Then and NowBy Kaley .M. Kruger March 25, 2003I spoke with my great-grandmother Evelyn Best who is 81 years old. She lives in Montoursville, PA not far from the farm where she grew up.Q.) Will you tell me what your school was like?A.) I went to country school that was a one-room school for children in first through eighth. We had one teacher for all the students. The teacher would have to get to school early, to start the stove that heated the school. After you finished 8th grade you would take a test to see if you could go on to high school. If you passed the test, you could go on to high school, if you wanted to, but many of the children stopped going to school in 8th grade and work on the farm. I went to high school.C.) This is very different from our school now because we don”Ēt have a stove to heat the school. We have a heating system. Also we have elementary school, intermediate school and a middle school, it”Ēs not all in one. We all take tests to see what courses to take in high school but most of us go.Q.) Were the teachers at your school strict?A.)No they were all very nice.C.) This is the same at our school.Q.) What subjects did you learn at school? A.) v Englishv Historyv Geographyv WritingWe didn”Ēt study Science until I went to high school. Geography was my favorite.C.) This is pretty much the same at our school, except, we have science in elementary school. I also like geography but I don”Ēt have a favorite subject. Q.) What was your school day like? A.) We would go to our school and sit at our desks by grade. During the day the grades would take turns going to the front of the room and working with the teacher. When we weren”Ēt with the teacher we would work by ourselves at our desks. Our day was about the same length as your day, but we would finish school in April, so we could help work on the farm in the spring.C.)We get out of school in June because we don”Ēt need to work on the farm.Q.) How were you graded?A.)In the primary grades we got As, Bs, Cs, and Ds. When we got older we got number grades.C.) This is the same in most schools, but in our school we get numbered grades.Q.) How did you get to school?A.) I walked a mile there and a mile back. I didn”Ēt have very far to go.C.) We take buses to get to school.Q.)What did you do at lunch or recess?A.) We always carried our lunches. We didn”Ēt have a cafeteria, so we only on nice days we would eat inside otherwise, we would sit at our desks.C.) We have backpacks to carry our lunches, and we always eat inside.
Update: 2003/04/23 02:30:45
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