Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1912-04-25

one in which l received my early
training, while controlled by poor
teacher In a later article, the same
school with a good teacher will be de-
scribed.
May say, as Introductory, that the
good teacher is not valued as she
Should be and never has been. Her
worth cannot be measured by the dol
lars and cents she receives. Many
a one now freely giving the best en-
ergies of her life, to aid the boys and
girls in some remote district, will not
receive the full reward for her efforts
until these boys and gils have grown
old and her steps falter and her locks
are silvered, will they point to her
and say, "There is the teacher who
gave us our start; she it is who start
ed us Alright and made us feel that we
should amount to something in the
world; that we should study and toll
for some worthy purpose; to her un-
firing zeal we owe much of our pres
ent success in life"
The boys and girls (now several
years older) will describe the school
somewhat as the poor teacher, kept
it,"
This teacher was certainly, "a
round peg in square hole" or ga
in
She didn't love children and took
no interest in us. She said if we did
not learn, it was our own fault, not
hers. We never even thot of having
our lessons well learned and of really
understanding them. Whether we
learned them or not was all the same
to her. We were Indifferent, sloven-
ly, shiftless, unmannerly and often
uncleanly.
Our teacher was very slack in every
way. She did not feel any response
bility for the cleanliness and beauty
of the school room, which was swept
once a week and scrubbed once
year.
Her table was Uttered with every-
thing imaginable and covered with
the dust of ages.
The stove, if it had ever enjoyed
a coat of backing, had long since for
gotten the pleasure, for it was now
covered with various artistic designs
of the pupils.
The blackboard crayon, scattered
about the yard and school room, had
been used to accomplish this work.
Which consisted of caricatures Of
most of the pupils and teacher posing
in different attitudes. Of course the
names were written above that they
might be recognized. There were
also pictures of various animals and
other things too numerous to recount
And if perchance the stove had 100
small a surface to satisfy the artistic
genius of some of the pupils, the stove
pipe was used
The stove was also decorated with
various shaped yellow scars and these
were also to be seen upon the floor
around the stove and were more pro-
nounced upon and around the coal
scuttle What were they, do you
ask? These We're contributed by
few of the larger boys who had al
ready become quite proficient in the
use of snuff and tobacco tho they
were accomplished in little else. The
teacher paid but little attention to
these matters as she adhered rather
closely to the books and didn't wish
to NEEDLE with the liberties of her
pupils.
I think you will agree with me if
say that the heating plant in that
school room was not thing of beauty
calculated to teach habits of neatness
and cleanliness
There was a lake about four feet
square in one corner of the room Ca
lake is body of water surrounded by
Ae|hO VI VII ~. AL OuLSlU0I u1glL
think that this was to illustrate some
lesson in geography, but not so. for
this was the corner where the water
pail sat. Pupils in this school didn't
think of getting drink until school
called when they would all rush for
the pail as if it we're huge foot ball.
The big center rush would grab the
dipper first, take few swallows,
throw the rest back into the pail and
upon the floor, then he would hand
the dipper to his particular chum So
the drinking or mussing continued I'M
til all had stayed at the pail as long
as they wished. OF course there
was much pushing, pinching, punch
ing and whispering during this time.
After about fifteen minutes, thus
spent, the teacher who had become