Schooling Then and Now

So I finished my first eight grades of school at the Lutheran hospital in Fort Dodge. I was there eleven days I think and once past the crucial fourth or fifth day I made steady improvement, and a couple of weeks after I returned home I was pretty much back to normal. I believe there were some return visits with the surgeon for removal of stitches etc. but they were perfunctory in nature.

Looking back on my elementary schooling I would say it was certainly adequate, and in many ways as good or better than present-day schooling. I think the main way in which it was better was that it really did not regard schooling as something to be liked or enjoyed. Perhaps it reflected a more puritan or frontier ethic. If it were enjoyed or liked that was fine, but the goal was proficiency in the basics and a good grounding in such subjects as history, geography, hygiene. School was work in a way and if it needed drudgery, practice, repetition for achievement so be it.

Along with the academic goals there were the associated goals of developing good study and work habits and diligence in performing work and exercises that seemed uninteresting in nature, at the time, or even from the pupils’ point of view, pointless.

As I’ve indicated Gowrie was a somewhat larger school than the rest of the schools in the county except for the Fort Dodge system, so it possibly attracted somewhat better teachers. During the pre-Depression days it also had in connection with the first eight grades, a class called the opportunity room. This was essentially a remedial class for students of below-normal achievement. It was handled by a Miss Moffett. I remember her as past middle age, fairly tall and thin, austere and awe-inspiring and a dedicated individual well suited for the assignment.

My contact with her was limited to such times as when she had noon or recess duty, but Vivian actually had her as the teacher one year. Not that Vivian was a non-performing student, but one year her class was so large that some of the class was assigned to Miss Moffett. My dim recollection is that Vivian enjoyed the year or so she had Miss Moffett as teacher.

When the Depression came the opportunity room was a casualty. For a time during the worst Depression years, the teachers received only part of their pay in cash; the rest was in the form of some sort of warrants. I presume these were retired as the property tax collection improved.