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Items of Interest
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Items of Interest
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When I reflect on my years of teaching at Iroquois S.D. #303, a one-room eight-grade schoolhouse, several things come to mind as being very memorable.
The first and possibly the most important in the situation was the closeness and good happy relationships between the students and myself. Having lived in the district, I knew all the students and their parents, and this was a great asset, as one could quickly assess the capabilities. We could also have interesting discussions about things relating to the farm children, such as new combines, tractors or threshing outfits in the district.
I particularly remember the good times we had at noon hours on cold winter days, when everyone stayed indoors and we played croquinole, or cards, or the smaller children had a chance to "play school" and be the teacher. This was quite funny as I would hear many of the expressions I had used. It was a real experience "to see yourself as your students way you", and make corrections accordingly. Sometimes, we danced square dances and this was a real chance for the older boys and girls to lose their shyness with the opposite, unpredictable sex, as one was never sure if girls preferred to dance with a boy or another girl.
In the summer, we all ate our lunch under the trees outside, and this was another chance to chat and discuss interesting things, as we also did, walking to and from school on nice, warm fall days. I well remember the morning of September 1, 1939 when World War II broke out and we were all predicting dire outcomes. The boys were fascinated by the powerful tanks, guns and planes which would be involved--but this aspect I am afraid I could not share and my arguments against the sad waste of human lives and resources sometimes fell on deaf ears.
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