"School Days" from 1907
- I always loved school, loved teaching school and have many good memories myself.
- The clarity and detail of Aunt Grace's memory is AH-MAY-ZING!
- Aunt Grace just seemed to light up as she thought of more detail and stories to share!
Aunt Grace and Aunt Marge felt fortunate that because of where they lived, they got to go to school in Oswego and not the one-room schoolhouse. First thru third grades were in the little white schoolhouse, a two-room school that had a total of 30-40 students with 15-20 in each room. One class had all the first graders and half of the second graders while the other classroom had half of the second graders and all of the third graders. Fourth grade through high school were all in the larger school where the Oswego Post Office is now.
Her first grade teacher was Isabelle Ruble; fourth grade was Ila Harrison. She had the same teacher, Virginia Crossman, for second, third and fifth grades! Apparently she built quite a relationship with Miss Crossman who married Pete Campbell. Aunt Marge used to babysit for the Campbell children and Aunt Grace had the use of their cradle for all four of her girls!
Four of the Zielke children graduated from high school; the other four did not. George, Henry and Bertha attended school in Downers Grove before they made the move to Oswego. Each of them went through eighth grade. When Ray had to repeat first grade, it probably helped Grandma realize that academia was NOT his thing, because Aunt Grace doesn't remember that she was very upset when he decided to quit school when he was sixteen, probably the end of his freshman year.
Aunt Grace believes it was probably good that Ray did leave school because the boys he hung out with weren't of the best character. After Ray left school and no longer hung out with them, that group harassed Principal Melvin Attig so much that he committed suicide by driving in front of the third rail train! This young principal (only 30-40 years old) had been one of Mary Ellen's teachers at East High in Aurora before he became the principal in Oswego. The Oswego mayor's son, Andrew Pierce, was one of the boys in the group and probably a major reason that the boys were only punished with community service.
Aunt Grace did well in school and got good grades, especially in spelling! She said she probably got an early boost on her education as she would sit at the table with Grandma when she was helping Ray with his schoolwork after failing first grade. Homework was always done sitting at the dining room table in the evening. She also remembers that there were no bookbags back then. You carried your books and sometimes they were pretty heavy. I suppose that's why boys got the idea to offer to carry the books for girls they were sweet on; an opportunity to showcase their muscles!
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| 1927 Hardcover Edition "Many stories of animals and birds, nature, festivals and slumberland. 144 pages; a great book for the young reader." |
Remembering different subjects through her school years, Aunt Grace shared these memories:
Reading: They learned to read using a series of Elson Readers. Pictured above is the Primer; the rest of the books in the series look very similar. These were the pre-Dick and Jane books as Dick and Jane made their first appearance in 1930 in the Elson-Gray Readers. The Elson Readers consisted of individual short stories as noted in the caption above.
Math: There were no textbooks. The problems were written on the board and worked on paper. They also had worksheets created through a type of gel-ink pressed onto the paper; the pre-cursor to the dittos we can all remember.
Spelling: There were new words presented each week with a test given over the words, just as we all learned to spell. Aunt Grace loved spelling and got really good grades in it!
Penmanship: In those days, children were only taught cursive from the beginning and they practiced daily.
In the upper grades, more subjects were added:
Geography: Aunt Grace particularly remembers learning about the Tigris and Euphrates River System in western Asia. She wasn't certain why that memory stood out.
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| Euphrates River Iraq |
Science: No memories to share there, other than the fact that she didn't like it!
Music: In fifth grade they started music lessons. There was a piano in the classroom and Reeve Thompson was the music teacher.
English: Aunt Grace LOVED diagramming sentences. In fact, she enjoyed it so much, she believes that had she continued her education, she probably would have become an English teacher!
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| Sentence diagram for "Giraffes can clean their ears with their long tongues." Can you name all the parts of the sentence? |
Mathematics: Aunt Grace made it through Algebra, but called it quits at Geometry! Math was not one of her favorite subjects. She spent a lot of time with her friend, Lyle, who helped her get through Algebra. Looking back, she's certain that Lyle was gay. It wasn't anything she suspected back then. In those days, no one said anything or talked about it, although she believes the boys at school probably knew.
Home Economics: The girls took three years of Cooking and Sewing classes back then. The school board purchased the "Home Ec House" a block away from the school and the girls would go there for class. The cooking classes were taught downstairs while the sewing classes were taught upstairs where they had high sewing tables. There was also a meeting room upstairs.
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| A Home Ec Classroom |
In addition to cooking and sewing, Home Ec classes typically taught girls how to care for themselves and their homes. Aunt Grace remembers that on the first day of class, Mrs. Schmidt gave the girls an assignment to go home and cut out pictures of deodorant from magazines. Poor Grace didn't know what deodorant was and the only magazines they had at home were The Farm Journal. So, she cut out pictures of Lysol! To help you understand why she would have chosen that, I'm sure the discussion about deodorant included hygiene. The following is a Lysol ad from a Farm Journal in the 1940s!
Finally, there were typing and shorthand classes. These classes were beneficial for girls looking toward a career after their school years. Some girls went on to the Metro Business College for 6 months to enhance their skills. Aunt Grace had to take a typing test to get her job with the Civil Service during World War II, so the skills she learned were definitely to her benefit.
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| A typing class in the 1940s |
Aunt Dorothy was the only one of the eight who went on to college after graduating from high school. She attended Northern Illinois University in Dekalb where she lived in a house with a group of other girls. There were 4-5 bedrooms with 2 girls per room with a refrigerator in the basement. Dorothy majored in Home Economics, specializing in Cooking. She taught for awhile and later opened a preschool in the church basement.
As we think about Aunt Grace's experiences and compare them to our own, it's obvious kids then had experiences similar to our own, to our children and even to our grandchildren. Some of us liked school. Others didn't. Some did well in school. Others didn't. Typically, we have favorite subjects and those subjects that make us think we'd prefer a poke in the eye! There were bullies and will probably always be bullies. Some of us were bullied; others of us may have been the bully, even unintentionally! (Time for some self-reflection right there!) There were kids who were "different" and probably suffered for it. Maybe we were the "different" ones. Some of us couldn't wait to get out of school and swear we didn't learn anything in school to help us in the "real world." Others chose to go on to college or technical schools earning certificates or degrees and rely on that education to do our jobs every day. One thing for certain that we all share, is that our time in school provided memories and had an impact on our lives. That, we all have in common!
"School Days" as recorded by
Chuck Berry in 1957
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