Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Recalling a lifetime of learning
Students of yesteryear at Barclay Friends in West Chester share their own, family school days’ memories
The Philadelphia School District recently announced that it will no longer suspend kindergarten students as a disciplinary measure unless bodily injury occurs and is documented by medical professionals – according to Newsworks.org, almost 450 Philadelphia kindergartners were suspended during the 2014-15 school year. Many are hoping the new approach will have a positive effect their lifelong learning experience and student/teacher relations. Short stay guests at Barclay Friends Continuing Care Community share their views below.
Ellie Labella
“I expect that a child feels excited to be starting off,” Ellie says, “and if they’re reprimanded in a strong way, then they would have a stigma [regarding school]. I remember my son coming home after his first day of school, and he said, ‘Mom, mom, I can read, I can read!’ Growing up, I lived on a farm off a dirt road, a quarter mile to the mailboxes, and I went to school in a one-room schoolhouse up until eighth grade, and the first grade class was in the first row, and so on. The biggest class had twelve students, and my brother was the only one in his class. [I don’t recall any] discipline – it was a naïve era, I think – there was no criminality at all.” Ellie attended high school in Berlin, New Hampshire. “I did well in school, and they were going to place me out to work at the Brown Paper Company. When I was a senior, I skipped school one day. I took the bus by myself to the next town – Gorham – and I came home at the end of the day. Well, on that day my teacher, Mrs. Haweeli, was looking for me, and said I couldn’t be depended on, so they took me off the job. I was the youngest of eight and my sisters and brothers were so surprised that I would do something like that,” she smiles. “I [ended up] going through business school at Bryant College in 1949 and [got a job] doing secretarial work in the analytical department [of a local company]. My typewriter had Greek symbols on it because it was technical work – I had to type out equations. It was fascinating [work], and I met my husband there.”
Lin Ziering
Lin successively taught each grade from 0-12 from 1961 to 1993 in Spanish Harlem in New York City, in Connecticut, and in Wilmington, Delaware. “I felt that I wanted to change levels,” she says. “I didn’t want [my teaching] to get stale. My idea is that children go to school to learn and to socialize, and that requires the ability to learn who they are – they need that kind of nurturing. [Kindergarten] is their first experience away from home, and it’s basically an exploration of themselves. They have to learn to get along with a lot of different children, [some of whom] don’t have a lot of advantages, and you have to take into account [each child’s] family dynamic,” she points out. “They need that kind of freedom, and the teacher should guide them and let them grow. You have to find different and interesting ways to teach – different lessons than what they or their parents have had. [In regards to disciplinary actions], you have to give them a chance to tell us what they are thinking, because they may have a different interpretation,” she says. “You have to work with them and reason with them to a certain extent, but if they fight and hit they may not be ready for the classroom. You have to pick them up if they stumble and not lash out [at them]. They should be given
a chance to explain the reasons behind their behavior, but it should be fair and even handed – the classroom needs rules and etiquette. Especially with TV, teaching methods have to be updated to the child you are now dealing with. Their minds are changing, and they should be working towards one goal in a way that is fun and exciting – why bring in an orange crayon when you can bring in a goldfish?”
Clem Neesham
“Well I’ve never heard of anything like [suspending kindergarteners]” Clem says. “It’s such a complex issue – what else could you do?” Clem doesn’t have children
of his own, but recalls hearing about special therapeutic and reform schools that are able to better approach the “unteachable” child, and he recalls his own education with fondness. “We had to take a carpet with us to school, and I used to nap underneath the table – it was the most wonderful part of the day. I don’t remember what we learned, or if we put things together, or blew whistles,” he laughs, “but I’ve always loved to learn things.” Clem attended the University of Pittsburgh for six years and graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering and business administration, but did he ever get in trouble growing up? “I hit a baseball through Joe Thomas’ window,” he says. “He was a mechanic, and he owned a garage. We scattered – everybody ran, and I
ran like crazy, even though I knew better, knew I should stay and make amends. You think of Steve Jobs [the creator of Apple computers] – what was he doing at 15? Was he hitting the books? You have to discipline children, teach them right from wrong,” he adds. “In grade school they used corporal punishment. If the teacher found that a kid didn’t do their spelling, or their studies, she would go complain to the principal, who would use the paddle. Well, now you can’t strike a child, and I don’t know if he really knew what he was doing or if he did it because it was so credible in society. This was during the Depression, and the kids who [had trouble] came from very little means – they lived and worked on the farm and had no time to study – it was unfair to them.”