B-r-r-ring! The school bells toll!
This month a new school year begins, but rather than the "ding-dongs" of yesteryear, buzzers are the norm. My article will feature school life about 50 to 60 years ago.
When the school bell rang in those days, students lined up outdoors in classroom groups. After the order was given, they filed two-by-two, lower grades first, Grade 8 last into the spacious hallway marching to snappy piano music played by a teacher. After the salute to the Union Jack flag, the Lord's Prayer and a song or two, classes marched into their classrooms. N.B. Collegiate Institute, Convent of the Child Jesus and St. Thomas College may have had various different beginnings to their days than the elementary school opening exercises described above.
Everyone including most of the teachers walked to school. The parking lot at NBCI consisted of a short curved driveway that was never full. At noon all students and most teachers walked home for lunch since school did not resume until 1:30 p.m. Some teachers took a bag lunch. There was no kitchen, no refrigerator, no stove nor a microwave, since that appliance had not been invented. A coffee percolator was the extent of modern appliances in a staffroom. Teachers worked through part of the noon break then some went on the playground to help students learn to play softball, hockey and other games. Every school had an outdoor rink poured for the winter. School classes continued until 4 p.m.
After 4 p.m., sports supervisors hosted a team from another elementary school or took a team to another school to compete. Those supervisors generally had to buy a car to transport skates or ball gloves and goalie or catcher equipment while the students ran to their destination. One beginning teacher bought his first car at the end of the first week of teaching. He paid $75 for it at Calvert Motors. Suffice it to say, that car was not new.
Sports supervisors were paid an additional $200 per year for their coaching positions. A beginning teacher's salary was $2,600 per year unless one started with a BEd. or BA degree. Most started with an interim certificate (one year of teachers college, formerly Normal School) or their standard certificate (two years of training), taking summer, correspondence, and/or night classes for years to attain their degrees. The first year a teacher received five cheques instead of four to cover September to December. The cheque of $169 for September given to a new teacher the first day of school was a welcome surprise since most of them started absolutely "broke." Pay envelopes were delivered to schools at each month's end by the maintenance supervisor. Some teachers even left at noon to cash their checks and pay utility and other bills.
Dress code for female teachers was: dress or skirt and blouse or sweater, high heels and nylon stockings or support hose for older (40+) teachers. High school girls wore skirted uniforms (COCJ) or skirts and blouses or sweaters (NBCI) adding tights in the winter. A petition originated by parents was circulated in the early 1960s requesting that high school girls be allowed to wear slacks (pants) in winter. By 1966 even teachers were allowed to wear dressy pantsuits to school. The men wore suits, white dress shirts and ties with dress shoes. It was quite a sight to see a man demonstrating base running or skating backwards, tie flapping in the breeze. Just as interesting was watching a female teacher trying to demonstrate batting or broad jumping in high heels with skirt billowing!
Principals had an administrative allowance, but also taught full days in their own classrooms. Classrooms had from 15 to 40 students in each, depending on the grade level. Some Grade 3 or 4 classes had 38 or more at times. There were no secretaries, educational assistants or consultants. The caretaker was the only staff member other than teachers. He was the "technological advisor."
Regarding technology, schools had one telephone in the principal's office. It was used for educational business and emergencies. People used their home telephone for making appointments and personal use. The principal's office housed the only typewriter (except for the high schools who taught typing). It was rarely used by anyone other than the principal due to time constraints. Nearly everyone was a two-finger typist including the principal.
Each classroom had a record player. In many cases, because the one electrical outlet was just above floor level and usually under the chalkboards, record players sat open on the floor, often with a vinyl record on the turntable. Those were excellent collectors of dirt and chalk dust, thus producing some distorted sounds when in use.
The school housed filmstrips and a filmstrip projector or two. These stationary images were viewed on a screen that had to be carted from a storage room and set up on its tripod at the front of the room. In Connaught School one of the Grade 1 classes was taught reading with the Laidlaw Readers. The publishers used filmstrips as a learning tool. The little children felt very privileged that besides readers and workbooks they were entitled to watch a show every single day. That classroom had a roll-down screen above the chalkboard.
A reel-to-reel moving film projector was available in house, but films had to be ordered on loan from the Department of Education. There was no television in any school. A television was for entertainment in the home of a well-to-do family.
Copiers such as Xerox were unknown. The latest in copy machines was a spirit duplicator. A teacher would print, write or type his/her assignment on a sheet which had a backing attached. The words or drawings would show on the back in heavy purple ink. The sheet was fitted into a slot on the round drum and locked. The alcohol container would be filled from a jug and fitted upside down into place. The teacher would turn a handle 30 times or for as many students as needed. Voila! Copies piled up on a tray. Eventually the ink on the master copy wore out, but hopefully not until the required copies had been spit out.
This method, while being somewhat messy, was an improvement (in tidiness at least) over the Gestetner or mimeograph machine that was used for copying large quantities. It required one to brush thick black ink on the drum. Teachers could be seen with black blotches on sleeves, ties and various body parts. Even with that, it was better than a hectograph pad that was used in rural schools and town schools as well. With it a teacher could make only a half dozen readable copies. Often the child getting the last copy would have to "squint and guess." When an electric duplicator was purchased for a school, teachers felt truly blessed!
The bane of a teacher's job description was the keeping of the student register. This was a very important legal document! It had to be meticulously filled out daily. The numbers in columns and rows had to tally; average daily and monthly attendances, percentage of attendances, etc., had to be calculated. There were no hand-held calculators for use. Any teacher weak in math skills detested the task. One teacher at Lawrence School could not "tally up" and made such a mess trying, that at the end of the school year he got a new register, wrote in students' names, ticked each day attended by every child for every month, re-calculated the figures and, after working all night, managed to hand in a correct student register June 30.
Young teachers socialized on weekends. One might see somebody carrying a blanket-wrapped bundle to a house on a Friday night. Teachers would go downstairs to a basement suite where a married couple lived. There they would talk about the week's events at school, their problems and successes, the pupils and the administrators. The evening progressed to singing school and camping songs and various other little ditties. Since most were underage to inhabit hotel lounges and because it would have been a blot on their reputations as professional educators, they did not frequent those public places. In fact, the bundles were purchased out of the city, usually in Delmas.
On Saturdays, when the planning and preparations for the following school week were done, teachers would sometimes meet at Bready School in the auditorium for a game of wastepaper basketball. A chair was set in front of the stage and another at the opposite side of the room. A member of each team would stand on the chairs holding a wastepaper basket. The game would be on! It was perfectly legal to move the basket to help a teammate score.
No elementary school had a gymnasium so this game filled the bill. NBCI and St. Thomas College each had a gymnasium, but elementary and secondary educations were administered by two different school boards and the teachers did not get to know people in the other division in those days.
Beginning teachers often had surprises in their new profession. In 1959 Miss E.A. Carnegie, BEd, was hired to teach social studies and physical education at NBCI. Dr. A. Ositis and his family had just moved to the city with two daughters in high school. The girls, Irene and Larissa Ositis, asked Miss Carnegie if tennis could be played. Since there were courts with posts but no nets behind the school, Miss Carnegie (eventually Liz Rotzein) and Mr. Frijouf, the boys' phys. ed. teacher, found one holey net in storage, mended the holes, and hung it on the posts, tightening it with the help of a Volkswagen. Each evening Liz studied tennis manuals.
Within weeks the two sisters asked to compete in the northern finals in Saskatoon. They borrowed school jackets from athletes and directed Miss Carnegie to the Riversdale Tennis Club in the big city. When they walked into the gym the looks they got were frowns. Miss C. was dismayed to hear comments, "Oh no!" and "Not them!" She was perplexed and dismayed at the attitudes of the other girls. Irene and Larissa both reached the semifinals in singles play and won first place in doubles. The provincial finals was snowed out so they went no further.
What their teacher didn't know beforehand was that they were ranked very high in provincial junior tennis circles while residing in Regina before the move to North Battleford.
In the 1959-60 NBCI.yearbook under "Tennis," there is a photo of the two girls with the trophy cup and Miss C. behind it. In prior yearbooks tennis was not listed as a sport. Miss Carnegie moved on to teach in Regina and so she did not know what two girls and two innovative teachers got started that year. In the 1960-61 yearbook under the tennis heading a photo of 13 students is shown. Written is: "Our tennis club has over twenty enthusiastic members, many of which have never played before. A few practices were held in the gymnasium in March and instructions were given by Irene and Larissa Ositis … With the support and co-operation of all, I'm sure that we will have a most interesting and successful tennis season."
The teaching profession provides one with varied days and unexpected joys. There was never a dull moment in those "good old days."
Note: The City of North Battleford Historic Archives is looking for a 1958-59 NBCI yearbook.
