‘The
only school in the district was a one-room elementary protestant school two
miles from our house. I think our
parents were somewhat reluctant to send us to a Protestant school but keeping
up with our ‘larnin’’ was considered more important than religious persuasion,
so off we went, Sally and I!
My
first impression of the school was not very positive. Stuck in the corner of a section, surrounded
by seemingly endless fields of wheat, oats and barley and without another
building in sight, it appeared small and insignificant in comparison with the
school in far-off Moortown. I felt here
at last was something I could brag about because up to now Canada’s vastness had dwarfed
everything in my previous experience.
The
most important lesson I learned here was not from textbooks. I was taken aback when the first thing the
class did in the morning was to stand and recite the ‘Our Father’, or the
Lord’s Prayer, as they called it. I had
always thought it the exclusive property of Catholics and moreover, this was the
first time I had heard it recited by anyone who was not kneeling! The class however did not make ‘the sign of
the cross’ (we’d say ‘Bless themselves!’) or recite the Hail Mary. For the first few mornings I crossed myself
at the commencement of the Pater Noster but as this gesture attracted a lot of
curious glances, I soon gave it up.
My
teacher, a novice herself, was young and in her first school. Miss Munroe asked what grade I had been in in
Ireland. I told her we didn’t have grades in Ireland. Every head turned as if to denounce such a
retrograde system! It might have been my
Irish accent as well. I explained in Ireland we went
by ‘forms’ and I would have been in fourth form there. I felt important standing to deliver this little
speech. It was the first time in my life
I was the centre of attention and aware of it. I enjoyed the feeling and the fact that I was imparting knowledge that
no one else present knew. The teacher
said she had no idea what stage of development fourth form represented but I
seemed smart enough so she would start me off in fourth grade.
I
thought she was nice and that we would get along together.’
