Academic Performance and Reading

Well, so much for the athletic side of the Gowrie school and back to my experiences in the classroom.

I’ve summarized what I did scholastically in all the grades, and if one conclusion can be drawn it is that I tended to start in a mediocre way and steadily progress. This was certainly the case in the first few grades when I would do better as the school year wore on. It was also true of the entire twelve years.

Through my freshman year in high school I tended to be a good student, after the first few grades, but it wasn’t until my sophomore year that I started to consistently have “A” grades (except for an occasional B). This level of achievement pretty much lasted through my college years though there was a dip in my first semester at SUI. However during this time I had more “B” grades that in high school and of the five terms I was at Iowa, there were only two that were straight A.

Although I did well in college I always had the feeling that I was not really a top-notch student. I was capable and excelled over my classmates in general but I lacked the final edge of capability that marked a really good performer.

In addition to the summary of my standing in my classes at Gowrie and the mention of the teachers I had, there are recollections I have from my school days in grades 1–12 that occur to me.

Miss Rice whom I had in first grade was a sort of willowy person, actually with a kind of vague similarity to my aunt Ruth. The desks faced the blackboard which was on the wall facing the hall. Miss Rice’s desk was in the middle of the front of the room facing the rows of students. At least part of the time my desk was on the right (facing the teacher) probably midway in the last row. In the back of the room there was a model of a castle which we were instructed not to touch. It had a moat around it with a little drawbridge. I had the vague feeling that some high school students had made, for a reason that was not disclosed.

Students in the class, as far as reading was concerned, were divided into two sections based in their performance. I was in the red birds, the better group; the other group was called the blue birds.

I have the vague feeling that in first grade (at least) the school day may have started with the teacher reading a selection from a book to the assembled pupils. Possibly the selection could even have been from the Bible. I have always had the feeling that there wasn’t, in my childhood experience in Gowrie in school and elsewhere, the emphasis on keeping all religious elements out of the school operation that now appears to be the case. Of course the people of Gowrie were a rather homogeneous group and of similar backgrounds and upbringing so that conflict was less likely to arise.