The School Superintendent and the Teachers

About the time the Gowrie consolidated school was organized, or perhaps coincident with its formation, P.A. Leistra was hired as the school superintendent. A single man of middle age, he brought with him a considerable background in the field of education and he was responsible in large part for setting a standard of excellence in teaching and scholastic achievement that characterized the school during my 12 years there. It is true that he left sometime during my junior high years but the effect of his policies continued through my high school years.

His insistence on pupil performance may have been one of the reasons why he left. Some parts of the community felt I understand that his standard were too high and the animosity they generated may have influenced him to leave. But in retrospect I feel that it was my good fortune to have my early public-school education influenced so favorably by him.

The standards influenced by Mr. Leistra’s presence as superintendent were reflected in the quality of the reaching staff which he hired. Nominally the teachers were hired by the school board but I’m sure the applicants for any position were evaluated by Leistra and the final selection was approved by him.

The teachers for the grades 1 through 6 typically had a rather short tenure. Often they were graduated of the two-year teaching curriculum at Iowa State Teachers College and almost invariably in the 1920s were young women who left after a few years to be married. The school policy was generally to hire only single women for the primary grades, the feeling being that a family should have only a single earner. There were exceptions however. Mrs. Wood, the second-grade teacher, was married but I have the vague recollection that her husband was incapacitated in some way or degree. And Mrs. Rice, the first-grade teacher, was a long-standing institution when I was in the primary grades.

The junior high teachers tended to follow the same personnel pattern as for the primary grades, except they might have more schooling. And they might be older as was Mrs. Knapp (a widow) who was the junior high principal when I was in eighth grade. The high school teachers, particularly the coach and the science teacher, were married men, as was the English/Latin teacher I had (a woman). But the others tended to be single in status. Although Mr. Leistra was single, the superintendent who replaced him when I was in eighth grade and after that were married I believe. (Yes, Mr. Anderson.)