The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
This book continues from last week and was a project of the Henderson County Retired Teachers Association (HCRTA) by president Mary Alice Huntoon of Stronghurst who produced, between Nov. 13, 2000 and March 12, 2001, a storybook of “Memories” from retired teachers in the HCRTA organization.
Ms. Huntoon asked HCRTA members to share things they remembered when teaching.
She also included any articles from the last ten HCRTA newsletters where people had shared “Teacher Spotlights” or articles about “Graham School $1.00”.
We began the series on 12/29/2021 thanks to Ms. Huntoon.
I did not have the pleasure of teaching small children but I did have the pleasure of teaching eighteen year olds fresh out of high school and adults in their twenties, thirties and forties. One woman who was fifty-six had always wanted to be a nurse but married young and had raised a family.
Many of the younger women had married right after high school and some were divorced and starting over. I also had young men. Many of the women had children who were grown and wanted to realize their dreams of doing some good in this world.
I had always wanted to be a teacher; in 1936 my parents could not afford to send me to college, so I worked my way through nursing school. In 1956 I realized my dreams and graduated from University of Iowa and became a teacher of nursing. I was able to help many women and men to realize their dreams.
This only happened when Junior Colleges offered nursing degrees. I enjoyed teaching older students and I felt good about myself to be able to help those older persons realize their dreams. They were so willing to learn. It was hard for many of them but they worked hard..in the classroom and in the hospital. Although it was hard, we did have fun in the classrooms, too. I have many recollections of those days. My classrooms were in hospital classrooms as well as the college.
One of the incidents I remember took place in the hospital. I was teaching Obstetrics. I had to use the delivery room as a classroom to teach sterile technique..how to put on a sterile gown, sterile gloves, and draping the mother-to-be on the delivery table. I had one problem that day, I had six women and two men. The women had on dresses which weren’t appropriate for being put in stirrups and draped. So to the delight of the women, I decided to let the men take turns at being models on the delivery table. The women thought it great that the men were going to experience what women must feel when placed in “stirrups”.
I also had to teach them constantly how to prevent contamination, spread of disease, and good housekeeping.
Patients’ rooms were to be kept neat and clean; bedclothes off the floor; and close cupboard doors and drawers. Even though they were adults, many of them were not very neat.
One morning, a patient’s shower stall leaked around the base and water ran onto the floor.
I told the student to roll up two bath blankets and place them around the stall so the patient could get her shower before the doctor came. She failed to do so and consequently the room was flooded.
I happened to see her go into the room with a stack of bath towels. Each unit is given a certain number of towels for the day for patients use.
Trying to impress on her the importance of listening and following orders, I told her to get the scrub bucket from the janitor and mop up the mess.
This young lady did not know how to wring the mop in the scrub bucket nor had she ever mopped before. So, even though I did not teach children their A,B,C’s, I did teach adults who also had to learn new subject matter as well as old.
They were going into a profession upon which lives depended on what they had learned. I felt proud of my students when they graduated and passed state boards.
When they became R.N.s, they made their dreams come true. Many went onto college and I feel proud that I was among those who gave them a chance to succeed in this world.
In the first place I had no burning desire to be a teacher. I wanted to be a nurse. When I looked into nursing when I was a senior I found out that I was too young to go into training until the class of 1949. I graduated in 1948. Two of my classmates did go into training at the Burlington Hospital.
I was awarded a scholarship to Western Illinois Teachers College and so was on the road to becoming a teacher.
After two years I knew that I could start teaching and not wanting to put more of a burden on my parents I started looking for a job.
I got a job teaching first grade in Keithsburg. I lived in a rooming house where the landlady was eighty and the only other roomer was even older. They were wonderful ladies and the landlady was a good cook. Too good.
I experienced my first and only flood. I would go out the front door, and hugging the house to avoid the high water, go east two blocks, turn south, and then back west several blocks to get to school.
I waited to get to school to use the restroom whenever possible as we were reduced to using an outside privy at the rooming house. Nothing I had studied at Western gave me any clue as to how to teach twenty-five is year olds to read, write, do math, and sit still and be quiet. I lived through the year, and said “never again.”
Eighteen years later my memory had dimmed enough that I took a job at a private kindergarten in Oquawka.
After that I thought that maybe I could stand to teach so I went back to what was now Western Illinois University to get my degree. My daughter Amy and I commuted together. Those two years at Western were a wonderful experience.
I was hired for third grade in Raritan. Kathy Jacobs taught first, Carolyn Waddell second, and Marcia Simonson fourth. Carolyn was later moved to fifth and Edith Duncan taught second.
When Raritan closed I went to Stronghurst teaching third until I was moved to second.
By now I loved teaching. Fall was always exciting getting a new bunch of kids. After a few days they were “my kids” and by May, with a few notable exceptions, I was sad to lose them. The first few days in the fall I’d watch the hall hoping to see the third graders go by.
My favorite subjects have always been history and geography. Having gone through elementary school in Media where the roll down maps were on the south wall, and getting my directions hopelessly confused, I had Frank make a four by eight sheet of plywood on rollers for my classroom. This I placed on the north side of the room with maps of the United States, the world and Illinois attached.
I never knew children who didn’t love to swing their desks to face the north and with their individual road maps “go traveling” or go to the world map and point out the countries their ancestors had come from, or follow the Oregon Trail. The Oregon Trail was one thing that was mentioned in their social studies book. Other than that it was very bland.
My last second grade class are now sophomores (2001). I still follow their high school exploits. It was a thrill the year they were playing a tournament at Triopia to stop in Beardstown’s McDonald’s on the way to the game and hear a chorus of “Hi Mrs. Davis” from the team who also had stopped there.
I value the friendship of the many people that I worked with and still miss those who have gone on, namely Maxine, Margaret and Alberta.