Country School Legacy #09 - Doris Hoffman Interview (Dickinson County)

Scope and content: Index
Doris Hoffman
Dickinson County
October 16, 1980

Time: Description
0036: Name of school attended; College Hill, Marion County

0049: College Hill School; Attended 1921-1929

0084: The inside of College Hill school; Desks faced south; Little desks on east side of room - as got older moved to west desks; Boys and girls cloak room

0138: Playground equipment; Teeter totter; Merry go-round; Basketball goals

0157: A day at school; Opening exercises; Start with first grade reading and go up through the grades until recess; Math second period; Teacher on playground too; English, Geography, spelling

0218: Teachers; Remembers eighth grade teacher the most

0260: The eighth grade exam; Teachers reviewed years work with them; Nervous - a strange environment, strange teachers

0304: Walked to school - lived a mile from school; If weather bad, uncle or father would come with a team and wagon

0320: Dad went to College Hill too. He recalled watching longhorn cattle drive going by the school. Texas to Abilene

0344: Math favorite subject

0350: Decided to become a teacher in second year of college. Practice - taught in McPherson city schools

0365: Applying for first school; Work application and send it to different school boards; First taught at Redwood school - stayed across the road because home was ten miles way. The Biehlers

0404: Charged one dollar a day for board, earned fifty five dollars a month (for twenty days)

0410: First days of school; Five children in school - 1 in first, 1 in fourth, two in fifth, one in sixth; Three families in school

0430: Went to Harvey district next year; Nineteen children, six in eighth grade, no seventh graders

0455: Some of her eight graders got on high honor roll in the county - made her proud

0474: Changes in curriculum from when she went to school to when she began to teach

0505: Sent homework home or student took books come as a matter of course

0518: School library

053: Had art class

0537: Used clarinet to lead music because she didn't play piano

0544: Programs; Christmas carols to tune of the clarinet; Only had an old organ in the first school she had; Little plays, recitations

0582: Last day of school dinner, Valentine's day

0596: Gifts from students; Vases, candy dishes; Marlow woodcut from school board in the Harvey district at end of school - (her first Marlow woodcut (Marlow is a craft concern in Americus, Kansas) - she now has an extensive collection of these wood cuts)

0630: Outstanding students; Astronaut Joe Engel in her eighth grade at Chapman; A veterinary medicine professor in Missouri

0646: Ornery students; Richard and she made a list of things he got in trouble for at school; Got lickings at home when she got in dutch at school, and so when he started to do something he oughtn't do, she'd just say "Richard - It's on the list!" and he'd quit. He is now a college professor

0682: Difference in discipline between then and now; she doesn't remember any discipline problems in her classes; She was a disciplinarian

0719: Parents not supporting teachers in discipline nowadays

0743: Quality of education compared; Now have equipment to help in teaching - things with the sophistication of modern teaching, students ought to be getting a good education now

0849: Encouraging the gifted children; Materials were there, though, for all the children

0929: Started to teach after two years of college; Three year state certificate. After three years of teaching became a life certificate; Summer schools

0957: Talks about some of her summer schools and further education; Tour of Kansas - 2000 mile trip to see sights and industries in Kansas. Helped teach Kansas social studies; Trip to Cuba, Hawaii, Alaska, Nova Scotia for college credit

1164: Often invited to students homes, even to stay all night; Thought that was good

1180: By the time she was married, it was okay to be married and teaching

1214: Didn't stay for long, the teachers, because trying to work up to a town school, or less grades or more money; Found out about jobs through county superintendent or maybe recruited by the school board, in lucky cases

1255: Schools taught; Harvey - Rural Center; Bonaccord - Charleton; Chapman - Hope