Goderich 1912-1956, Teach Me Teacher

(The camera pans from a historical marker on a post to a green grassy field. The marker says Goderich School. The title of the film appears: Teach me Teacher! Goderich School.)

(Jean Schwengler shares memories at the Beiseker Golden Years Club)

Jean Schwengler: I went to a little country school, Goderich, which is eight miles west and one mile south. I went there from grade one to grade eight, from 1945-1952.

(Leonard Hagel shares memories from his home over zoom)

Leonard Hagel: My first teacher was Alice Barkley, who was probably about 18 years old and just out of Normal School, or whatever they had at that time. She was a very dedicated person. I can never quite understand how she could organize the eight grades in one room, but she seemed to do very well.

(Monty Metzger shares memories at the Beiseker Golden Years Club)

Monty Metzger: Mr. Anderson was our teacher, he was a nice guy from what I can remember, he was good to everybody. He’d play baseball with us and stuff like that.

(Leah Uffelman shares memories from her home over zoom)

Leah Uffelman: She was very strict, but she wasn’t unreasonable. She was very, very patient. I have thought about her a lot over the years, she was such a good role model for all the children.

(Frank Schwengler shares memories at the Beiseker Golden Years Club)

Frank Schwengler: We had good teachers. I mostly remember all my teachers.

(Leah Uffelman shares memories from her home over zoom)

Leah Uffelman: For our teacher to be in a room for ten grades, six grades for sure, most of them, and some of them would go up to grade twelve in some schools, for one teacher. It is just absolutely unbelievable that she could handle that. You could go on and on about their life, what the teachers had to put up with. How brave they had to be. The fact that you are out in the middle of nowhere and they didn’t have their own cars or vehicles or anyway to leave there. And there were people that could harm you travelling around, and you were not safe or protected in any way, shape, or form if somebody decides to rob you or anything else. Besides the elements in the winter, and all of the above taking care of children’s needs, and your own needs.

(Vera Schmaltz shares memories at the Beiseker Golden Years Club)

Vera Schmaltz: They would live in the teacherage, which was a little house in the schoolyard. It consisted of about three rooms, there was a kitchen, a living room and a bedroom. In the winter, she would have to warm up the school before we got there. There was a big round stove in the classroom. They would have the fire going, and late afternoon, the boys would have to go out and get big lumps of coal and they would put them on the fire to keep it going all night. In the mornings. she would have to come down and get the fire going before we got there and warm the school up for us, and the boys always had to make sure there was lots of coal in the buckets.

(Fred Lyczewski shares memories at the Beiseker Golden Years Club)

Fred Lyczewski: The teacher had to do everything, she had to keep the fires going. She had to sweep the floors, haul the ashes out, get the water, there was no well on the school property, but next to the school was the farm, and you had to carry the water from the farm over to the school for drinking. The teacher did everything.

(Adrian Wolfleg sits in the Niitsitapiisini: Our Way of Life Gallery in the Glenbow Museum in front of a large tipi)

Adrian Wolfleg: We are raised in the traditional way, we have societies- those are peer groups. So my nephew was the leader of a society, for nine, ten, eleven year olds, and others wouldn’t really consider an eleven year old a leader, but for his group, he was their leader. He taught them, he managed them, he shared with them. He was a teepee owner. He had knowledge that others that were not in that society had too, and as he gets older, being a teacher, being an elder is relative.

(John Richter shares memories at the Beiseker Golden Years Club)

John Richter: (Holds up framed photograph) My grade five picture here. That teacher is on there, Mrs. Velker was her name. I remember her favourite expression was, “Aw fiddlesticks”. I appreciated all the teachers we had.

(the Beiseker Station Museum logo appears)