School Days

Posted by Maggie on Saturday, April 18, 2009 | Leave a Reply

Studying was not always an easy thing to do in my home due to the fact that some of the houses we lived in when I was a child had no electricity.

Chores and home work had to be completed before dark because we only had a kerosene lamp and little light from the fireplace during the winter time.

Homework was handed out every day. If it was not completely finished and handed back to the teacher the next day, the student would receive ten smacks with a ruler on the hand.

Older kids would sometimes tease the younger or smaller students during the recess period. At times, some children dreaded going to the playground.

Only the fastest kids got to the swings, sliding board or checked out the jump ropes at recess. Sometimes, a few of the children played marbles which was brought from home. If anyone got angry at losing and tried to start a fight, the teacher would take all the marbles and put them in her desk.

Lunchtime was hard to wait for each day because the wonderful odors of home cooked style food filled the halls at the school.



Dusting the erasers and cleaning the blackboards were chores most all the children loved to do. The teacher would usually pick two of the most behaved students in class each day to do this chore.

Apple days in grade school were a treat. The minute we would step inside the school, we could smell them. A large basket would be placed outside each classroom door in the hallway. They were large red apples which were given to the schools from the government and believe me, they were delicious.

Years have passed and so many changes have taken place with the students, teachers and schools. More time seems to be spent these days on sports and having fun than learning Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic.

School days are not as safe for students now as it was when I attended school. It is true we had bullies at times but a trip to the principal`s office could cure that problem in a hurry. These days, children are killing each other with guns, knives, drugs and beating each other to death.