Two Newton Grade Schools example essay topic

Washington School, empty for many years, has now been bought by a real estate company. McKinley School is now the site for the school district offices. But I remember when these two buildings rang with school bells and the laughter of children. I recall my years at these two Newton grade schools with much fondness. Our family moved to Newton from Hutchinson in 1960 to a rented house at 319 S.E. 4th. This was just a block from Dad's work as director of the Bethel Deaconess Hospital School of Nursing.

It was also just two and a half blocks from Washington Elementary School, where my older sister Jeanette and I attended. We thought it was fun to cross busy Washington Road through a cool, dark underpass. I began kindergarten there in the fall of 1961. I remember blue linoleum, wooden tables and chairs, and daily rest periods on floor mats.

When John Glenn made his historic space flight in 1962, our teacher brought in a TV set for us to watch the launch. First grade with Iris Roberts was memorable for learning to read. What a thrill -- despite the pedantic "oh, look" style of stories featuring Dick, Jane, and Sally, Spot the dog and Puff the cat. photo: reminiscing Sondra Patton's fourth and fifth grade class assembles for a picture at McKinley during the 1966-67 school year. Amy (Rinner) Dueckman is in the middle of the top row. Dorothy Hermstein and Gertrude Decker were my second and third grade teachers. Nobody had heard of political correctness in those days: we recited the Pledge of Allegiance and the Lord's Prayer first thing every morning, we put on overtly religious school Christmas programs, and we did our lessons on red "Big Chief" tablets which had a stereotypical Indian in headdress on the cover.

Girls often played jacks on the playground before school. Jeanette and I carried our jacks and balls to school in little drawstring bags Mother sewed for us. At recess we liked to jump rope. Some rhymes I remember included: "Cinderella dressed in yell a went upstairs to kiss her fella, by mistake she kissed a snake, how many stitches did it take? One, two, three, four'E" and "Mother, mother, I feel ill, send for the doctor over the hill. In came the doctor, in came the nurse, in came the lady with the alligator purse.

Mumps, said the doctor'E" and so on. Across the street from school lived the "Pencil Lady". This was a woman in a wheelchair who sold school supplies to students who suddenly found themselves in urgent need of a pencil or other necessity. Family life and society were different in those days. Everyone in my class, to my knowledge, came from a two-parent family. Fathers worked and mothers stayed at home so children went home for lunch every day. photo: reminiscing The family is shown (from left) James, Jeanette, Esther, and Amy in 1963.

In the '60's, girls wore dresses to school every day. This was society's standard and no one questioned it. (We would finally be allowed to wear slacks to school when I was in junior high, about 1970.) On Fridays I wore my Brownie dress and beanie, as our Brownie troop met after school. I will never forget one particular Friday in November of 1963. Upon returning to the playground after lunch, I met a classmate who told me he had just heard that someone had shot President Kennedy. When we got inside, Miss Hermstein explained that the president had just died.

Later that afternoon at the Girl Scout Little House, a group of somber little Brownies ceremoniously raised the flag, then lowered it to half-staff. Halfway through my kindergarten year, my family had moved a block and a half east to 329 Muse. This put us in the McKinley School boundary but we continued attending Washington. But in fall 1965 when Jeanette went on to Chisholm Junior High, it was decided that I should now attend McKinley.

How I cried at the thought of changing schools! Fortunately, McKinley proved to be a wonderful school. I loved my fourth grade teacher, Sondra Patton (now Cowan), a young woman with a beautiful smile. I quickly found my place in the class as both the tallest student and the best speller. And I made a "best friend", Linda Shelly, who remains my friend to this day. photo: reminiscing Jeanette and Amy Rinner (on violin) practice their music in 1969. From McKinley, I particularly remember the big old school bell outside labeled "1888", playing softball at recess, a fine teaching staff including principal Roy Hoff and my good fortune of having Miss Patton again in the fifth grade.

On Halloween day we had class costume parades and on Halloween night we children confidently roamed the streets trick-or-treating alone, without adult supervision. Those were innocent times. Another holiday activity I recall was making construction paper May baskets for May Day. It was such fun to leave a basket filled with candy and flowers on our friends' doorsteps on May 1, ring the doorbell and run. I have mentioned this to people in the community where I now reside, but no one is familiar with the custom. Our last day of school each year was really special.

Since we always went home for lunch, it was a treat to bring a sack lunch on the last day. This was also the one day we could wear slacks or shorts to school -- not short shorts, but knee-length shorts called "pedal pushers". The night of our sixth grade recognition, most of us girls wore nylons for the first time. We bade farewell to our grade school years as we moved onto junior high. We were growing up! Amy R. Dueckman is a free-lance writer who makes her home in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada.

She still loves coming back to Newton, which she describes as the "world's best hometown", for visits with family. She and husband Wayne have three children: James, Noel and Laura. Her parents, James and Esther Rinner, live in North Newton. Jeanette (Rinner) Grant stein lives in Wichita.