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STONEBOAT JOURNEY
A human-interest Pride Manor Production Documentary spiced with fiction
By Will Kalinke
Trafford Publishing
Copyright © 2011 Will Kalinke
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4269-4972-2
Chapter One
SETTING OF THE TWENTIES
"Yes, Richard, how may I help you?" Miss Schmidt, the teacher, asked Richard, who had stood by his school desk to get the attention of his teacher.
"I'm sorry for interrupting, but I didn't think you noticed the change in the weather." Miss Emma Schmidt, who had been busy in the back of the schoolroom teaching four first grade students an understanding of place directions, looked at Richard and then out the school windows.
"Thank you, Richard, you're right. I didn't notice the change in the weather. Thanks, that storm doesn't look good out there. We may be in for a big blizzard." Miss Schmidt stood and looked at the four first grade children seated on small chairs around a low small round oak table. "You may return to your desks."
Richard sat back in his seat as he said, "You're welcome, Miss Schmidt."
"Attention boys and girls! It's going on three o'clock. I'm glad that Richard got my attention. The storm is getting much worse. Let's start getting ready to go home a little earlier. We may have a blizzard the way the wind is starting to blow those snowflakes out there. I know some of you may have been looking out of the window. It was just a little flurry drifting down all morning but now the flakes are bigger and thicker. The wind is getting stronger. Heavy flakes of snow are coming at a slant and piling up on the windowsills. We could be in for a bad storm."
Miss Schmidt stopped a moment as she cupped a hand to an ear. "I think I just heard someone coming into the schoolyard with a team of horses pulling a sled. Other parents may be on their way. Some of you will need to start to walk, as you can't be sure if anyone will pick you up. Those fathers and grandfathers, who are working deep in the woods, or in their barns, may not be aware of how severe the storm is beginning to look. If we hurry, you should be able to get home all right before the storm gets worse and it gets dark."
Miss Schmidt paused again with her left hand cupped to her left ear as though listening for more teams of horses and jingles of sleigh bells.
"Would you clean off your desks and tidy up the floor? Get all the scraps of paper off the floor and into the wastebaskets. Move rapidly." There was a large wire wastebasket on the floor at the front of the room by the teacher's desk and another in the back by the big library table.
"Don't take any books home. Carrying books might make it hard for you to walk. Besides, they might get wet with snow if you trip and fall. Just put copies of spelling lists, arithmetic tables, and names of states with their capitals in your lunch buckets. If we are 'snowed in' tomorrow, work on things that you need to memorize. Practice your Palmer handwriting drills. Prepare for the spelling bee. Memorize some of the songs we're learning for the play from The Golden Book of Favorite Songs."
Miss Schmidt glanced out the window again. "I'll sweep the floors and clean the chalkboards today so that all of you can get ready to go home. Would all of the older boys get your warm clothes on now and go out to the woodshed? Bring in enough wood to fill the big wood box by the space heater before you leave, in case I'm stranded here for a couple of days. I don't want to freeze, if I'm here for a day or two. Pete, would you check the water to make sure I have enough for two days? You older girls help dress all of the younger children so that they can survive in the driving wind and snow. Get the pants tucked into the wool stockings or boots so the snow can't get in. Pull the heavy wool mittens over the sleeves. Wear the knit cuffs for your sleeves, if you have them. Get those earflaps down and tied under the chin. Wrap your scarf loosely around your neck and face so you can breathe, see, and talk. Tuck scarf ends in under the collar, so the wind doesn't pull them out. All right, let's start. Please stand. Move quickly." All thirty-two children stood in unison, as they followed the directions of Miss Schmidt.
This was a day in the first week in March of the nineteen twenties in Marathon County in north central Wisconsin. The setting was a one-room rural school, about eleven miles east from the nearest city, Wausau, but it could have been near Antigo, Medford, Merrill, Pittsville, Rhinelander, Stevens Point, Thorp, Tomahawk, Wisconsin Rapids, or anywhere in the greater area. There were thirty-two children in all eight grades. The teacher, Miss Emma Schmidt, was a graduate of a County Normal School, created by the State of Wisconsin for the purpose of training teachers for rural schools. She had graduated from the high school of the nearest city and had gone on for teacher training for one more year. Two years of special training would soon be required, and later, four years, as four and five-year colleges would replace the Normal Schools. At age nineteen, this was her first teaching job in a rural school district, which was next to the school from which she had graduated from grade eight. She knew many of the children as neighbors, as cousins, and as members of the same church.
The school was within walking distance of about two miles at the most for all children. Very few homes in the greater area had electricity, telephones, running water, oil furnaces, indoor bathrooms, or automobiles.
The oldest of the children was age fourteen in eighth grade and the youngest was age five in first grade. No school had kindergarten at that time. The children came from eleven families within the larger neighborhood. A twelfth area family had no children. The older children knew all of the children in the room. There were no newcomers in this community school, although two of the children were first-born to young parents. Their mothers were from neighboring communities, before they married local men that they met at area gathering places like school, church, Nutterville, Schmidt's Ballroom, and Colonial Ballroom.
Miss Schmidt stood about five foot nine inches and weighed about one hundred nineteen pounds. She had blue eyes and blonde hair reaching the shoulders of her heavy handmade button-down light blue wool sweater, which covered her white embroidered blouse. The full pleated dark grey wool skirt, while tight at her narrow waist, flowed to below her knees for ample warmth. Her family had settled in the area at about the same time that many of the area great-grandparents and grandparents had arrived from the greater Pomeranian area of northern Europe. Although her older students were equal to her in height and some were heavier, Miss Schmidt had firm control of the classroom. The children knew that if she had to discipline, or reprimand, anyone twice within the same day, their parents would get a note from her. They knew that they had better carry the note home to give to their parents rather than have their parents find out their need for discipline from another student. It would be another generation of children before most of the homes in this community would have telephones.
Firm disciplinary action from the parents followed a note from the teacher. Neither teacher nor parents accepted classroom disruption or the breaking of any school rules. For parents, it was a matter of pride. Parents wanted to share good report cards with relatives and friends. A half side of a report card from the teacher provided an evaluation of progress in learning subject matter. The other half of the card gave an evaluation of student deportment or behavior. Parents could accept that some children were more academically talented than were other children. Parents generally knew whether their child was an A, B, C, D, or F student compared to others, and to the expectations of an assigned grade.
Parents knew when their child might be disruptive in a classroom, but they felt those disruptive behaviors could and should be controlled by their child throughout the school day. They accepted no excuses from their child. If the teacher sent a note home saying that their child talked without getting permission, the word of the teacher 'was accepted as correct' without question, and a scolding or some other punishment by the parent followed. Only in rare cases did a parent question the authority of a teacher. In those cases, the parents knew that the teacher had lost the respect and the control of the students. Once respect was lost, strange things could happen until a member of the school board would find it necessary to spend time at school to maintain discipline.
Although Miss Schmidt had twenty-eight lesson preparations for a typical day, she was able to control the learning environment. Older students helped younger ones. Students, who learned rapidly, helped those who did not, with repetitive drills such as with spelling. Assistance was not limited to age or grade. It was common for younger advanced students to listen in on the classes of older students. Later in the day, a younger student might help an older student memorize the spelling of words, master arithmetic tables, understand historical facts, or memorize geographical locations of mountains, rivers, cities, and other landmarks. Classrooms were large enough to 'carve' out small study spaces in the hall entry, behind the space heater, or in the library corner for two students to study together or work on drills. On calm weather days, Miss Schmidt allowed a few pupils to take memory assignments outside to practice under the big pine tree or in the woodshed.
Miss Schmidt often set aside time in the week for multi-age, multi-grade, team learning. Depending on the learning lesson, she would have two, four, six, or all eight grades working together on a project. A challenging project in conservation could stimulate competition and involve many subject areas with pupils expressing their thoughts graphically through a picture, in words through an essay or poem, in numbers through illustrative computations, or in any combination of ways individually or as a team. This was natural to children learning together in a large family. It was accepted that everyone had different interests, different rates of learning, different strengths, and different weaknesses. Educators, following the teachings of Dora Desereau of Langlade County Normal School and Quincy Doudna of the Wisconsin State College at Stevens Point, recognized that synergistic team learning was of greater benefit to all children who participated. Each contributed of their strengths and gained to their mutual benefits. It was a habit practiced by the men in their logging crews at the Kalinke Landing and by the neighboring farmers at harvesting time. They all knew the tasks of each other but performed to their maximum in their selected areas of team proficiency, whether with their muscles, brains, vigor, enthusiasm, or any combination.
In the classroom, the teacher was the initial team leader. The role of team leader temporarily passed on to different children for different tasks at different times. Usually, it was older children coaching younger children in spelling, arithmetic tables, historical data, and geographical locations.
So too, roles were specialized in the logging camps. Both Grandpa Robert and Grandpa Julius had trained their boys and all of the other workers at all the logging tasks, but each had a specialization and each could take turns leading, depending on the primary task of the moment and the availability of skilled workers.
Some children were more advanced in select areas of study or artistic talents than were other children. They shared in school as they shared at home as taught by their parents.
Miss Schmidt looked around to check on the progress of the older boys, who were getting wood and water, and of the older girls, who were helping the younger children get dressed. "Make sure that snow can't get inside their boots. Get the scarf snug around the neck and tucked under the collar, but not so tight that it can't be pulled up over the nose. Pull the mittens over the cuff of the sleeves. Make sure every button is closed. Has everyone gone to the toilet? If not, take care of that first. Don't wait to go to the toilet until you are out on the road in a big snowdrift. Older and stronger children help the younger and weaker ones through the drifts."
While she talked, Miss Schmidt walked around and supervised. She checked boots, mittens, caps, and scarves. Everyone could see and hear the wind whipping clumps of snow against the windows. It had such force that they could hear the splat, splat, splat on the windowpanes as the wind increased in velocity from the northwest.
Little Martha's father came in the building, thumped the snow off his boots, walked up the stairs in the entry hallway, entered the classroom, and looked around. "Oh, good, I'm glad to see you're getting everyone ready. I decided to come to pick up Martha early when I saw the weather take a turn for the worse. I'll wait and take home anyone else who might be coming our way, if their parents don't send someone. Those working deep in the woods wouldn't notice the wind and those working at Kalinke's Landing would be too far away."
Martha's parents lived at the end of a dead end road. Since she was the first of their children to attend school, her father watched the weather closely to help her get home safely. He planned to pick her up from school before the storm became more severe.
"Thank you, Miss Schmidt, for taking care of everyone. We really appreciate your watchfulness. Should Martha be taking any studies home in case there is no school tomorrow?"
"I'm not sending anything home today with the first grade children. You might just continue to work on numbers, the alphabet, handwriting, and directions. The more they can learn at home, the easier it is for them to learn in school. Focus on the memory tasks. Help Martha understand the action words of around, up, down, under, over, inside, outside. Read to her and listen to her read."
"Thank you. Does it look like anyone else could use a ride?"
"Carrie is in your direction. You could drop her off on the way to your place. You might meet her father, but I doubt it, as he is in the back woods and may not notice the storm deep among the trees. And, you might take James, as I doubt if his father or grandfather will make it home from working in the woods before dark."
Everyone looked out for neighbors' children. It was the natural thing to do. They were all part of one big extended family, which went beyond immediate blood relatives. Their great-grandparents may have shared the same ship in coming from Germany to the new world. Or, they may have been cousins in the 'old' country, the country of their ancestors.
"Very good, I'll see to it that each of them enters their house before I leave. Carrie and James, do you want to join us?"
"Sure." Carrie was ten and knew Mr. Beilke, Martha's father, from church picnics. She was the only child in school from that family and had to take over many responsibilities around the house, as her mother had two pre-school children, plus her mother had to do much of the farming so that her husband could work in the woods for the added income and firewood they needed. James was nine and the only school-age child in that family. The twins would start school next year.
"Bye, Miss Schmidt." All four said in unison as they left.
"Bye. Be careful." Miss Schmidt replied as she continued to supervise the rest of the children.
The school building was twenty-eight by thirty-six feet with twelve feet high ceilings. This building replaced the much smaller original log building built by the first settlers of German descent for the education of their children. It stood on a square lot in the approximate center of the farms that it served. The school lot once belonged to the farmer who owned the land around it. If the school ever ceased to exist, the land would return to that farmer, unless the farmer and school board made other arrangements like the purchase of the land. The lot faced a simple road used mostly by bicycles, horses, sleds, wagons, and buggies. The Ford cars, both Models T and A, were new to the area. The few that were around were not in use on the roads during the winter. No car was capable of pushing through snowdrifts and no snowplows were available to plow these country roads in the mid to late twenties and early thirties. The big caterpillar tractor snowplows would be coming as people bought more cars, roads improved, and drivers wanted open roads throughout the winter.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from STONEBOAT JOURNEY by Will Kalinke Copyright © 2011 by Will Kalinke. Excerpted by permission of Trafford Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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