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used to skate outside on a pond. I had a swing made from a tire; it hung from a tree in our front yard. We rode our pony. We picked wild raspberries in the woods.” The little girl was wide-eyed, taking this all in. At last she said, “I sure wish I’d gotten to know you sooner!”

THREE My Teaching Career

    A proud day. My graduation from U.B.C.
    Lesson: Each of you possesses an innate talent that demands to be expressed not only for your benefit and for those around you. If you discover those God-given talents and put them to good use, you will discover what brings you joy and happiness in life. Job satisfaction, whether paid or volunteer, provides daily mental challenges and social activity. It takes all kinds of people to make the world.
    “By being yourself, you put something wonderful
in the world that was not there before.” — Edwin Elliot
    After graduating as a teacher from Saskatoon Normal School in 1941, I signed a contract with a school trustee in the Rak community for my first teaching position. Men in the community constructed the rural school buildings as close as possible to where families lived. Lands were sometimes donated for this purpose. Communities did the best they could with limited funds. The schools’ dimensions were based on standard plans that allowed about fifteen square feet per pupil, approximately ten to eleven-foot ceilings, a window or two, and a mudroom or cloakroom for boots and coats. My classroom, like many others across Saskatchewan, contained shelves for books and lunches, a pot belly stove, students’ desks, a teacher’s desk and chair, and a blackboard.
    The trustees’ job was to hire the teacher, buy supplies, guide the running of the school, and meet all sanitary and health conditions. The trustees also had the difficult job of convincing people to pay school taxes, especially those without children to send to school. Most of the trustees had no experience in school management but simply believed in providing an education for the community children.
    In those days, many teachers were women because men enlisted in the war, and they did not usually go into the teaching profession. I was hired at a salary of $700 a year; however, if I got married, I would lose my job. Teachers were paid for ten months work and not paid for the summer months of July and August. In my second year of teaching, I earned $900. That year I was able to buy a black seal fur coat for myself. How fashionable I felt.

    I am the one in the middle wearing a dark jacket
standing with my students in front of our one-room school.
    Schools were the center of community life. The schools were used for meetings, social gatherings, dances, and sometimes even as a church. Hallelujah! What fun we had! Parents and neighbours were caring, obliging, and understanding. Everyone was happy and helpful. After the older students completed their assignments, they were eager to volunteer, if needed, to help me with the younger students. All children were obliged to come to school but had to get up early to do chores before going off to school. Some children did not have warm enough clothes to travel the long distances in winter months. Occasionally, new immigrants would arrive unexpectedly. There were never any behavior problems, such as hooky, bullying, or discrimination. Even with the bigger boys, there was never a need for police intervention as one experiences today.
    There were eleven subjects on the elementary school timetable: geography, history, music, literature, arithmetic, grammar, written language, nature science, health, art, and citizenship. Good penmanship was stressed. We might have to teach nine grades, and find ourselves staring at students that encompassed a wide range of ages in each grade. For four years in that one-room rural Saskatchewan schoolhouse, I taught grades 1 to 10 and helped grades 8, 9, and 10 with correspondence lessons. Not only did I teach those grades, but I taught all subjects to 47