Two-Room School

[pesoto74]

Until fifth grade I attended a two room Catholic school in the country.  Grades 1-4 were in one room and grades 5-8 were in another. Each room was taught by a nun.  From what I remember the sister took turns teaching each subject to each grade.  While the other grades were being taught we were supposed to study.  Since I didn't like to study I usually occupied myself by drawing pictures or doing things like shooting paperwads.  I think I had a consistent record of getting an unsatisfactory for conduct. 

We went to mass every morning before school. I remember that we used to eat breakfast at school.  The reason for that is because in those days you had to fast I think for three hours before receiving communion.  So there wasn't anyway to eat before school if you wanted to get communion.  And pretty much you had to receive communion unless you were in a state of mortal sin.  So unless you wanted everyone to think you had committed some mortal sin you took communion.  Later they changed the fasting requirements so that you had time to eat breakfast at home if you got up early enough. 

I remember that when I was first in school we still used inkwells that you dipped a pen into.  Later we went to using pens with ink cartridges.  The nuns had something against ballpoint pens.  One good thing about this is that the empty ink cartridges made good paperwad shooters.  You could put a spring from one of the forbidden ballpoint pens on the cartridge and hold it back with a thumbtack.  Anyway I never did get to be very good at penmanship.  I must have known that one day I would do all my writting on a keyboard.  I know that my hand has pretty much lost the ability to write for any length of time.  The last time that I tried to write a letter my hand started cramping at less then a page.

Well, I think this is enough talk about the school house for now.

[Oops Did I Do That]

That is interesting,I have often wondered whom on this forum had attended a one or two room old style school.Does anyone recall being old enough to remember when Drs made house calls?

[Guardian Angel]

Yes, I do........ In fact, I was born at home.    That was in 1938, and not everyone went to the hospital to have their baby.  My Aunt, who was 15 at the time, told me she was in the kitchen doing her homework while the doctor was in the bedroom delivering me.

I can remember Dr. Megan Tanner making many a house call to see Butterfly, Spiritman and our brother Steve.  She was a peditrician.

She came to the house to see me one day after I had fallen down the stairs and hit my tailbone on the edge of the stairs.  I couldn't walk.   I had developed an abcess.  I remember she took a syring and punctured the abcess, extracting some of the fluid.  It hurt like hell!  She told my mom she was taking me to the hospital and operating to drain the abcess.  She then proceeded to put me in the back seat of her car, drive me to the hospital and do surgery.  My mom didn't drive at the time and had little ones at home so Dr. Tanner took care of the situation.  You sure couldn't find a doctor who would do that today........

[Butterfly]

I remember being really sick once and Dr Bill (Tanner) coming to see me.  I also remember throwing up in the hallway at school and the principal coming to the house to visit me.  Which reminds me of that smelly orange stuff the janitor used to put on any "spills" to clean them up.

[Butterfly]

Until fifth grade I attended a two room Catholic school in the country.  Grades 1-4 were in one room and grades 5-8 were in another. Each room was taught by a nun.  From what I remember the sister took turns teaching each subject to each grade.  While the other grades were being taught we were supposed to study.  Since I didn't like to study I usually occupied myself by drawing pictures or doing things like shooting paperwads.  I think I had a consistent record of getting an unsatisfactory for conduct.  

You're so well behaved now......  

[pesoto74]

Maybe we could start a new topic for this like one for family doctors.  A game we played at that school was one that I have since found out was a traditional game played at county schools.  I remember that we called it "Everybody dare", however the game was traditionally called "Prisoner's base".  I don't remember a lot of the details of the game.  It seems like it was sorta like dodgeball without the ball.  Instead of trying to avoid getting hit with a ball you tried to avoid gettting tagged.

I recently saw the game being played at one of the Amish country schools down by Chester.  We were down there waiting to get some sawdust and while we were waiting I could see the kids out at recess from across the field.  It was like looking back in time and I am kinda surprised that I could still recognize the game after all these years.

[pesoto74]

Until fifth grade I attended a two room Catholic school in the country.  Grades 1-4 were in one room and grades 5-8 were in another. Each room was taught by a nun.  From what I remember the sister took turns teaching each subject to each grade.  While the other grades were being taught we were supposed to study.  Since I didn't like to study I usually occupied myself by drawing pictures or doing things like shooting paperwads.  I think I had a consistent record of getting an unsatisfactory for conduct. 

You're so well behaved now...... 

I still have the same problems with authority that one of the nuns once told me I did.  She told me that after me and another guy were out setting off firecrackers while everyone else was in mass.  And I remember that instead of feeling enlightened by her assessment of me I felt fairly proud of myself.

[pesoto74]

There were a few strange things about this school that probably only would happen in a Catholic school of that era.

One thing is that the nuns allowed no talking in the restrooms.  I guess they must have thought that they were a setting where we might be inclined to express impure thoughts.  I remember one time me and this other guy were in there and while we were washing out hands he was telling me about his dad having taken him bowling.  One of the nuns was passing by and heard us and was waiting outside to light into us when we came out.

Another funny thing about that place is that they called the restrooms lavatories.  On my first day in school there the nun said that we would be going to the lavatory at such and such a time.  I had never heard that word before and thought that she meant laboratory .  I was really disappointed to find out what the "laboratory" really was.

[Guardian Angel]

I recall some of my grade school teachers calling it the lavatory too.  Maybe that word was a sign of the times......

[pesoto74]

This school had some playground equipment that would be considered dangerous by todays standards.  One thing was a merry-go-round that we could get to going so fast that on the outside part you could hang-on with just your hands and your feet would fly in the air.  We called it flying.  One time this kid let go and hit some concrete.  He got a bad cut on his head, but otherwise he was okay, and we kept playing on that thing the same way that we always did. 

[Guardian Angel]

I remember those merry-go-rounds.  They had them at all the parks and we loved to "fly" on them.  I don't remember anyone being disabled by them.   Sometimes I think we are overly cautious now days and kids are protected from having a good time.  If you banned everything a kid could get hurt on, playgrounds would be empty.

[Butterfly]

Remember the dirt valley that was created by running around the merry-go-round trying to make it go faster?  The fact that the playgrounds were just dirt would not make it by today's standards.  I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing to be concerned about falls and having a soft place to land.

[pesoto74]

This is what the school looked like when I went there.  The windows on the left are for the room that grades 1-4 used.

[joni]

I attended a one room school in Southern Illinois, from about the 4th to 6th grades. We had all eight classes, only from 3 to 6 students in each class. It was heated by a wood stove. Our teacher picked my siblings and myself up, so we always had to wait while he got the stove going. Got so cold. I really believe going to that school  was the best part of my education. Learned that life is not always so easy.Made us appreciate what we had later on in life. Still do.

[Butterfly]

Joni, that is so true.  I sometimes think kids have it too easy these days.  They have so much, they don't appreciate anything.