1940 – 1948, 8:30 a.m. Genevieve Schmitt, who is in my grade, has the job to get to school about six o’clock and make the wood fire in the furnace. I have a hook for clothes in the entry room and a space for my lunchbox on the shelf with everyone else. Just as I enter the classroom my teacher greets me with a good morning and allows me to stand on the grate of the furnace to warm up.
BY Jean Kelley
As the assignments for the sixth, seventh and eighth grades are written on the blackboard, I take my seat and study for my book report while I listen to the teacher as she teaches the two little first grade students how to read the Dick and Jane book. The spelling words the first grade had to learn today were taken from the reading lesson and were written on the board. Every day the teacher had each grade, one at a time, sit on a bench up in front of the classroom with her and do their lessons. After she finished with the reading and spelling lessons it was about time for recess. We all had to go out and play for the fifteen minutes. Some of the games were for all grades and some were group games. The little students played Ring Around the Rosie or London Bridge is Falling Down, Tag, and many other games with a ball or race games to keep them warm and moving if it was cold. Today, because it is so cold, I am happy to play Prisoners Base, a fast-moving game.
Back into my seat, now it is time for math and the teacher has each grade, from the first to the fifth, one at a time up front doing adding and subtracting examples on the blackboard. I have my timetables to study and write. The teacher will come to each one of us before lunch and check our morning work to help us or answer any questions we might have. Lunchtime is here and we all get our lunchbox and sit in our seats to eat because it is too cold to eat outside today, but nice days we can go outside for lunch. Lunchtime is so great- we can chat and play games if we have some time left. The bell just rang. Lunch time is over. Now it is time for history. We have a bookcase in the back of the classroom with books if you want to look something up or want to find information that you can’t find in your textbook. The teacher is writing our assignments for tomorrow on the blackboard. The lower grade students are coloring and drawing or helping each with math flashcards. I am doing a book report that has to be turned in Friday.
Now it is time for our afternoon recess and to play outside again. It is warmer and we are going to play baseball. The teacher is standing on the little porch, keeping an eye on all twenty-four of us. The younger students are playing tag. The teacher let a first grader ring the bell to let everyone know it’s time to go in. Back in my seat, I check my assignments the teacher is writing on the board. I like to get a head start for tomorrow. All my work for today is completed and passed in. My duty for the week is to clap the chalk erasers and wash the blackboards. Each week the teacher will assign certain jobs to students such as clap the chalk erasers and wash the blackboards; sweep the classroom floor; sweep the entry room; wash out the water cooler; empty waste baskets; and go out to raise the flag on the pole, take it down at the end of the school day and fold it up carefully. Every morning two students would have the job of getting a pail of drinking water from Mrs. Brown’s house which was the other side of the bridge and across the road. Now that all the students have done their jobs and are back to their seats we are dismissed for the day.
As we came in the entrance, there was a large pail with water in it and a ladle. It seems to me that even though the ladle was used, there was very little illness in the school. The room off the entry on the left was used for projects such as encyclopedia work. Up on the shelves were student lunchboxes. Some of us went home for lunch.
BY Barbara Peckham Hayes
-The First day of school: When we entered the classroom, there was a very strong odor of the floor being oiled. There were rows of desks and underclass boys were fitting the desks to each person. When we got to our desks, we were given books, which were put inside the desks. The older classmen with two big bottles were pouring ink into inkwells. There was one pencil and one stick pen which had a point. All the children lined up to go to the pencil sharpener. They were advised that they would have a certain amount of time to use the pencil and they would not get another one if they used it up too soon. The pens were supposed to last longer. For me, that was almost impossible because I was tense and I was pressing hard to write the Palmer Method, so the prongs of the pen were spread apart and I had two lines whenever I wrote with it.
-How did they run the school with 23 students and one teacher? I was extremely interested to see the 8th graders come down to the front to teach the 1st graders. It was difficult for me not to watch the proceedings, so there were many days when I had to stay after school because I hadn’t gotten my morning work done.
-The teacher, who had to manage some very difficult children, had a 15-inch ruler, and I don’t remember any girls being disciplined this way. The boys who did a minor infraction of the rules had their open hands exposed to the ruler. If there were a more severe infraction, the knuckles got hit. It was interesting to see that the boys did not want anyone to know that they felt the ruler.
-The Harwinton Fair: Every school in various districts competed to win prizes. Most of them had sand tables, which depicted a subject such as Indians or some historical event. Some schools had programs especially prepared for the Governor’s entertainment, such as songs they had composed.
