early schooling – what to do at recess
When I was young, recess was a big deal. You had to take a treat to eat and something for play. In Grade Three, tops were all the rage. My Dad made me a top from a wooden spool and we painted it in a rainbow of colours. I can still see it spinning on the concrete step. We also played hop-scotch, ball games like Ordinary Secretary, marbles, skipping and tag.
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April 30, 2016 ‘top made from a wooden spool’ Jane Tims
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I am lucky to have some of my Dad’s writing about his early years and his experiences in a one room school. He went to the Weaver Settlement School in Digby County in Nova Scotia in the late 1920s and early 1930s. He tells about some of the activities at the school, especially at recess. Fishing was popular, as well as playing ball and trading jack knives.
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… There was a well out beside the school and it was a good appointment to take care of the water-cooler for a day of a week … Gave a student time off from books…
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… There was a brook nearby … In fall we usually built a dam so the brook became a pond for winter … A place to skate or just play on the ice …every moment of recess and noon was spent there …
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… The big contest was ‘who comes to school first in bare feet ’ … Our parents had control, not full control as there were hiding places for shoes and stockings along the way to school …
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Dad with the family horse Goldie in about 1930
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I am certain recess is still a favorite time for school kids – time to talk with friends, play games and get a little break from the classroom. I think we could all build a little ‘recess’ into our busy lives!
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Copyright 2016 Jane Tims
my poetry book – within easy reach
My new book, within easy reach, is now available.
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I would like to thank you, the readers of my blog (and my Facebook and Twitter friends), for all your interest and support since I began my blog in 2012! The blog has helped me along the way, developing ideas for my projects, giving me a place to try my poems on a reading audience and giving me a chance to read some beautiful poetry on the blogs I follow. I also love your ‘likes’ and comments.
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I hope you will buy my book and enjoy reading my poems and seeing my drawings.
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For the readers of my Blog, I am offering a chance to win the painting on the book’s cover! My painting ‘brambles’ is painted in acrylics, size 10″ by 10″, with gallery edges. The painting is from a photograph of the blackberries growing on our lake property, the berries featured in the poem ‘berries in brambles’, one of the poems in the book.
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February 29, 2016 ‘brambles’ by Jane Tims
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To win this painting, you have to do three things.
- Purchase my book through my publisher’s website (www.chapelstreeteditions.com)
- Leave a comment on any of my Blogs (www.nichepoetryandprose.wordpress.com or www.janetims.com or www.janetimsdotcom.wordpress.com) with the words ‘within easy reach’ somewhere in the comment
- Be prepared to send me, via email, a scan of your purchase receipt
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Your name will be entered once for each book purchased. The contest will run for the first five weeks following the publication date of within easy reach (until June 7, 2016). At the end of the contest, anyone who has purchased a book from the publisher and left the comment as described above will be entered for the draw. I will notify the winner and let the readers of the blog know who has won.
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I hope you will enjoy my book. And some reader will be the winner of the painting ‘brambles’!
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Copyright Jane Tims 2016
early schooling in New Brunswick – teachers in 1888
In my family, teaching was a much-revered profession. Both Mom and Dad were teachers, as were my Aunt and Uncle. Mom, and my Aunt and Uncle, taught in one room schools. Mom began teaching in the early 1940s, when she was only 16, just after her graduation from Grade Twelve. At first, she taught with a temporary teaching licence issued during the Second World War. Later she went to Normal School to obtain a permanent licence.
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a copy of the reader my Dad used in High School in Nova Scotia, about 1933 (High School Reader, 1913)
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To learn a little about teachers in one room schools in the late 1800s, I have continued to read the Annual Report of the Schools of New Brunswick, 1888 by the Chief Superintendent of Education. In 1888, teachers in New Brunswick were trained in the Provincial Normal School. Of the 1,582 teachers, 1,534 were trained and 48 were untrained. Teachers, depending on qualifications, were in three classes: I, II and III.
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In 1888 in New Brunswick, there were many more female teachers than male:
| Class | #Male
Teachers |
# Female
Teachers |
| I | 114 | 141 |
| II | 157 | 644 |
| III | 108 | 404 |
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High School English Composition, 1913
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The salary of a teacher in 1888 was certainly small compared to today! The average yearly salary for teachers in New Brunswick in 1888 was lower for female than for male teachers:
- male teachers $536.90 (First Class) (average salaries for the three Classes ranged from $231.00 to $536.90)
- female teachers $328.49 (First Class) (average salaries for the three Classes ranged from $187.47 to $328.49)
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The Superintendent does not mention the inequity in pay for male and female teachers. He focuses on a decrease in pay from 1888 to 1889, criticizing the government for not being more generous to teachers. His worry was that teachers would not stay in the profession if salaries were too low.
… it is an ill-advised economy that seeks to maintain on the scantiest allowance a service which is essential to the preservation of order and the strength and progress of a country.
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The budget for all schools in the Province in 1888-1889, from provincial, federal and district sources, was $404,145.00 (not including building and property costs).
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two of the old school books in my collection: Nova Scotia Readers, 1911 (used in Nova Scotia) and The Canadian Readers, 1924 (used in Alberta)
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Copyright 2016 Jane Tims
update: ‘within easy reach’
The date for the release of my poetry book ‘within easy reach’ is very soon! The book includes my poems and drawings about edible wild plants and other local foods. It will be available through my publisher Chapel Street Editions and through Amazon. I’ll be posting details of how and where to order the book and information on where I will be reading during the next weeks.
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During the first month of ‘within easy reach’ book sales, I will be offering you an opportunity to win the painting on the front cover of the book. The painting, called ‘brambles’, measures 10″ by 10″. It is done in acrylics and has gallery edges.
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I will post the details about how to get a chance to win the painting within the next few days.
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February 29, 2016 ‘brambles’ Jane Tims
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I hope you will love my book, as much as I loved creating the poems and drawings!
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Copyright 2016 Jane Tims
early schooling in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia – including nature study
Of all the classes given in 1888 in New Brunswick, I would have liked ‘Useful Knowledge’ the best. This is where I might have learned about birds and plants and butterflies.
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Bringing ‘Useful Knowledge’ into the classroom may have been a greater challenge than it appears. The focus was on the three R’s (reading,’riting, and ‘rithmetic) and scarce resources meant less time for ‘frivolous’ subjects. In the neighboring province of Nova Scotia, educators faced a challenge when they tried to bring studies about the out-of-doors into the classroom. The situation in New Brunswick would have been similar.
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In her book Loran Arthur DeWolfe and The Reform of Education in Nova Scotia 1891-1959 (Truro, Nova Scotia: Atlantic Early Learning Productions, 1989), my aunt, Dr. Jane Margaret Norman described the situation in the late 1800s and early 1900s in Nova Scotia. Dr. DeWolfe, Director of Rural Science Schools in Nova Scotia from 1913 to 1924, focused on including studies of nature and in particular agriculture in the schools. These were times of rural out-migration – interest in staying and working on the family farm paled in comparison to the adventures promised by leaving for the west. Dr. DeWolfe was convinced that the only way to keep people in rural areas was to interest them, from the start of their education, in the world of nature.
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His solution was to include in the curriculum ‘field days’, ‘spring gardens’, folk dancing, lessons in canning food, ‘Planting Days’, and school fairs. My dad, who would have attended elementary school in the late 1920s, remembered Dr. DeWolfe visiting his school in rural Digby County. He told my aunt that Dr. DeWolfe “… always had something to say about nature.”
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My dad as a boy (holding the horse Goldie). Dad grew up in a rural area and attended a one room school. He remembered Dr. DeWolfe’s visits to that school and his emphasis on paying attention to the out-of-doors. Dad became a teacher and, as my teacher in Grade Six, taught me about the solar system and the cause of our seasons. He also taught me how to make a whistle from a willow twig.
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In New Brunswick, by 1888, ‘Useful Knowledge’ would have introduced many students in New Brunswick to nature studies. In rural schools (Ungraded Schools in Country Districts), the classes in Standard I (Grade 1) included ‘oral lessons on animals’ and, in Standard II (Grade 2) ‘natural specimens where possible’. Standard III (Grade 3) included ‘lessons on agricultural products of the district’, and Standard IV (Grade 4) studied ‘agricultural topics’ from Tanner’s First Principles of Agriculture. In addition to Tanner’s First Principles of Agriculture, Standards V and VI (Grades 5 and 6) used Bailey’s Natural History. Liberty Hyde Bailey (1858-1954) was a horticulturist, naturalist and advocate of nature study.
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” … Stuffed birds do not sing and empty eggs do not hatch. Then let us go to the fields and watch the birds. Sit down on the soft grass and try to make out what the robin is doing on yonder fence or why the wren is bursting with song in the thicket. An opera-glass or spy-glass will bring them close to you. Try to find out not only what the colors and shapes and sizes are, but what their habits are … ” from the Birds and I , Liberty Hyde Bailey. http://libertyhydebaileyblog.blogspot.ca/
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Copyright 2016 Jane Tims
in the shelter of the covered bridge – not a hummingbird
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not a humming bird
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Benton Covered Bridge
Eel River #3
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wing blur in the lilac
threshold of the bridge
scent-thick and purple
invisible
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hawkmoth
hummingbird clearwing
Hemaris thysbe
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lilac thryse to lilac thryse
side-slip, hover
nectar thirst
fierce harvest
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For more information on the hummingbird hawkmoth at the Benton Covered Bridge, see https://janetims.com/2015/06/10/in-the-shelter-of-the-covered-bridge-hummingbird-moths/
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Copyright 2016 Jane Tims
passage of time
One of the poems in my new book within easy reach recalls a walk I took with my husband and our discovery of wild strawberries growing in profusion in a clearing in the forest.
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Old Man’s Beard
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Usnea subfloridana Stirt.
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you and I
years ago
forced our ways
bent through the thicket
of lichen and spruce
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Usnea
caught in your beard
and we laughed
absurd!
us with stooped backs
and grey hair?
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found a game trail
a strawberry marsh
wild berries
crushed into sedge
stained shirts
lips
and fingers
strawberries
dusted with sugar
washed down with cold tea
warmed by rum
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today
an old woman
alone
lost her way in the spruce
found beard
caught in the branches
and cried
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Published as ‘Old Man’s Beard’, The Fiddlehead 180, Summer, 1994
Post also published at www.janetimsdotcom.wordpress.com
© Jane Tims 2016
Old Man’s Beard (Usnea) is a lichen found growing in coniferous woods. The common name comes from its matted, stringy appearance. Lichens are made up of two species, an alga and a fungus, living symbiotically.
Useful Knowledge
I have continued to read the Annual Report of the Schools of New Brunswick 1888 (Fredericton, 1889) by the Chief Superintendent of Education, to discover more about New Brunswick’s one room schools.
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Since I am a botanist, interested in natural history, I wondered what students in 1888 were taught about the natural world. Below, I have listed the subjects included in ‘Useful Knowledge’ in Standards I through VI (Grades One though Six). The theme of temperance, moderation in alcohol consumption, was central to ‘Useful Knowledge’ in Grade Four and beyond. I also like the animals listed in Standard IV – Animal Life !
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Standard I (Grade 1)
Minerals.—Distinguishing and naming coal, slate, clay, iron, lead, etc.
Plant Life.—Distinguishing and naming common garden vegetables, flowers,
field crops, trees in the neighbourhood.
Animal Life.—Distinguishing and naming principal parts of the human
body by means of pictures ; to point to and name principal parts of familiar
animals.
Standard II (Grade 2)
Minerals—Pointing out objects in school room made in part or in whole of
iron or any mineral. Names of implements made of iron, steel, &c. Cooking
utensils of iron, tin.
Plant Life.—Distinguishing parts of plants—stems, leaves, roots.
Animal Life. —Distinguishing and naming the chief sub-divisions of the prin
cipal parts of the human body and lessons on such parts as skin, nails—use and
care of. Familiar animals—their food, habits, uses.Standard III (Grade 3)
Minerals (Oral).—Lessons on minerals or stones in the district—names and
how distinguished from each other.
Plant Life (Oral).— Agricultural products of the district. Trees, shrubs,
herbs—different ways of distinguishing one from another, &c, by form, colour,
and size of trunk, branches, leaves, bark.
Animal Life (Oral).—Ear and Eye—use and care of. By means of pictures, to distinguish and name such animals as are treated of in the Reader, and give their
prominent structural characteristics. Domestic and wild animals of the district.
Oral lessons on all Useful Knowledge Lessons in Reader before the pupil is
required to memorize the answers to the questions.Standard IV (Grade 4)
Reader.
Minerals (Oral).— Principal Minerals of the Province, localities and uses.
Oral lessons on Metals (similar to those in Useful Knowledge lessons in
Reader).
Plant Life (Oral).— Names of the principal forest trees of the Province—
their uses. Agricultural productions of the Province.
Animal Life (Oral).— Organs of Respiration —-Effects of alcoholic stimulants thereon. Domestic and wild animals of the Province. General structure of such animals as are treated of in Reader. Oral lessons on Useful Knowledge lessons in Reader before the pupil is required to memorize the answers to the questions.Standard V (Grade 5)
Minerals.—General qualities and uses of the more useful metals and minerals
of the Province (Oral).
Plant Life. —General characteristics of the useful and hurtful plants of the Prov
ince (Oral).
Animal Life.—Organs of digestion and circulation. Effects of alcoholic stimu
lants thereon. Adaptation of structure to habit of such animals : the cow, the
squirrel, the camel, the lion, the elephant and the whale (Oral).Standard VI (Grade 6)
The Mineral Kingdom.—Lessons to be illustrated by specimens, (Text-book,
Part I, Baileys Natural History).
Physical effect of alcoholic stimulants upon the human system. Lessons
to be illustrated by experiments where practicable. Text-book, Palmer’s Tem
perance Teachings of Science, Chaps. I-IV inclusive.
Physics, (Oral).—Hotze’s First Lessons in Physics for Teacher’s use only.
Lessons 1-13 inclusive.
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Long after my own days in elementary school are past, I am still learning about the ‘Adaptation of Structure to Habit’ of such animals as the squirrel:
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Adaptation of structure to habit of such animals : the cow, the
squirrel, the camel, the lion, the elephant and the whale. Part One: The Squirrel, perfectly adapted to stealing seed from birdfeeders.
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Copyright 2016 Jane Tims
in the shelter of the covered bridge – lichen garden
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time-stamped
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Pont Lavoie (Lavoie Covered Bridge)
Quisibis River #2
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when the end-post
of the guard rail
splits and rots
the broken space
makes room
for rain and pollen
dust and autumn
leaves
other detritus
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spores find encouragement
and lichens grow
Cladonia cristatella
uniformed in red
Cladina, blue-grey
reindeer lichen
and pyxie cups
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lichens ageless
bridge not meant
to last forever
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Copyright Jane Tims 2016
Schools of New Brunswick in 1888
I love beginning a new project … love learning, love doing the research, love the dusty old books holding the information.
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A project about the old schools of New Brunswick won’t be totally new to me. I grew up hearing the stories my Mother told about teaching in one-room schools. In University, I wrote a research paper about school in the 1800s and how schools were situated in the community and in the landscape. And I am always interested in older buildings and how they survive in the built landscape.
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location of some schools in Upham Parish, Kings County in 1862, showing the effects of linear settlement on school location (map shown is from H.F. Walling, Topographical Map of the Counties of St. John and Kings New Brunswick, 1862)
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My first step to research this topic was to take a drive in the countryside, to find some old schools (see post for April 26, 2016). My next step is to do some more reading about the school system in the nineteenth century.
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I began with an old book, not dusty at all, but available on-line at Google Books (https://books.google.ca/books): Annual Report of the Schools of New Brunswick 1888 (Fredericton, 1889) by the Chief Superintendent of Education.
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In 1888 there were 1,532 schools in New Brunswick. Some of these would have been larger schools, but the majority were one room schools in rural settings. There were 1,587 teachers and 59,636 pupils. Only 50% of these students were ‘daily present’ during the time the school was in session – “…falls far short of what it ought to be …” reports the Superintendent! He suggested that teachers could help a lot if they would “… carefully inquire into the cause of every absence …”
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children and teacher at Carter’s Point School on the Kingston Peninsula (Source: Provincial Archives of New Brunswick)
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The report contains over 1000 pages and lists the classes given most often:
Reading, Spelling, Recitations
Oral Lessons on Morals
Physical Exercise
Health, including Temperance
Composition
Print Script
Writing
Number Standards/ Arithmetic
Geography
Useful Knowledge (for example Plant Life)
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I love the description of the Health instruction:
pure air, sunlight, good water,
wholesome food, proper clothing, cleanly and temperate habits, avoidance of draughts,
and the sudden checking of perspiration, dry feet, etc.
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I think I will go check my perspiration and feet …
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Copyright 2016 Jane Tims
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