VERMONT-L Archives

Archiver > VERMONT > 1999-05 > 0925968852


From: "Jackie M. Botala" <>
Subject: [VERMONT-L] more old papers...
Date: Wed, 5 May 1999 22:34:12 -0700


********************************************************************
Starksboro School

My grandmother, in recalling her experiences as a teacher,
declared that no high school education or teacher's training
courses were then thought necessary for rural school teachers.
The requirements were good common sense, a healthy
body, and passing a test to be sure she could read, write
and spell to a fair extent, given by the spuerintendent, whose
education was often very limited. Above everything else, she
must be a good disciplinarian.
The teacher need not worry about hunting up room quarters
or a boarding place for those were things all figured out by
others before scholl term began.
The school where my grandmother began teaching was
located in the town of Starksboror, at the edge of Huntington
Gore or Buell's Gore as it was then called. It was a log
structure, sitting back formthe road quite a distance. The
interior was far from cheerful. The walls and ceiling were
covered with wide, rough, unpainted boards. The floor was
also of rough boards containing large knots that always got
in the way of the ungainly lads attending school.
On a teachers first day at a new school, according to my
grandmother, it was customary for the pupils to see just haw
far they could go in bad behavior and get by with it. They
called this "trying the teacher out".
One lad, the school bully, much larger than my grandmother,
began the day by chewing tobbaco an spitting on the floor.
When she asked him to go empty his mouth, he refused.
She repeated the command in a stronger tone of voice. He
told he that as long as he stayed there he would chew tobbaco
and spit anywhere he pleased.
Grandmother, very quick in her movements, sprang for-
ward. She grabbed him by the hair and pulled him out of his
seat. This took him so much by surprise that he was in the
middle of the floor before he realized what was happening.
Also amazed were the other lads and they began to cheer
mightily for the teacher and offered their assistance. She
didn't need it, for, in the scuffle, the bully caught his toe on
one of the knots in the rough floor and fell headlong. Grand-
mother leaped to his fallen body before he could get to his
feet and seizing his head, bumped it on the floor several
times.
The other pupils all sided with grandmother and ordered
the bully not to move until she gave him permission . Otherwise,
they pointed out, they would gang together against him. The
boy elected to remain on the floor.
Grandmother calmy arose to her feet and continued to carry
out the duties of the first day of school. The bully was kept on
the floor until recess time, then told he could get up if he could
be a gentleman which he decided to do. This incident gained
for grandmother the respect of all the pupils.
The school seats were long boards which were nailed to
hold them in place. Desks were built the same way, but
higher. The rear seats were reserved for the larger pupils
and the front ones made low for the little ones. Sometimes
the younger pupils fell asleep but as there was no way to get
them home, they were stretched out full length on the bench
with a coat for a pillow, and allowed to finish their nap.
The toilets were situated quite a distance from the school
house making it inconvenient in the winter, as the chilodren
had to walk through the snow sometimes knee deep.
Drinking water for the school came from a spring about a
quarter of a mile away. Two of the larger boys were usually
detailed to bring it in a large tin pail. When they reached the
school room, it was placed on a shelf. Near this hung a tin
cup from which all the children drank.
Each child was supposed to furnish his own books.
Somtimes one book had to serve four or five pupils which
made for a good deal of confusion in the process of studying.
Slate and slate pencils were used in placeof paper and pencils,
then considered to expensive. Slates were useful for note -
writing between pupils. One swish of the rag used as an
eraser, and the tell-tale note disappeared from veiw.
To heat the school room, a large stove, rectangular in
shape, stood near the front of the room. Enough stove pipe
was supplied to cross the room to a chimney at the back.
The smoke, of course, was supposed to pass through the
long pipe and so to the chimney, but often the room was
filled with smoke. This happened whenever the wind came
form a northerly direction.
On winter mornings when the children arrived at school
they would be chilled through because nearly alll came from
a long distance. They were allowed to sit or stand near the
stove to get warm, as the back part of the school room was
always chilly in winter. The odor near the stove became quite
strong as the children thawed out. Most of them came from
farm homes, where each boy had to milk, clean cow stables
and horse barns before coming to school. Very few boys
owned more than one suit of warm clothes at a time, which
had to do for work, school and church.
In addition to being able to teach, the teacher must be
handy at many things. My grandmother was called upon to
administer first aid several times. On one occasion, a boy
fell from the top board of a fence, breaking his arm. Grand-
mother strapped it to a board with strips of the klining of her
coat so as not to get the bones out of place, then sent a child
to the boy's home, a mile away, to tell the father to come with
a team and get the child to a doctor.

(to be concluded........)

This thread: