Eighth Grade

During the school year beginning in the fall after our move to the farm we had the new experience of being transported to the school in Gowrie by the school bus, and of course taking along our noonday lunch each day. The school buses were considerably less elegant than the school buses of today and would generally be regarded now as being exceedingly unsafe and unsuitable.

The bus we rode in, at least for the first few years, was a locally constructed one of wood mounted on a used truck chassis. It probably accommodated fewer than 15 to 18 pupils. Even at that the younger children might have to sit on the laps of the older children. I believe our first bus driver was a Mr. McCubbin and I recall him exercising his disciplinary authority to quiet unruly pupils. Later we had Ernie Anderson for a driver but by then we had a better bus, though still deficient by present-day standards.

I was in eighth grade and my teachers were Mrs. Knapp as principal and Miss Nagel. Mrs. Knapp was a widow and a very earnest person though somewhat fluttery. Miss Nagel was younger and a rather large-bodied blond Nordic type with a brusque manner. But from the first I preferred her to Mrs. Knapp. At that time it was still the practice for the eighth-grade students to take the county tests. The tests included reading, spelling, English, arithmetic, history, geography, etc. which, if passed, would signify satisfactory completion of the primary grades and would also permit the student to enter high school. The tests were taken relatively late in the school year. I remember that my friend John Woodard (who with his two brothers lived as orphans across the road from is with his aunt Annie and uncle Will Lines) did not pass out of eighth grade by the Gowrie school standards but did pass the county tests so was allowed after some argument to enter high school the next fall.

The seventh and eighth grades were together in a large classroom with the two classes separated during the actual instruction periods by one class going into a smaller adjacent classroom. However any self-study periods were normally in the larger or assembly room. I recall a few incidents from the school year. Once during the music instruction (vocal) the music teacher noticed that my voice was changing and that I was singing in a rather tenor-like manner and singled me out for attention. I was never very comfortable or adept at singing so any interest that might had been engendered by her attention soon disappeared.

Another time after an essay-type question on a test I wrote “abridged” at the end of what I wrote not being aware of what the term meant. I was duly apprised by the teacher who indicated that she wanted complete answers. The last recollection was more significant. Toward the end of the term the teacher of arithmetic (I can’t recall whether it was Miss Nagel or Mrs. Knapp) gave me a last personal assignment that contained a few rudimentary elements of algebra. I was entranced by these new concepts and my interest was aroused more than I can recall it had ever previously been.