The school
Eleanor
Godley _

‘SCHOOL S STARTS again,

Remember.when you started
Grade 17.No matter how old you

“are, you can’t forget your first day of. .

school. You and I didn’t take pencils’ *

and paper with us that first day

because in those far-off times all that

fuff was furnished by the School
Board. ‘You were handed your ruler .”
and your pencil and you sat in your
fold-up seat with your hands behind’
your back (“Sit in position”) so they.
wouldn't get-you into any trouble.
My Grade’! teacher was a vast “

woman who had been teaching the
beginners in the public: school in
Prince George as long as anyone
could remember. She lived in'a
boarding house in town and was’
amous amongst several generations
bf the townspeople. She was very

arge in girth, which made it hard for’

her.to buy clothes, so she lived

entirely in enormous shapeless print”

dresses, which she sometimes put on’
de-out.' Nobody had the nerve, of-

course, to. bring this to her attention

she. was The Teacher. She had all.
orts of aplomb, thoroughly i intimi-,
lating to young and old alike, com-.
ined with a carrying voice.: More of.
i boom, that voice:
So all the six-year-olds coming to
r fi rst formal mecting with her

nging ‘God Save. the King in 1 the :
—. was to get us all seated,

our individed attention she’ would
weetly, and in'a a gentle voice,
“Pick Up your ruler)’. We would each”
have’one, at the top of the desk.
ve the groove for the pencil. We
would grab it quickly and when we

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were all at the ready, she would say.
still in dulcet tone “Now, drop it on
the floor”. . ;

We'd all relax enough to giggle a
bit and juin in this unexpected play-
fulness. Then when 30-odd rulers
had clattered on the floor she would
trunipet, at the top of her consider-
able Jungs, “DON'T EVER DO
THAT AGAIN”. It would sound like
thunder coming from the sky and we
would tremble and each of us would
geta strangle- -hold on that noisy
ruler to shut it up forever.

] marvel when chance, or a tele-
vision program. shows me a grade-
school in these days. The male
teachers don't wear jackets and ties.
Kids lie on the floor. reading or
drawing. or are in solitary communi-
cation with a computer, or are wan-
dering around the classroom on
some individual search for claritica-
tion. It must make teaching very dif-

ficult, without any positive shape. It

requires an elasticity foreign to
teachers of my gencration, who had
a syllabus — written in stone in *)
: Victoria — 'to which they hewed,

.- and on. yhich they would be quizzed

‘by the dreaded Inspector. when he

made his annual surprise visit.

My own beginning as a rookie
teacher were the most stringent one
could possibly encounter, of course.
1 wasn’talone, by any means —
lot of young women and some few
young men began their teaching
experience in a one-room school
miles from anywhere. in my case in
a “community” of five dispurate
families. only two of which were on
speaking terms, There were 12
school-age children in total, six from
one family, the mother of whom was
a read-headed virago who clearly
understood the clout that ratio

- bestowed on her. If she pulled out.

good-bye school. She made the most
of it, but who could blame her. grub-
bing as they all did, fiercely clawing
a minimal living from the earth... ¢

Well, that is just another example
of how times have changed for you
and me, there aren't any of those
country schools anymore, where
solitary young women knock them-
selves aut trying to bring a glimpse .
of a better way to live.

There are buses now, and televi- :

sion, and to suy “Sit in position”
would only draw blank stares. -

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