Grade school
This morning I woke up at 4 AM needing to go to the Bathroom. I had been dreaming about something, and the words "The Baltimore Catechism" was stuck in my consciousness. I think it was a reminder to get back on this project.
I was in one of the first classes to start in kindergarten and graduate from St Vincent dePaul School. I did Kindergarten fresh from childhood. When I arrived, I did not Read or do Math like preschoolers do today. I do remember that my mother read to me a lot. And she got me to memorize a lot of songs and poems. That made me semi-literate I guess.
The school was small and the Sisters of the Incarnate Word taught two grades in the each classroom except for Kindergarten. They kept adding classrooms every year or so. I had the same teacher, Sister Joseph, for grades 2 through 5, she moved up with our class. She was a very nice teacher and had a reputation of being fair. Because I picked up Reading and Math quickly I got skipped from First Grade to Third Grade. This made my parents proud but made me miserable.. I was the youngest and smallest in my class forever more.
During the first few years I rode the school bus. There was a stop about two blocks away and, since it was only the second stop, there was always a choice seat. By fifth grade, I had a bike and usually rode it to school. It was only 1.5 miles to the school and it was much faster than taking the bus.
For sixth through eighth grades I had Sister Perpetua. She was tough and very demanding. Under her tutelage I learned to Diagram sentences with subordinate clauses. I also got smacked with a yard stick for cutting up in class. By this time we no longer had two grades per classroom, and Grades 7 and 8 were housed in Temporary buildings out by the playground... I remember these Classrooms were very cold in the winter.
We had about 20 in our class and I had the seat at the back row in the first column. That meant I had a job of adjusting the window behind my desk. The window was attached to the frame by a pair of hinges at the top and was held open by a 3 foot long 1 x 2 . It had two positions Open and Closed. There were no screens on the windows. With no Air Conditioning this was the best seat in the classroom
I was in one of the first classes to start in kindergarten and graduate from St Vincent dePaul School. I did Kindergarten fresh from childhood. When I arrived, I did not Read or do Math like preschoolers do today. I do remember that my mother read to me a lot. And she got me to memorize a lot of songs and poems. That made me semi-literate I guess.
The school was small and the Sisters of the Incarnate Word taught two grades in the each classroom except for Kindergarten. They kept adding classrooms every year or so. I had the same teacher, Sister Joseph, for grades 2 through 5, she moved up with our class. She was a very nice teacher and had a reputation of being fair. Because I picked up Reading and Math quickly I got skipped from First Grade to Third Grade. This made my parents proud but made me miserable.. I was the youngest and smallest in my class forever more.
During the first few years I rode the school bus. There was a stop about two blocks away and, since it was only the second stop, there was always a choice seat. By fifth grade, I had a bike and usually rode it to school. It was only 1.5 miles to the school and it was much faster than taking the bus.
For sixth through eighth grades I had Sister Perpetua. She was tough and very demanding. Under her tutelage I learned to Diagram sentences with subordinate clauses. I also got smacked with a yard stick for cutting up in class. By this time we no longer had two grades per classroom, and Grades 7 and 8 were housed in Temporary buildings out by the playground... I remember these Classrooms were very cold in the winter.
We had about 20 in our class and I had the seat at the back row in the first column. That meant I had a job of adjusting the window behind my desk. The window was attached to the frame by a pair of hinges at the top and was held open by a 3 foot long 1 x 2 . It had two positions Open and Closed. There were no screens on the windows. With no Air Conditioning this was the best seat in the classroom
posted by Edwin Herndon at 8:44 AM
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