed filled foliage would roll across the open prairie spreading the seeds. Often you would see fences piled high with these bundles. So we would choose a bundle, go upwind to the far fence, line up and on signal let it go into the wind and chase it the full width of the school yard to see who could arrive first. Good exercise !!
Christmas concerts were a big event both at the school and in the local town Vauxhall. Costumes were home made and elaborate. The town band wheezed out carols and the town drunk sang lustily out of tune. The nativity scene was always a bit random and one time we misplaced baby Jesus but we always seem to get there