Interview with Joan Margel (née Bayers) 1.8

Partial Transcript: 1. Comments on living a teacherage.
2. Building requirement for schools.
3. Tell me about your school, the layout of school, furniture, heating.
4. How big was your class?
5. Was there bullying at school?
6. Describe winter activities/ games.
7. What did you have for lunch at school?

Segment Synopsis: Joan talks about living in a teacherage in northern Alberta and being the first single girl to survive the winter when she was 18/19. She recounts a conversation that she had back then with an old British bachelor. The school she taught at was grade 1-8. She mentions that the windows had to be certain dimensions and faced certain directions. There were four or five schools in the area. Joan notes that in winter the school days were shorter because it was too dark to walk to and from school. When the children got home they did chores. She says that her school had a barrel for heating, and when it was cold the students did their work around the heater. She talks about the process of heating the school. Joan says that the school sizes averaged 25-30 students, and there was a division between the older and younger kids, although the older kids also took care of the younger ones. Bullying and fights were uncommon, but Joan talks about being a tattletale when she was in school. There was wrestling and snowball fights, as well as baseball and marbles. She talks about how children used to have a rich game culture regardless of their heritage, and notes that it has been lost. She continues to talk about games and sports that the children played, and says she taught the others how to play volleyball. Joan talks about how all of the kids ate sandwiches at lunch, and about how during winter they ate around the stove. They had homemade bread with lard and jam, as well as cinnamon and sugar. She says milk was a luxury. They talk about peanut butter, which Joan didn't know existed when she was a child.

Partial Transcript: 1. General observations about food and cooking habits.
2. Observations about the Depression times in the community.
3. Describe a typical day at school. What subjects were taught?
4. What were supplies and books? Where did they come from? What did they cost and who paid for them?

Segment Synopsis: Joan talks about the women's cooking, and never going hungry. She then talks about the Depression, and how some people in the north were not all affected by it. Her mother would feed homeless people struggling because of the Depression. Joan returns to the topic of school, and says that the big kids taught the little kids how to read. She talks about what it was like to go to a school where one teacher taught grades 1 through 8, and mentions trying to learn ahead. They talk more about how the teachers' managed all eight grades. She says the textbooks were good when she was teaching. The first class of the day was arithmetic until recess, and afterwards it was language, reading, spelling, and phonics. Following that was science and social studies. Joan talks about how all of the schools had very few library books, so they mainly used textbooks and scribblers. Friday there was also art class, where the students used crayons. Joan says that teachers were usually given one box of chalk for the whole school year. She mentions that when she was an adult, they started providing school supplies for grades 1-3 because the students didn't have any supplies. She also says that teachers had to do more teaching for grades 7-8 because that was when new concepts were introduced. When she was a student her school had double desks.

Partial Transcript: 1. Who were your friends at school? Who did you sit with at the desk?
2. Describe social activities that were organized by your school (e.g., Christmas concerts, school picnics, etc.).
3. Who was the teacher?
4. Did you get homework at school?

Segment Synopsis: They talk about class seating arrangements, but Joan can't remember if there was assigned seating. She had no homework until she started going into town for high school, where she got a lot of homework and had an excellent teacher from Ontario. Joan says that if you got the strap at school, you also got it at home. She talks about the school Christmas concerts, and the man who taught them music. She says that she is a good singer and talks about the musical talent in her own family and the community. She talks about the Kushneryk girls at school, who were musically talented and whose mother made them costumes for the concerts. Joan says that there was no real stage, and the community set up the stage themselves. She then talks more about Christmas time and holiday gifts and snacks for students. Joan shares a memory of her last Christmas with her father in Prestville.