COLUMN: Tales from the Gravel Ridge – The privilege of a free education in a safe environment

On Sept. 9 this year the world once more had the opportunity to observe the “International Day to Protect Education from Attack”, an observation that has occurred annually since its enactment in 2020.

Those of us who were born in Canada, and received our formal education in Canadian schools can scarcely wrap our minds on the reality that such an enactment is necessary. Sadly we are informed that attacks on education have risen sharply in the world over the past two years.

When my fellow classmates and I began our education at the Rosengard School in 1946 we may have been a little nervous. After all, we were beginning an entirely new chapter in our lives. While it is true that our own home was a very short walk from the school grounds, down the gravel ridge, I was nevertheless embarking on a completely new era, within a school classroom. And that in a new language!

I now had to be ready to face the day in what for me was a new environment. Gone were the days when I could spend my time playing with my doll and pretend to be drinking from little porcelain cups. I had play time with my younger brothers. And if they grew tired of my idea of play and entertainment, I could simply move into a more private corner of the house, and play on my own until it was time to eat our noonday meal.

In the meantime my sister Anne, and my brothers Henry and Jake had arrived from school and we were all gathered at our kitchen table to eat, which in our household was the main meal of the day. All of that changed for me when I began Grade 1 in late summer, 1946.

On that first day of school in Grade 1, now many decades ago, six of us —four girls and two boys — were introduced to the rigorous structure of a school day, specifically, the Rosengard School. Our teacher, Mr. Jakob Penner, had eight grades to teach, in addition to a Grade 9 student who was taking her course work by correspondence. Needless to say, I was surrounded by a great deal of unaccustomed activity on my first day of school, among more than 40 students in the one-room schoolhouse. Prior to the actual teaching pursuant to the curriculum prescribed by the Manitoba Department of Education, each school day began with certain formalities. To the best of my recollection, we began the day by standing next to our desks to sing “O Canada” followed by all of us reciting “The Lord’s Prayer”.

Not only did Mr. Penner instruct eight different grades, he also taught all of the subjects in those eight grades. It stands to reason that the instruction on each of those days had to be highly organized, leaving little room for individual needs and learning styles. Mr. Penner knew from past experience that keeping grade one kids, who were accustomed to a more or less leisurely lifestyle in their respective home environments, in line with proper educational expectations, would need to exercise all the ingenuity he could muster. Perhaps his daughter Erika, who had already done a practicum with some of us kids several months earlier, to complete her program of studies, came to the rescue.

In my mind’s eye, I can imagine Mr. Penner, having already anticipated a somewhat challenging Monday morning, was anxious and less than altogether cordial that Sunday afternoon. Perhaps his daughter, aspiring teacher that she was, offered to draw “stick figures” on the blackboard where eager beginning students could learn eye-hand coordination, as we were instructed to copy those figures from the blackboard on Monday morning.

That day has opened countless opportunities for me in my educational, professional and social pursuits, and still continues to broaden my horizon today. When I think of the world in which we live, where it is increasingly necessary to protect the right to an education, I am deeply humbled and profoundly grateful for that long ago first day of Grade 1 at the Rosengard School so many decades ago.