Ruth Reed looks back on 38 years in the classroom
February 4-10 is Teacher Appreciation Week. The Record sat down with retired teacher Ruth Reed to talk about her experiences in the classroom.
Mrs. Reed was born and raised in Sawyerville.
After high school she went to Macdonald College, and then began her teaching career in 1948.
Her first two years were spent teaching Grade 2 in Waterloo. She then taught for one year at Mitchell School before moving to Lennoxville Elementary, where she remained for 35 years until her retirement.
With a conservative estimate of 25 students per year, Mrs. Reed would have taught roughly 950 Townships students during her tenure.
Her salary was $1,200 per year when she first started teaching.
“I liked the children. I hope they liked me,” she laughed.
At the beginning of each year Mrs. Reed told her class the same thing.
“When we play, we will play hard. And when we work, we will work hard.”
Mrs. Reed’s caregiver Doris was one of her Grade 2 students. The woman who cleans her room at Manoir Renaissance St. Francis also had Mrs. Reed as a teacher.
She taught Louis Evans who would go on to become Principal of Bishop’s College School, as well as his daughter Emily.
“Emily told me once that when she grew up she wanted to become a teacher like Mrs. Reed,” she was told once by Evans.
After 35 years in the same school, Mrs. Reed taught two generations of families, and was heading into a third when she retired.
“I’d say i'll try to do better with your child,” she would jokingly tell her former students.
When asked if there were any special moments that stood out, Mrs. Reed replied, “I loved every minute of it,” she said. “I could write a book.”
Some of those moments kept her on her toes, she added.
She remembered one year when there was a little boy in her class who had a fair number of swear words in his vocabulary. When it was his turn for show and tell, Mrs. Reed went and stood at the back of the room as the little boy stepped up to the front of the class to share his expletives.
“After his little speech, all the other students turned around and looked at me, wondering what I was going to do,” she said.
“I said thank you and went on to the next child,” Mrs. Reed said, refusing to give the little boy any more attention than his swearing deserved.
“Sally Allatt from Allatt’s Bakery didn’t want to go to school one day,” Mrs. Reed explained. “She gave me a kick right in the shins.”
“You have to have a sense of humour to teach. Students have some strange questions,” Mrs. Reed said.
“I was really proud to be in Lennoxville; they had so many dedicated teachers there working hard,” Mrs. Reed commented.
Mrs. Reed took her job seriously. It wasn’t uncommon for her to call parents on the telephone during noon hour if there were a problem with a student.
“It’s a year of their life,” she said, pointing to the importance of getting things right. “They’re mine for 10 months. They see more of me in their waking hours than they do their parents,” she said.
“Back then teachers brought a lot to school,” Mrs. Reed said, curious to know if that were still the case.
“Lots came to school without breakfast or lunch. Children can’t work without having eaten,” Mrs. Reed said, explaining that the evolution of breakfast and lunch programs began with teachers feeding hungry students.
When asked how she felt about what’s going on in classrooms these days, Mrs. Reed acknowledged school is very different from when she was a teacher.
“I find the children have more freedom now,” she said.
“Some things have improved, some things are not as satisfactory as they were back then,” Mrs. Reed said. “I honestly think perhaps they (students) had more respect for teachers back then.”
While a lot has changed in terms of curriculum and teaching styles, Mrs. Reed said some things never change.
“You have to have the cooperation of parents,” she said.
At a parent teacher meeting at the beginning of the school year Mrs. Reed once remembered a father saying, “We’re not very well organized at home.” “Well, get with it,” she replied. She expected a lot from her students as well. On one occasion, she remembered a student saying her mother forgot to pack something in her school bag.
“You mother’s not in Grade 2; you are,” Mrs. Reed said.
While she was firm, Mrs. Reed said her teaching philosophy was always to encourage and build kids up.
She was once approached by a former student who asked, “Mrs. Reed, when I was in Grade 2, I was teacher’s pet, wasn’t I?”
“Yes; and there were 29 other teacher’s pets as well,” she replied, considering every one of her students special.
When asked if there were a teacher who inspired her when she was a student, Mrs. Reed said Mr. Rothney, her principal at Sawyerville was a big influence.
“I think you were meant to be a teacher,” Rothney told her while she was in school.
She babysat his children, and would go on to teach Rothney’s daughter years later. He even popped into her classroom one day, having become a school inspector later on.
“He went the whole way with me,” she said.
Mrs. Reed still bumps into former students regularly while out and about in Lennoxville.
“Sometimes I have to look at their eyes for a minute,” she said, but is usually able to place them.
“I really liked teaching,” commented Mrs. Reed. Her husband once pointed out to her that he never once heard her say she was sorry to get up in the morning and go to school.
“I think that’s the way you have to be with any job. You have to put your whole self into it.”