Someone suggested last week that I should share some of my school day memories in this Monday, Remember When segment. As it just so happens I have a lot of them so I’ve decided to do this in parts. At the moment I’m not sure how many parts that will be, but hopefully it will spark some memories in our readers and they will be moved to share some of their own experiences, either by replying to the newsletter email, or if you’re on the website, in the comments below or in the newly created School Day Memories Space.
As a curious kid who loved stories, I had a very early start. My mother would read to me every night before bed from the time I could sit up straight, and I could never get enough. I remember when I was about four, the story, The Little Engine Who Could was printed in one of the publications we received in the mail. I want to say the Western Producer but I’m not positive. Anyway Mum read it out of the paper the first night and I loved it so much I begged for a repeat the following night, and the night after that, and the one after that. Finally Mum just cut it out of the paper to make it easier to manage than the newspaper. It eventually got so worn and yellowed some of the words started to fade. That didn’t matter because by then I knew the whole thing by heart. If Mum faltered for more than a second I’d tell her what came next.
The story was so engrained in my memory that when we visited an Aunt and Uncle I could tell the whole story to my cousins who had apparently never heard it before since they praised my telling so highly. Yes I had a bit of an ego in those days, even though Mum told me, ‘pride goeth before a fall’. I thought she meant autumn at the time and I couldn’t quite figure out what she was getting at.
The Alberta Board of Education had decreed that in order to attend grade one in an actual school you had to be six years old when school opened in September. My birthday being at the beginning of November didn’t qualify. Neither I nor my mother thought that was fair so she sent away for Grade One correspondence lessons and taught me herself at home. I absolutely loved it. Through the winter months I spent several hours a day practicing reading and printing which I had already been doing for a while. I learned my numbers and created murals and learned all manner of new things.
We didn’t have electricity on the farm so I tried to get all my lessons done during the day to avoid eyestrain in the evening under an oil lamp. When summer came and weather got hotter we would go out in the shade of the trees for schoolwork and that made it all the better since I loved being out side. I was so gung ho I even wanted to do school work on the weekends which Mum didn’t mind as it was one of the few times in the day when she knew where I was.
In part two I’ll tell you about my first attendance in a real school along with the joys and disappointments that brought.
Our shared experience: Please share some of your earliest memories of learning and school attendance whether happy or traumatic.
Warmly
Bill