William Penn Elementary - Class Time

In Kansas City I had just finished learning how to print the full alphabet. I was surprised in the middle of first grade (at another school - we had a rental home before we moved to the home we bought on Vincent Ave N). The surprise in Minneapolis was that some of the letters in the alphabet were shaped differently! What? In Minneapolis they taught, for example, that the lower case printed "g" was just like it appears in the newspaper. That was my first introduction to "fonts" - even though I did not realize it at the time. I managed just fine learning the new shapes.

The most wonderful thing about school was sitting by Victoria Paurus in third and fourth grade. Victoria was my best friend and we spent our free time drawing ice skaters or ladies in ballroom dresses. I visited her home once and she had a shelf with a collection of horses. I don't remember that we were able to have any other time together outside of school - she lived North of our school and I lived South. In fact, I don't think anyone had anything like sleep-overs or came over to play unless you were in the same neighborhood. I recently searched and searched and found her photo from junior high. I found her birthday was June 25, 1949, and that she got married in 1974 to a Donald Johnson. It appears that they have both passed away but I was unable to find their obituaries. It warms my heart to see her smile.

In second grade our teacher, Mrs. Weber, loved to read to us and she also had us memorize poetry. The only one I remember is In Flanders Fields. I had no idea what it was about until I was in high school and took American History. The Song of Hiawatha was also a popular poem during these school years with its Minnesota connection. 

I was blessed with a wonderful third grade teacher, Mrs. Rourke, who was also left handed. THAT meant that I learned to hold a pencil just like the right handed students with the pencil pointing back to my elbow. It didn't matter that my hand covered what I was writing - in fact, it never occurred to me that it was happening. We learned the Palmer Method of handwriting and had practice sessions learning the shapes and later writing whole words. The blackboard in the front of the room had the alphabet  (Upper and Lower case letters) across the top. The blackboard was very important; it was where our spelling words were listed, where the math problems were posted - everything we were learning was either in our books or on the blackboard. We had to copy what was on the blackboard to our own paper. No worksheets and no homework. 

My fourth grade teacher was Mrs. Stinglein. I had 27 classmates and each one signed my autograph book. Lynda Erickson was in my class; she was my next door neighbor and we walked to school together.

When we went to the chalkboard to do a math problem we had to stand with our non-dominant hand behind our back. AND, it was a big honor to be picked to clean the erasers after school. You had to take them outside to the back of the school and pound them against the brick wall!

There was always a flag in the front of the room and we said the Pledge of Allegiance each morning. I don't remember any art or music classes at all! Doesn't mean we did not have them. I also don't remember a lunch room. I am guessing I took a sack lunch and paid my 2 cents for milk. Then out to recess.

I was very excited one summer when I learned that the library was open one day a week! That was the beginning of my love affair with books and reading. The summer before 4th grade I read the whole series of the Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Libraries are magical places - the smell of all of those books means "home" to me.