T ~ Teachers

     School was an overwhelming new thing to me. Those first few days felt confusing and all I wanted was to be at home with Mom and my brothers. The kindness of teacher Lydia soon helped me get adjusted and I actually learned to look forward to going to school.
    Unfortunately after only six weeks something happened that made that she had to go home. It was out of state which meant a new teacher had to be found.
    Ruth was her replacement. She was a scary teacher, a bully with a temper. There are quite a few stories I could share of the happenings in our little one room school while she was in charge. She expected a lot from us and didn't hesitate to use a whip if we didn't measure up to what she thought we could do.
    Most of the time my lessons weren't too difficult, but then she decided first graders also needed to do memory work and assigned long German hymns to be memorized. I was fluent in Pennsylvania Dutch, I had just learned to read and write in English, but German? It was too much. I hardly understood anything. With Mom's gentle coaching I got it memorized and recited perfectly while still having zero idea what I was saying.
    All these years later I can still recite the entire hymn, but even now I had to have a number of the words of the first two lines translated in order to know what it says.
     Demut ist die schönste Tugend,
        Aller Christen Ruhm und Ehr
        Humility is the most beautiful virtue,
        The glory and honor of all Christians
    At the end of that school year Ruth was asked to not teach another year. The community was having other problems as well, so everyone homeschooled until they could move midway through the school year.
    It was toward the end of second grade when we moved and I was introduced to teacher Hannah. I loved her. She also expected a lot from us, but in a kind and encouraging manner. We thrived with her for the next three years at which point she transferred to a different school.
    Our next teacher was lovely, but much more lenient. My learning suffered a lot that year. She only taught one year and then got married.
    Enter teacher Sadie. She had lots of ideas on how to make school fun, that we didn't appreciate as much as we should have. She was a stickler for perfect penmanship and I chafed under her constant correction with her dreaded red pen. I really appreciate it now though. It was thanks to her that my penmanship improved greatly.
    Her weakness was grammar, language arts, english, or what ever you want to call it. It was so bad that the entire school was failing and finally the bishop himself convinced Mom to step in and teach that class for all eight grades.
    Having her come in to teach became the highlight for all of us students that year,
    Sadie taught for two years and then moved on to a special ed school. 
    My eight grades were over with six different teachers having had a hand in my education. I have fond memories of five of them. Ruth, however should not have been allowed to work with children.