STUDENT DEPORTMENT

   

The dreaded report card also stated a grade in deportment.  Each student was graded on behavior.  In this manner the teacher was advising parents or guard- ians of a student on how the student behaved at school.  The “Stay In After Class” was a method of censure for poor classwork or homework not done, and thereafter the student was deprived recreation and fun time to learn to do his or her classwork more diligently. If a student got too noisy in the classroom or was caught talking and giggling in the classroom while classes were being conduct- ed, the teacher would write his or her name on the black board which meant that the student was given a “blackmark.”  If he or she continued in their mis- chief, then the teacher would make him or her stand in the corner of the class- room.  In the event that there was more continued trouble, then the teacher  would use the old “hickory stick.”  The final level of student punishment would have been that the student would have been expelled from school for extreme misbehavior. Howver, I do not know of anyone who was ever expelled from the Skull Creek School, I do know of several cases of the use of the “hickory stick.”  Fortunately, it did not include the writers’ of this book.  We knew that if we felt the “hickory stick” in school, we would have felt the sting of the old razor strap at home.

 

Playground arguments and name calling was common.  Sometimes the disputes among boys resulted in fisticuffs which were of short duration, and then all was forgotten and they were friends again.  Many life long friendships started here and many cherished memories now remain.

 

The incidents that seemed minor then are still remembered now.  One day two girls were standing close together talking while eating, and while they were talking a big turkey gobbler reached into one of the girl’s open lunch bucket and snatched her steak sandwich and then took off running.  The girls ran after that old turkey tom screaming at the gobbler.  Finally the old gobbler gathered enough speed and he became airborne and flew over the school yard fence but he never would relinquish his delicious sandwich lunch.

 

Classroom tranquillity often was interrupted by gobbling turkeys, screaming bluejays, the chatter of squirrels, singing mockingbirds or braying donkeys.  In memory, we can all still hear those sounds and remember the school days at dear old Skull Creek.

   

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