Letters to America Letters to AmericaI arrived in Rochester after the school year had begun. At first I was put into Grade 4, which was correct for my age. Teddy [3 months my junior] was already in that class. Sandy was in Grade 1, or it may have been 2. I was a fluent reader and had no difficulties with writing. Arithmetic was another matter. They were learning long multiplication, something I hadn’t been taught at all. I hadn’t any idea how to go about it and the teacher gave me no individual help. When it was discovered that I was not up to scratch I was put down into Grade 3, a year below where I ought to be. This of course was all too easy. I even managed the arithmetic. I was never allowed to change back. Perhaps I was lucky. It would not have been a good thing to be in the same class as Ted. And I had a good report ever after. We had a report card at the end of each semester. Subjects were marked E, S, I or U; these stood for Excellent, Satisfactory, Improvement needed and Unsatisfactory. I got straight Es most of the time. There was a back page however in which I did not do so well. This was devoted to appearance, behaviour and so on. I was well behaved but my appearance always left something to be desired and I never got anything higher than S and usually, I. What this did for my confidence in later years I can only guess. I think I’d still get the same marks.
We sat in 2s at wooden desks joined by a bench. I remember one year, I’m pretty sure it was grade 5, being asked who I would like to sit to next to. We were all asked to go up to the teacher’s desk one at a time for this and it was confidential. To my shame I said “I don’t mind, but not Myron Biggar please.” The teacher said, “Don’t worry. I wasn’t going to put anyone next to him.” Poor Myron smelled badly with BO.
When I returned to England I had just finished Grade 7, with Miss Auer. She was fat and jolly and I liked her. I forget the names of most of the other teachers, although Miss Van Lair was Grade 4. She was pretty and blonde and therefore popular. There was Miss Bluestone for Grade 1 and Miss O’Connell for Grade 2, but they didn’t concern me. Americans start in Grade 1 at age 6. Before that you might have gone to Kindergarten. All the teachers were MISS somebody. I suppose all the men were away at war. Also in those days if you married you did not continue as a teacher and I believe it was the same in England.
The school, otherwise known as Brighton #7, on Indian Landing Road, was not new and towards the end of the War there was talk of a new school being built further down the road; but it was not built until 1949 so I never saw it. We always cycled to school when the weather permitted, not of course in the winter. There were 2 floors and a basement, where there was a hall where we ate our lunches. The main entrance was up a flight of steps. On the left was the Principal’s office. She was Miss Spillane and she did not teach, but she was a regular visitor to the classrooms. Grades One, Seven and Eight were on this level, seven and eight being separated by a folding partition that was opened to provide a large hall for concerts. There was no other hall, but there was a school shop where we bought textbooks at a reduced price, second hand, and new workbooks as well as pencils and so on. The books were sold back at the end of the year I suppose. None of these were provided free so we had to look after them. I was surprised when I found that books were provided free in English schools. The rest of the classes were downstairs, 2 & 3 on one side of the corridor, 4, 5 & 6 on the other. Toilets were in the basement.
The school was built mainly of wood. Each classroom had an “ensuite” cloakroom for our coats and lunch boxes. Classes of 30 were the norm. Desks were the old fashioned kind, joined in 2s with wooden lids that lifted, and inkwells. The seats were integral. There would be one blackboard and a US flag on a pole behind the teacher’s desk. Every morning we said the Pledge of Allegiance with our right hands lifted towards the flag in respect. There was no such thing as “Assembly” as we have in England. I wasn’t sure about the Pledge but had a feeling I ought not to be saying it. I did not make a fuss however and nobody ever told me not to stand up with everybody else. That would have made me feel even more awkward. I was the only child in the school who was not a middle-class white American. There was nobody of any other race, certainly no Indians, so I was never to see a “Red Indian” [Native American] which was my sole reason for wanting to go to America in the first place.
Playtimes were called recess. At the back of the school there were swings and a teeter-toiter, which I had called a seesaw in England and there was the big school field to play in. There was also the ritual of walking round and round the playground with whichever teacher happened to be on playground duty. She would have 5 or 6 little girls holding hands each side of her. Every September soon after the start of the school year Mary invited all 3 of our teachers to dinner at the house so we all got to know each other. I suspect the teachers must have dreaded this, though we enjoyed it as we were always proud of our teachers. I don’t know if this happened in other families.
We had no hall or gym equipment.
There was no place to do PE except outside. But I don’t think we did any in the winter, except occasionally going out onto the adjoining field to throw snowballs or to make “angels” in the snow. The rest of the year I remember marching all round the school, left right left right.. But everybody led active lives out of school, so we didn’t suffer from any lack of formal exercise or fresh air.
We played softball in the higher classes but there was no such thing as competition between schools, so no formal teams. Indeed I don’t know where the nearest other school would have been. We never gave it a thought. Everyone in the neighbourhood went to the same school.
Handwriting was an everyday lesson and was done on the “Mills System”, with your wrist always raised. Some letters are formed a little differently in America, notably the small r and the capital G, as well as a special quick way of writing a t as the last letter of a word.
This was “Social Studies” and we learned some history of the country as well as the geographical features. I remember studying South America one year. All the countries were covered and I easily remember the capitals and position of them now.
History as such was only American history and I found it embarrassing because the American Revolution was gone into in such great detail, battle by battle. Americans know far more of their own history than we British do, and take a much greater interest because it is so well taught. Of course there is far less of it. And Native Americans did not come into it after the Pilgrim Fathers era. We were just at the beginning of the civil War in our studies by the time I left the US.
No foreign languages were taught until High School and it was another year until I would have gone there at age 14. So I had not learned any when I came home after the war. That meant I was not put in the third year at secondary school with the rest of my age group, but the second year and was once again a year behind.
