School days view

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 11, Issue 526, 8 March 1994, Page 4

School days view

• June Bates' letter, re. the school photo, stirred up memories also. Hers as a teacher, mine as a pupil. I remember milk being freely available to all children and hot cocoa madeby

Mr Crighton during the winter months. Gala days were a real highlight with numerous stalls laden with homemade produce. Lots of mothers as well as my own baked for days before the Gala. I remember ladies like Mrs Dixon (Ken's Mum) and Mrs Jenkins (Angela Martin' s Mum) for the wonderfiil goodies they made. I remember the boxing too. I was only allowed to go and watch it once - I think that was because I cheered all night for the referee. I knew him but not the contestants, and I thought the object of the exercise was the first one to hit the referee won. Travelling in by bus from Tangiwai each day was a chance to go over our daily spelling tests or risk a rap over the knuckles with a mler if you got just one word wrong. Jack Bolter was our bus driver. A very nice man. One school morning I was sitting in my bedroom reading a comic, and the next thing Mum called out "Who is still here?" 'What's the matter?", I replied. "The bus driver has been and picked up the others 1 0 minutes ago - he's come back and is driving up to the house." Mr Bolter just smiled and shook his head as I climbed sheepishly aboard. Several miles down the road one of my brothers had told him I wasn't on the bus so he turned the bus around and came back. We had a teacher at Ohakune Primary School who lived in Waiouru and she travelled on our bus also. After school she would wait at our house for her brother to pick her up as the bus only ran as far as there. One aftemoon we arrived home and Mum and Dad were not home. The teacher sat in the kitchen and got out her knitting. I thought I would make her a cup of tea. No power in those days, just the coal range which needed lighting up. I had never lit the coal range before but undaunted I threw a heap of coal on, poured kerosene all over it and dropped a match in. There was this dreadful

'boom' and soot for miles. I can still see the teacher sitting with her lovely white knitting and soot falling all around her. Apart from singed eyebrows I was lucky to come out without being burnt. The teacher waited at the front gate to be picked up after that. Form 2 was my best year. School was a whole different experience. I had a wonderful teacher, Mr Joe Bryers, my uncle. Handwriting was his forte. Spelling tests weren't dreaded - no ruler across the knuckles -just encouragement as was with every subject. The point I would make with regard to the education debate is that the old days were not all wonderful. There were good and bad teachers, and a lot of methods which could have been improved. Nowadays most teachers try to create an environment where children enjoy going to school.

Gay

Hammond