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One Island - Eight School Districts

Usha Rautenbach, 10 May 2006

Salt Spring school districts map

288_Rautenbach_Eight-School-Districts.mp3

otter.ai

19.04.2023

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Speaker 1 0:06
Memories of those. And I have a particular interest in one room schools have you had all my elementary education? Totally in one name schools with one teacher covering five year olds through 13 years of age. As you were told, the COVID process, this is working method, okay. So all of my elementary education until I was 12, was in the one room schools with one teacher with up to 30 children, and covered ages five, to 13. And having taught attempted to teach myself, I have deep respect for all those teachers. So I come from the teacher point of view, as well as being really interested in whether or not the education that was delivered was actually delivered under those circumstances. Over on this wall, here is a tribute to teachers at the back is be the point school. Explain. I'm about to just clear everybody in on on the old schools of Salzburg. We are not talking about the schools that are here today, we are talking about the ones that we're here prior to 1914 when there wasn't the consolidated school, which changed Saltos history of one room schoolhouses. And we're talking about that Sunday school, which was just one school for home assaults. on that slide, there is a display where if we have time, at the end, you could come and see me about how you could help the archives or with us. In life research to do with the subject alone. There are so many schools, local governments, but they don't say who the people were. So the display simply explains how Marian crew at the archives have worked out how to find out who those people are, and it requests anybody's help. And I would I can be there and show you what then ends up in the outcome. How you can help either from your home or by visiting the back on the table. There are a few handouts. If anybody wants to help me further with my memories, as I'm going to be going up today, I may be able to put everything I'm going into a book about the early school results. But at the very least we'll make the materials that are available in the archives are accessible to everybody and said that people would come in to find out something we'll be able to find it out straight away instead of requiring Mary David that's a great deal of research on her own. So if that could happen how can I move through this as fast as possible? I'm sure many of you know this very first school with the red ones here. They will call this this mobile home Saltspring Island benign as a district. And then this district was called the semis school, which makes people think that it was in the sewers, but it wasn't it was making an X potential board. And there was also the northern school which was right opposite with scores now. And that was way back 1861 night school was back on Bay and it pulled back on me which makes you think it's okay. But it's not in the both of them. And it's directly opposite in the Methodist Church. Back pneumatic check

Speaker 1 4:23
directly this way okay. Ah, thank you. So the next school that was started was 18 Oh, this one is 1873. In 1885 came along into it schoolhouse which is known as beaver point school. It's now a little red school lesson is still there. You can go and see that behind the big point four. Then we have these three screen you have these three green brackets to show the central area. And the first school was this one here, which is the divide School, which is why I'm interested I live on the side of the divide school I just wanted to find out about it discovered we haven't stopped since. So fine schools, all of this area here in between going into central nervous, and it started in 1880 96. Then these other two came along as well. This is the cranberry Marsh school and guarantees public school. This was a 1911. This one was in 1917. They are actually serving worth about the same families. Some of them sometimes there were two or three schools that they'd all go to just one or two. And the Ministry of Education called all three of those schools again to school, which makes it very complicated. is about a point school 19 104 was found here. That's just about where the mountain meadows turn off. This is about a point though, the buildings no longer there. The Divine school building is no longer there. Because I'm living in a paddleboat it's burnt down in 1960s. The old school. Central schooling is no longer here it is right next door, there was a house. There's a houseboat the opposite thing with school may actually be the original building. You've got some corners. We've rented a car. Oh, okay. Oh, good. It's where the car place was right on the corner. And I have to go and find out. That got to that point. All good. All right. And this school building is actually still there. But it's not very recognizable. It's a house mill. And one end is wet because it seems to be buried inside the parent house. So there we are. The Ganges school started in 1917. That's the Ganges public school. I'm missing out a whole lot of schools, which are all the private schools, all the private schools around here, one up here. And one very briefly down here. Very many of them. I sense a sheet somewhere on display. That's about the the many private schools that were in the 20s and 30s. The country's public school started in 1917. Then by the time 1925 came along, there were so many high school students that they actually do have classes. And they were run in whichever space they could get, which was there's many stories told the space that used to have a jail in it and various things like that. And then I've got a an interactive aid there on the wall, which is my question is that what is currently on the books, history books, and it is said to be in the background of your C mon Hall. And I'm looking at it nothing doesn't look like to me. And I was hoping that it was the chicken house. Great. Because there is no no actual thing that says this is the chicken house school. It's not any archives yet. So after today would have done a great service, not only to me, but to everybody in the future. You all know that, particularly panels. So that was a party display house used on the agricultural grounds next to man Hall. And when the high school students needed a permanent place to be they got moved into the chicken house. And there are wonderful stories about the chicken house which I moved to hell because all of you can I wasn't there. And then only schools are running along and some of them are closing because they've got less than 10 children and the Ministry of Education won't put up with less than 10 children won't fund less than 10 children. And until 14 when they decided to change the whole system. I forgot to tell you there's a school district up here, another school district here, another school district here, another school district here so you can see why they didn't want to fund a lot of Trustees. It took district three. And so in 1940, they changed that. But instead of making it one school district for Saltspring Island, it became school district number 64 for all the Gulf Islands. So they made a huge great leap from all these trustees being very locally concerned and interested in their own school, to one school districts to be bought at his remains. So making 14, they built the consolidated school, which is the building that now houses Saltspring elementary school on remember. And that was a consolidated school for two reasons, I think, in my head. One is that it consolidate in one place where children will learn on Saltspring Island. And the other is that it goes from grade one through grade 12 in one building. So good biases, typical school is an algorithm it also means the consolidated school. Now, I think the point that if at that point schools didn't go to the consolidated school in 1940. Instead, forget that, or otherwise, I haven't found out yet. And I'd love to know, it may have been when the buses could dry and still get the kids to school on time and got that problem this year anyway. So they brought in a school bus making 14, either point, and Isabella appointment to keep them in one room schoolhouses until 1951. And then, I still don't actually know definitively Why 1951 What happened then as to why it stopped. But if you know if we're very, very keen to learn from you, but if you don't, I will find out later. Okay, so now introduce our panel of those with the memories in any of those schools plus the ones I haven't marked around about. I didn't say where, sorry, I didn't say my County's public school was is it was built exactly when when the Catholic churches and all this bulletin board here you'll see my photograph of the front of the Catholic Church and the blueprint that the archives and the front of the building of the school uses. It's exactly the same building, but it's been jacked up to be one storey higher. So the Ganges public school opens in 1817 is the Roman Catholic school that you can visit that is still alright so apart from the fact that there are three schools in the Ganges area there's more schools that we are going to be remembering now. So we would like to welcome Lotus Rocco to be her pointing to you choose your seat oh good we have someone arranged disease and then John Bennett

Unknown Speaker 13:23
and Nancy Reagan

Unknown Speaker 13:29
I actually like every school

Speaker 1 13:34
that I mentioned we consolidated school into that one school for the whole adults but that's not as as Nancy says that is not a grade one through eight one teacher school. It's a school that has many well, not many teachers it started with four not it's not what we expect now. Bob rush in the same position as Nancy, I could mow it and Gordon cut more

Unknown Speaker 14:18
I'm going to sit somewhere my little bell if there's anybody in the audience has added memories to say please feel free to interrupt especially to correct anything. But you can add your memories as they come up.

Speaker 1 14:45
So I think what we should do first is to just pass the microphone along and let each panelist tell us where Gordon

Unknown Speaker 15:05
Okay. So would you like to do that

Unknown Speaker 15:19
now, this is Val dies

Speaker 1 15:35
so, first I think what we'll do is pass the microphone along and show you that it seems it works best if you stick it straight up and just say which schools you attended here on salts for nine and it may just be one. You may have gone to me. All right.

Unknown Speaker 15:59
I'm Bill Jones and I started at Wood Elementary. Many years ago, and I can remember the first day my sister and I went to school mother brought us in a rake with the horses. And later on, I can't remember all the teachers. But

Speaker 2 16:37
But one night, we went to Victoria, Jim Eckerman and unprepared ecoman them. And this is corporate Mrs. elecard I guess. You know her. Her husband was a driver for Lawrence. By and when when we're coming home that night. It was very foggy, and Captain Marvel wouldn't sail. So there were stuck. Exports and fuel making them was driving and drove the teacher I remember her name now Miss Moses. She ran us to back to her place at Bretton Woods Bay. Adding that she houses for your night and she had a beautiful fire in the fireplace. and Mrs. Allen heart rate was was anguished right now. So she and I slept together. The next morning was so sad. The fog had lifted. And

Unknown Speaker 17:49
I attended grade

Unknown Speaker 17:49
up to grade eight.

Unknown Speaker 17:53
I never went

Speaker 2 17:54
to to get these uh yeah, so chicken and egg

Unknown Speaker 18:08
Great.

Speaker 3 18:19
Day I attended the Ganges elementary school on Drake road. And it was then it was two buildings. So I actually went to and my first teacher was Florence steagle. And she was I don't know, anyway, I learned something in there. And then I went that was great. 123 and four. And then I went to the next room where first of all land Nichols. And shortly after he went on to other things in the northern west and northwest was a teacher there when I went to the other roads, and that's there and went to the chicken house school. And Mr. William was the first teacher there and that John Cooper came along and then we got a bit crowded for quite a few people coming and those people from Fulford kept coming up you know. So we divided what they they're easy to find a build a room, all they did was put a partition right across and made two rooms and maybe hired a teacher which I think was the best teachers ever have as far as effort to ensure a firm's goal which is known now most of the later people who follow me so so long as business effort, but the two of them they shared the teaching duties I think Mr. poops ignore the social studies literature and grammar and things like that. I am pretty good the science and math that that might guide up there without thinking 1937

Speaker 4 20:00
Before we go any further and not being too much, I'd like to introduce a special guest. And then marine Stapleford, who came over from Delta, especially for this for today, whose grandmother was Kate Prentiss, who taught school here on the island in the late 1800s. For about six years after the final

Speaker 4 20:28
photograph appears in the class photo in this lecture. I attended the Ganges Elementary School. And on the first I remember the first day of school, walking back home after school. When I'm walking up the hill, we're about the yellow houses. Now if the band went old gentleman walking in the other direction, told me this would be the happiest day of my life. These days in my life started in school. He led them right I don't know. But I sometimes kid my friends are saying that I was on the same class for four years with the same teacher in the same classroom. And then I had well the class consists of four grades grades 123 and four. And the teacher is Miss Morgan whose picture is over there. And unless she's died within the last three or four months, she's still alive and living in Vancouver. And I don't have too much to add at this point I don't think except that that photograph is in the larger than a the third class photo, which was made in the spring of 1940. When we find the Ganges Hill School, it's close when I was in grade four and it was during the spring of that year that we moved down to the new consolidated school the school crest of the elementary school was black. And then this will crest in the consolidated school is South sounds consolidated school sounding you have those school casts and we've also got a couple of report cards here if you want to look at the report cards which among other things, the back says health rules good physical condition is built up through rest in hours of sleep, fresh air and the other night lay out of donors food, Thanksgiving milk, vegetables, cereals, a experience in water funniness in person and dress so that's one of the old stuff in finance analysis so I guess that's all I need to say at the moment the past month and John Bennett

Speaker 5 22:52
and you don't want to feel left I was born here way back when I attended divided school started here in January of 1936 years old. And some of our memory is cooler at some point so that we will say hey at age my schooling, unschooling by where Bucha lives now when you age 15 years old retired

Speaker 6 23:33
Hello, my name is Logan Frankel. My maiden name was crazy. I was one of our family applies when political read school I was in I started in 1921. And then I was on the school for three years because it was almost impossible for something children to get to Ganesha High School. I'm not saying Oregon and my family were just farmers. It was very difficult. A tiny my mother sold a piece of property in a little town it was decided that over five I was the one that was going to high school. So we came to Ganges two

Unknown Speaker 24:33
so I could be enrolled.

Speaker 6 24:36
And mother asked Mr. Molad items father once again G school board at prepared for boarding students other courses from all at the very start. The barn does not is not prepared what ever to do. But he said let's go into the boardroom to see my, my mother, she might have solutions. So I will never cease to be grateful for dear Jane Mullen. She was the one mum was first for three years. She She boarded, recruit for 75 cents a day. And let me work weekends. So the doctor didn't have to pay anymore because I waited for for the chicken house school for three years, and I had one teacher, Archie Robertson,

Unknown Speaker 25:47
who really was the

Unknown Speaker 25:48
most exceptional teacher

Speaker 6 25:51
how he managed three years of high school. And regardless, all through my trip to I don't know, we didn't have one stop among students and engineers that I graduated from, I think that it's really really rather remarkable. Pass it on.

Speaker 7 26:14
I'm Nancy Reagan, who was born on the House, Nancy Howland. I couldn't start school until the consolidated school open. Because the Fernwood school had a rather difficult reputation, you might say. And might be a good place to start school. So mother taught me at home. But it was the biggest disappointment of my life. When I went to the console and used schoolwork they did not expect that it's family then I had to start over in grade one. I never had girls to play with Mike and research. Not positive appstore never had girls to play with I had a brother six years older than myself. And I knew how to catch fish. And I knew how to dam up the creek and catch frogs and tadpoles. And I knew how to climb trees and build forts. And I knew how to ride the pigs and the chickens and bring in wood and water and help my mother weed the garden and, and count my grandfather whose eyesight was poor, and all those kinds of things. But I've never had girls to play with and every stroll is three miles away. So when I went to school, I tried to play with the boys. And of course, they wanted nothing to do with me. And I had no idea what the girls were doing. We were skipping rope and playing hopscotch and playing London London's rejects and stuff like that. And I never seen anything like that before it was real culture shock. So I went and climbed into a tree so that I could watch them and figure out what they were doing. So what I put in a total photo when I went over. And it's nobody can hold on me. And the teacher came out and said, come down out of their little girls do not climb trees. And everybody who laughed. And I was so embarrassed, I didn't come down. So she got angry, and she yelled at me. And that scared me and I went up instead of down.

Unknown Speaker 28:40
And then

Speaker 7 28:43
when I did come into the classroom when the bell rang, I missed me. I went to grade one and two in a class. And I went into the break too. And she said, What are you doing there? And I? I said I'm supposed to be in grade two. And she said, Have you ever been in school before? And I said no. And so she called me out there and I tripped over the two by fours. But they knew that they proved that that's true. And so full length in front of the whole class. So my feelings about school were not tonight. My mother told me to have lots of friends that I didn't have any friends at all. And I had to walk two miles to catch the bus, which started where the Brentwood school used to be. So I had to leave. I think like 730 or earlier in the morning in order to get to go back to school, but I remember to scroll back and have a laugh at what it was. And it wasn't until I guess my robe on started school that I had a brand. There were other kids that I worked with but Alright people for offers, I want to see if you can figure out why. Until one day I got off, manage to get off the bus first. And then they wanted to be friends with me. But I was very intrigued by that. So my feelings about school were not so great. There were, there were things later that I really appreciated about the school. One thing that I really appreciated about the school was that everybody took pride in it, because my understanding is that the government provided about half the amount of money that was necessary to go to school that the community wanted. And so a break up the work and sit on the materials were donated to a volunteer. And it was a real cooperative effort to get that school built. And so everybody was proud of the school, and nobody faced it.

Speaker 1 31:05
I'm going to interrupt because I've, you know, because Nancy has been covering our next question. And in fact, length is to some extent. And that question was, do the school present any difficulties for you, such as getting a man being away from home, or having to do school plus filing duties, and home duties on expense difficulties, closing, getting along with teachers and other students? I would say that both lotus and grant have already contributed a benefit to that you thank you. I didn't interrupt because I've got a very rude thing to interrupt with, which is going to be fun. And I forgot to introduce it. Oh, you began. So if, if I get the feeling that we should move the microphone on, I will go like this. Want to do that before we normally think of as a telephone. All right. So let's pass it around. Again, company start with you, Tony. If you could ask before we begin, I'd like to just tell the panelists and all of you that the tapes that are made off of these meetings on has been the archive, and I am planning that the tapes that talk about schools in the old days will be remade and remixed bit to cut out off. So that school children who are here at school today can hear what it used to be like I know that one of the hot topics for them is how did you get to school? And because it's so easy for them now they love to hear how how complicated or hard what a long long way to walk how'd you get to school

Speaker 5 33:09
we went to school of course no way you can make a path through the trail to trail through the woods that we work through my father of the short log line behind the horse and he dragged us down the trail to main road we would have to walk to the beach and we'd walk up and down that morning Angeles no disappeared when I was 14 years old and like I get a bicycle and I find a truck in the Philippines that I need to

Unknown Speaker 33:55
talk to

Speaker 4 33:57
know I didn't have any children during the school because we didn't live too far away. You're up at the corner of the footbridge Ganges road and where Charles River Road now Yes, junction of Venice from the next door dive and that I get reminded by others periodically that I'd had no trouble walking along the roads. And maybe I did because my reputation attorney was throwing up the dishes when they're running water and kicking away the weeds to give water to flow and making dams and other places so I got the school that way during the wintertime and in the summertime we used to go avoid the road by going around behind behind the fields and items house and gravestones used to be and bird the Roberts used to be and fast forward backward behind McAfee's house and into the backyard at the end of the school. So no I didn't have any trouble getting to school.

Speaker 3 34:55
I didn't have any trouble getting to school entertaining to embarks on novel like younger than I am so though he didn't go to school at the same time, he was just a little kid when he started school. No, he wasn't even born. It's not too far from the dollar Ganges. And what we did just across the board increase wage mortality is known as sea breeze. And the school down and drag girl, the only problem I had was my mother and the system that I got home from lunch that I wanted to take by lunch like most of the other people did. And I just couldn't do it. I had to come home. That was it.

Speaker 2 35:39
I, I came from home. And I stayed with my grandmother or we both stayed on our during the week and went over the weekend. But even at that time, I'd never been away from home before. So I was very homesick. And I can remember one time we stayed at Jimmy Rogers. And we stayed in that little shack underneath the maple tree. And maple tree in the fall was dropping its leaves and we had to walk through about appointing leaves and a team. So here's my response. I came away walking through these Maple Leafs about a foot deep

Unknown Speaker 36:27
Thank you. And then

Speaker 1 36:29
we move on to the what was the classroom atmosphere like? How does it differ from what you know after today's classroom? I'll pass this over to Nancy, in the classroom with where you're supposed to be the total learning what was the classroom atmosphere life?

Speaker 7 36:50
Well, you're in for Tripoli camp. Teachers could drag students in front of the class. And one of the teachers in elementary school took this to two extremes in them. I remember the whole class being in tears over somebody being strapped, who's part of the climb, and another teacher intervene. And that teacher was not allowed to distract students anymore. It wasn't I think, until I was in high school that I really enjoyed my Feinstein. I was out of school. I was out of school for half a year because I had severe headaches and migraines. And when I went back to school I really enjoyed it for the first time. But my favorite teacher in high school was Jonathan Vista. He was an excellent teacher. And I really enjoyed English, English and social studies which you saw. We're also very fond of our small group of kids used to give a hard time to she taught grade seven and eight and she taught us French and and the boys are everybody's getting your hormones so thin and poor Alex, I think we give her a hard time. And I remember this Oulton food, who has the most prints, thing, glare that if the dance double, she could nail anybody to the wall with a rite of passage is gone now.

Speaker 6 38:48
As far as elementary school is concerned, I was in trouble. We lived three quarters of a mile. So it was quite easy to get a certificate for regularity and punctuality. And of course, as I told you, I had the barn for the other three years. That's all that's all I have.

Speaker 5 39:24
Nice teeth raised when the teacher and the teacher came to spend as much time with a grade three kids. What have we learned? One teacher has a reputation if you couldn't get an athletic dinner and the other way she played with a book and if someone was going that way

Speaker 4 39:53
I don't have any particular remembrances of the classroom atmosphere, although I think we're probably respectful of my teacher. Second thing wear baseball caps on their heads. We didn't have a rock Moon simply didn't do a lot of distracting things. So I think the class is respectful of the teachers have a have a comment here for my teaching and third reports and probably does good work but it's often in attendance so

Speaker 3 40:26
I don't think there would have been any problems at all because you didn't do things like that. You know, he didn't want to get caught as he got older was Spring or something like that. You just didn't do it. It wasn't done. And you behaved yourself or else you gotta

Speaker 2 40:48
remember what we're going was it was run by one pager also. And then we didn't have any water laid on the week. And we just had a heater in the middle of the room so that the boys had to stoke the fire. And then we had to take turns and why at least to get at noontime to get enough water to carry us over to public so of water. That was a long way to pass two buckets of water from the lease.

Speaker 1 41:21
Back to Maui. excellent segue to the next question, which is what were the classroom what were the actual buildings like? How did how were they heated were they actually warm or cold in with them? Were they comfortable that it seems a pretty large and small. So I'll pass it on. If you would like to say something about the actual buildings and science

Speaker 7 41:51
for me, I think it was the biggest building that I ever seen. I wasn't I wasn't used to electric light or running water. I was quite impressed with the toilet. And the fact that all that water went down the whole I have grown up carrying water in a bucket of a well quite some distance from the house around collecting rainwater and in the barrel around for housing. For exhilarating water, carrying water to the to the chickens carrying water to the kids. And to see all that water go down the hall handle with quite a quality X

Unknown Speaker 42:45
are on the

Unknown Speaker 42:46
restrooms

Speaker 6 42:49
impressed me most about the fitting room because for ones that didn't have restrooms we have to go all the way to the lady is a man home to my blue bow. And in the wintertime when it was raining it was a big one

Speaker 5 43:20
was a no the device flew into one room either in the middle of a bigger piece I do when the Woody Allen go well, we got water from what's happening. Now well now still there, the defense is doing illegal entry and movement across the Oregon Department of Water.

Speaker 1 43:52
And that's a long way away. That was

Speaker 5 43:58
really only hugely helpful that was within wage medicine. There wasn't a lot and we drank the water we put in the coffee when it was in most of the Commonwealth. And we got along just fine. It's a way of laying back what originally we do. And we have the restroom. And we

Speaker 4 44:27
don't remember exactly how to have our school but the grades one to four and one side and grades five to nine is really the other side. Activate. And I think there's a hallway in between because there wasn't very much sound insulation between when somebody's being strapped in the hallway. We could sit in here and suffer with the federal prison if a girl was always flooded. And so that was the classroom building itself. The outhouse was behind those ones. Five Points section on the other side. And I don't know the good thing about the honey buckets, but I guess somebody has heard of DeVito as far as the hitting the classrooms is concerned about rather than being called resilience. And this guy says I had to save up the buildings

Speaker 3 45:22
much earlier. So as I read, I think we had running water. I think we had a basin. Following I know it was outside toilets, but I don't really have any idea.

Speaker 1 45:35
I think that was a basic, whether it was running or not, to ask you,

Speaker 3 45:40
why not we had the tapping school.

Speaker 1 45:50
So I just like to say that one of the wonderful finds in the archive, so actually the blueprints for this school at bargain Island were talking about, and I had always visualized outhouses to be like the outhouses I knew in my farming background, but the outhouse design and the blueprints for the Ganges public school are quite magnificent on the outside. Quite good, excellent amount of places for people to go to they will they were well provided for in that school, if they were built as the blueprints designed them to be. So the next question is, I think we may have already covered it. But we could put we could put Tim together, which is what were your teachers like? And what did you like or dislike about them? Did you get along with them, or alternatively, to talk about the memory equipment that you had, and we have a display on the side back there people are floating, wonderful early readers and spelling books and math books and a delight love that will bring back your memory.

Speaker 2 47:52
My son was driving was a theory the next thing. I'd like to speak a little a little bit about the school mystery, if you thought it was. And what I remember about him was his favorite flower was the humble, humble wallflower.

Speaker 3 48:22
about learning to quit and so on, we have the those readers that are in the center, they're the sort of brownie ones, not the blue ones. And there was one ID for each grade. And they didn't get to keep them. And if you could take them home. But if you got them, and then you have the back at the end of the year. And I think the same thing with the stars, but you didn't. And of course atlases and dictionaries can be a mission and have one of your core one at home. They were just so many stack to the side and you needed one that might have a class set, maybe when you follow them that was so fast. And a dictionary was there for you. Maybe a few of them I think when you wanted to consult the dictionary was over there go and get a good quiet later on.

Speaker 4 49:16
As I don't remember any textbooks ever alone, somebody's recollection of doing members other than the claims writing guide that you wrote him and tried to emulate the letters that were in there. And also remember that there are a couple of those left handed Christians in our class and the practice in those days was to convert them aloud. And another teaching aid or remember was a globe at the back of the classroom.

Unknown Speaker 49:51
Right. Anybody bought a drone on? Camera using it In the bank. And when we went to high school, the product The thing was chemistry

Unknown Speaker 50:12
to play with that the future development

Speaker 6 50:22
Hello porcelain, when I went to high school, we had to buy all our books. Because they became your possession when if you were lucky, when you didn't make them any longer, you sold them to somebody else. Another thing that I found when I came to the end user was that we also have to pay a monthly fee for going to school. Really, when I didn't know some of the complaints, I hear about our

Unknown Speaker 51:02
college school,

Speaker 6 51:03
I think how sparse really, our equipment

Speaker 7 51:13
is one thing that I remember early in, in elementary school, again, was the fascinating maps that used to pull down like a, like a window blind. And I've never seen anything like that before. Two books that I remember, and I'm not sure what for 1311 is the romance of Canada. And I remember that when particularly because my one of my children was in danger of family break free, because he couldn't read. And he was he was being subjected to death and Gene and two stroke run. And he was even passed on trial. If I could teach him to read your summer, then you could go into grade four. And after about a week of the Spot Run I got off my Romans of Canada and I said you're right that which he could he could manage explore and Expedition and death venture and all those kinds of words and couldn't deal with the contents so, but it's a temporary book with poems deeply narrative which was a book that I read many times on my own at home

Speaker 4 52:50
I guess adding on to the teaching age that was blackboards of all the walls of the room. And in our classroom at grade one Blackboard was at the back and remember learning how to lean backward. And also the desk said inkwells and numb and give us the pie flutters at the beginning of the year. People as the concentrations come or whatever it was that there was a girl monomorphic who usually faces ranking the class cookie stack by rank based on the marks the second patient below the first one time for pigtails in front of the router attempting to put them in ink. Well, I did that

Speaker 3 53:40
just have a lovely story. I went down the road every morning to high school and Bill Taylor. And Bill Tanner was older than it was at the same grade as my older cousin back and that he picked up a sneak and put it in his pocket.

Unknown Speaker 53:58
Oh Brian URI Bertie

Speaker 3 54:01
Lewis of Cisco target coming out of Mary Amon. She was in the same grade as I was and she was always well dressed and this is a summer day and she had a very very nice looking degree sort of just now strips on it like here and across and a bear back quite a bit until the city

Speaker 3 54:30
lifted up the space like this. We waited and waited and she turned around and looked at him and said boy

Speaker 1 54:52
I like the contrast the violin story with his his assertion that nobody ever thought of doing such a thing. In this video

Unknown Speaker 55:07
no one saw it

Unknown Speaker 55:10
a cancel. So

Speaker 1 55:16
I feel like throwing an open to any stories if they have stories you tell that have have not come out from from my question. And when just pass it through the panel first and see if you have something that you'd love to tell us all about the story for the school, they just go right ahead. And if you don't, you can pass the microphone on. So keep very quiet about your stories.

Unknown Speaker 55:46
And icon, something else you have here. You asked us to do things we might talk about, let's

Speaker 3 55:54
have a good year, you just tell us how well students managed to learn what was expected. And whether what you were required to learn was really useful after school. When you learn because we had in grades four to 80, we had to pass an entrance exam. And in high school, you had the bachelor juniors take exams. And that's what we were prepared for the bath exams.

Speaker 4 56:21
I don't think I have too much debt. If I'm concentrating seeking in grades one to four and elementary school you haven't gone into the consolidated school. That was certainly a big school moved into existence, nobody said four days to the only two days. And that was a total of five so to create a football game. There were some things we came up with the other rounds and David's follow them up another month or so it wasn't entirely limited even then to students who taught me

Unknown Speaker 56:57
how many classes

Speaker 4 57:03
I guess or two grades to the room in the six classes

Unknown Speaker 57:18
wanted to wait for one in the accurate warranty for the warranty wouldn't be worth

Speaker 6 57:36
less than what you signed think of I heard in high school likes to me, it was very useful. When my daughter was seeking High School for fondant. Especially in her grade nine here. I

Unknown Speaker 57:52
don't think she could have made the

Speaker 6 57:54
jump between grade eight and grade nine correspondence. Unless I had been able to help.

Speaker 7 58:05
One thing that that really was familiar to me when I went to school, there was very little but it was the thing was the morning prayer. And and that was something that I always felt good about that we started out in the morning with prayer. We can't go home we had to read from the Bible, which is to do this out of context and never explain.

Unknown Speaker 58:33
But the morning prayer

Speaker 7 58:35
seemed to set a tone in the classroom. And

Speaker 4 58:48
I guess one thing I might add is that I went back to the old school after we've been vacated before they use and that was maybe three years or so later. And there was nobody around within the building was opening. I went in there and even looked around later many many members in that school but everything was saved at that time had mixed feelings about having gone back to music the way it was and we can do that beautifully. For the same reason and experience I've never gone back to our family house which still just insults me because they want to became every sense of the word rather than see. See if you believe in the other way or hesitate

Speaker 3 59:41
to ask one question last. Your boundaries in stone salts with having mine are very happy. I enjoy swimming with lots of buddies and of course everyone my family customers all the

Speaker 2 59:59
time He I do have a strange feeling when I went to the house and it's it's mainly to a converted to a house smell coming from Burgoyne school it's altogether different than the one the stairs and it's just doesn't really seem like our old house

Speaker 1 1:00:23
so we'll wind up with a quick passing of of the microphone along and if you want to ask him a question or you know what are your days on sunscreen as Steve Harvey or not?

Unknown Speaker 1:00:42
Yes.

Unknown Speaker 1:00:44
Your old school it was very happy for me

Speaker 4 1:00:53
the answer is yes. We discussed this before because anybody in the audience who might like

Unknown Speaker 1:01:04
most of it

Speaker 6 1:01:13
I imagine that I really enjoyed school because I'm very fond of books, no matter what the subject is as far as that goes. So I think my school is yours. Were very happy. As far as life goes.

Speaker 7 1:01:34
I think mine improved over the years. Starting out very harrowing and, and ending up positive. There's one story I wonder if I can count. And that was the degree of honesty that was expected in school. I remember hearing the word time there were collections for the red card. And somebody had brought 25 cents for the bread croissants and it disappeared. And our entire school we call him to assemble it. And our principal excoriated us, anybody anybody in our school one of the screens someone in our schools would actually steal money from another child. I particularly that was a donation to the rich and I always remember that I remember that feeling of shock and shame even though I had nothing to do with it I had no idea who's done it that somebody in our school

Unknown Speaker 1:02:57
forgot to mention the end of the school year plan was one of the device

Unknown Speaker 1:03:04
was always up

Speaker 5 1:03:07
to here in the fish trap University street district turn on way all the way around the water oh, I didn't need to ever expect to the school one time during my trip to Rosewood lecture on the new way of happy

Speaker 4 1:03:35
reminding me John in addition to having a school picture within three years there's also a glitter carry school concert at Christmas time.

Speaker 1 1:03:48
If there's anyone in the audience here who would like to come up and take my turn the microphone and telephony thing is firstly to come out right now to share with everybody faces any Now alternatively if you have a question to ask the panel please do.

Unknown Speaker 1:04:23
No, I think I was sent out of the classroom before that can happen

Speaker 8 1:04:43
I'd like to mention that I am now at school from grade ones in high school and I took correspondence so I know a lot about Isabella point I was only I was only six, five or six, when I first started. And I remember getting the grade teacher gave me a box of letters. And I have to copy words off to the reader, the little red hen or the little chicks and all that sort of thing. And it was an awful job to find these letters, saying there's letters on the book. And it took me ages to find them in this box. But they're all been twisted. To tie in everything else that took me ages. I sat in the front seat a long time long, but no days was about 25 or something people killed in a one room school with a stole wrap up wrong finger guard around the metal solar heat when I went into the woodshed out there and to to back home. Wanting to point one for the ladies in the ditch that rang true with wind and fall and land water right behind the toilet. Or all the edge. Water and time. We used to dab it up for me on Sunday. And then springtime used to have sports day and we had come to the Ganges where we all go in that truck, in the back of a truck and count down to be there. And that nowadays we haven't even allowed to do that. When we first started, we had to go on site and run the flag up or somebody to look after they were given back and watch. And we ran it up with masks. And thank God save the queen or king time at once. And every morning, and then we had the Lord's Prayer when we came inside. I don't remember the Bible's after lunch for us to have a story written. And this has happened with one of the teachers. Mrs. Brennan was our first teacher. Isabella point. She started there and she ended there. When she had finished her classes. She came up to teach us and now it's taken correspondence. I went school do I have nine something correspondence took me forever and never finished high school but I had lots of years doing anyway, that's that's when I can Calico and my winter was around and we had a long way to go half a mile uphill. It seemed like you went out on some field. But we used to take our space to school and write down and recess and ride all the way down and it took us 15 minutes to walk on. The teacher said you don't get winter very often. So we're going to have extra time. And lunchtime ways to take our lunch down. Walk up eating it took us 15 minutes for rides at noon time. first feature I had was a spy. Miss Grace was her first game. And it has to go half a year and missed by two three

Speaker 9 1:09:07
or four years to get the features if you started now.

Speaker 8 1:09:13
And we went on Smith died over Christmas because we went failing and drown. And Mr. Knight was going to teach it that time with Christmas and we had this find your cake and she talks about a year I'm not sure about that. And then he had effort and I wasn't

Unknown Speaker 1:09:46
very long. This rapidly when

Speaker 4 1:09:54
whenever school was closed and there was only

Unknown Speaker 1:09:57
about five children I used to sing the marching song fire from the tree aid

Unknown Speaker 1:10:25
know book 600

Speaker 8 1:10:27
normal six we had cops and robbers in the bushes down the grass when we had sleigh rides involving an MBI over we always work and there's still foundations there and then we have picnics there for years now on the first of July and there's old boyfriends stored along the backs

Unknown Speaker 1:11:03
and less trees bushes and so they are in the old apple tree that

Speaker 8 1:11:12
traffic apples is way up there but it's very he got burned down he had to teach 250 pieces on the first time. We could have brought another thing to the sandbox. We had a cable cable with this table here full of sand and you can make maps when you leave them in there and everybody Mother's Day coming up party

Unknown Speaker 1:12:00
Friday afternoon first video before sorry

Unknown Speaker 1:12:27
one question

Speaker 6 1:12:35
that I would just like to mention that we have Margaret back to assist. She is the daughter of one of our Pioneer Riverpoint teachers. I'm sorry that just means you

Speaker 9 1:13:05
before we close one question change your mind during these wonderful talks from this group of six they must have been extremely well behaved students. So the question came to mind Did they ever expel anybody in the school system in those days you also find obviously I don't know I don't want

Unknown Speaker 1:13:36
you ever get strapped I don't know why later

Unknown Speaker 1:14:00
I didn't attend feeder points too old. We

Speaker 7 1:14:02
moved away from here just a year but I would have gone

Unknown Speaker 1:14:06
to school when I started school.

Speaker 7 1:14:09
But my father went to be reformed school. And his father was one of the founders of viewpoints. And my mother taught me just how she met my core. And that's that pioneer story

Speaker 1 1:14:32
there anyone else who has a question or something? How long? How long was the school day?

Speaker 1 1:14:49
330 argument this later is from nine to three or nine till 330 I think it was 330.

Speaker 3 1:14:57
We didn't have an afternoon recess. We just have Morning reception maybe? I don't know, I think it was.

Speaker 1 1:15:04
It may have changed somewhere between night or three or three? Well, that's an interesting question just as somebody who comes from many other parts of the world and was educated in South Africa, New Zealand and alien, as well as educating others in Canada, that is that the school day is very different from country to country. Until I came to Canada, the school days caught your mind until 430. So I can't remember whether we've had more recesses or not

Unknown Speaker 1:15:49
remembering something more about this

Unknown Speaker 1:16:17
that's a really good point.

Speaker 10 1:16:22
Have something to say. I just want to know what their homework as well? Or did you do all your work? While you were at school? Lot of

Unknown Speaker 1:16:34
I don't particularly remember homework,

Speaker 4 1:16:36
because we had chores to do before we went to school and charged when they came home. I don't remember particularly. But you remember

Speaker 1 1:16:49
the older members that the remembering a lot of homework, maybe folks just forgetting this, you actually

Speaker 10 1:16:58
work and I resent that because I did have chores and it took me a long time to get out. And so to have to do schoolwork after I got home, they really don't care. I do remember a Christmas party. That was spectacular. And our school concerts where they figured King the king of the year that a man Hall would be packed standing room only. And the concert everybody from grade one through to high school. And sometimes I think we have two concerts. I think it was a sponsor district. But basically there was definitely the Christmas concert which was a tremendous event that everybody looked forward to that the Christmas concert. Santa Claus would come and it was well Palmer I remember Santa Claus theories and everything else and one Christmas. There was a little boy there. He was in his first year obviously and and came in and this child launched itself like a rocket. Around the day the yellow beard came off

Speaker 1 1:18:39
making time for tea. I can see this DISA there's heartbreak. There Thank you very much everybody if you'd like to use our panelists