Country School Legacy #08 - Velma Siddens Interview (Pottawatomie County)

Scope and content: Index
Velma Siddens
Pottawatomie County
October 4, 1980

Time: Description
0020: Schools taught; Vegner - Flint Rock; Loux - Moodyville; Jenkins - Westmoreland grade school for 37 years; Church

0047: Attended school - 1915 started

0058: First day of school - not pleasant, was afraid; Teacher Glenn Hoffman; An only child

0097: Wicker lunch basket

0118: Cold Winters; Set lunches around stove so they wouldn't freeze

0132: Kind of lunch; Pork sandwiches; Apples

0153: Jenkins school description - she attended; Nook on west side where stove stood

0188: Being cold when she got to school

0201: Skating at noon on the creek

0216: Playing at the creek; Mudslides down to creek

0236: Large school - 19-20 students; Wilma Scott, May Tibbetts, and Jr. Potter were classmates

0266: Teachers; Mr. Hoffman played trombone during noon hour; Kept the horn in the sill of a north window; Mr. Hoffman stayed two years - "a good teacher"

0286: Big eighth grade boys got muddy - Mr. Hoffman cleaned them with newspapers

0326: Teachers; Florence Knicht; Clara St. John - a beginning teacher; Miss Pearl Drake; Marie Murphy - "really a good teacher"

0349: Programs and box suppers; Drills, dialogues and recitations

0364: Special holidays; Valentines Day - boxes; Went in with King school, Jenkins school, and Sales school for a Christmas program at the church

0383: Other uses of Jenkins school; 4-H club meetings

0391: Subjects studied

0400: Didn't like geography; Maps were in the south of the building - couldn't orient them to get the top to the north

0420: Liked reading and grammar (diagraming)

0433: Spelling contests in Westmoreland for better spellers in all schools; Spelled "'twas" wrong

0453: Eighth grade exam; Seventh grade exam: Geography, Kansas history, physiology; Eighth grade exam: examined in all the studies; Had to get an average of eighty on the seventh grade exam

0482: Why she wanted to be a teacher; Wanted to be a nurse at first, but her mother was a teacher; Taught to make money for nurses training, but never quit

0504: Normal training in high school; Studied how to teach the branches in last year of high school; Visited country schools to observe methods; Teachers had taught in rural schools too

0536: First day of teaching - first school north of Fostoria; So far from home - scared and frightened; No musical instrument - eight pupils - tiny chalkboard; Remembers they sang "America"; Tried to follow the schedule of classes like "Miss Marie" had

0574: School day

0607: Students in the country usually went on to high school then got married

0625: Most from farming families

0636: Those who went on to college didn't come back to Westmoreland

0646: Discipline; Tried to be like Miss Marie and Mr. Hoffman; "Always good little kids: - more quiet in their homes, expected to be more quiet; More discipline at home then

0689: The recitation period; "Third grade reading: Turn. Rise. Pass." Stood at bench until she said "be seated" - The way her teachers had done

0707: Not too much time for individual attention, but upper grade classes helped. Plus younger grades learned from listening to older classes

0736: Remembers listening to "Evangeline" being read and discussed - loved it

0758: Had to learn poetry; "The Children's hour"; "October's bright blue weather" - Helen Hunt Jackson; Parts of Evangeline; Had her students memorize it too

0780: Textbooks used; Some were the same she'd studied from; Call & Kent Agriculture; Kansas Readers

0816: Children brought texts

0823: Sent homework home; Not too much because kids had chores to do at home; Chores occupied children in those days

0865: Joke: She walked to school, children she taught walked to school. Now kids get picked up in busses and have to have gym class to get their exercise

0872: Recess games - how to play these games; "Bear" "Pump Pump Pullaway" - a rough game "Kick the Picket"; "New Orleans" - a charade game that also involved chasing and catching; Had swings

1027: Firing stove the night before; One night found a tramp had spent the night and burned up the fuel; Burned wood early, then coal. Cobs used to start the coal. Had to break coal chunks with hammer

1076: School board provided fuel

1085: County superintendents visits; Didn't know they were coming until they came; Examined registers of students to see if they were up to date

1104: Changing schools; Word of mouth to learn about vacancies; Calling on board members - across plowed ground, etc.

1132: Account of retirement program - honored for teaching career