Herbert Spencer 1912-1953, Class is in Session

(The camera pans up from the ground, which is covered in wild grasses, to show a historic marker in the shape of a small school. The marker is mounted on a post at the edge of a field. The film’s title appears: Class is in Session. Herbert Spencer School).

(Leah Uffelman shares memories from her home over zoom)

Leah Uffelman: There’s another school that is west of Irricana called Herbert Spencer. That’s a very odd name to be naming a country school, because Spencer was a British philosopher at that time, so for that group of people up there to choose that name, is kind of interesting to know how they arrived at that name.

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

Adrian Wolfleg: My grandmother had a couple of her granddaughters there and they were going to play outside. And she said, “Come over here”. And she had some stuff set out on the table for each of them. She taught them through doing their own measurements, their own mixing, to make some bannock, some oven bannock bread. They each turned out in different ways because some take it onto themselves to race through it and get it done. Others ask questions, “So how do I do this, how do I mix this, what about this?” All three of them finished then and they were all edible and then they went out to play. The next time they were all over there, they were all asking, “Grandma are we going to do this, what about this?” “Oh no that’s ok, you go out and play.” But then one of them she called back, and she came in and she sat with her, because she showed that she was ready at that time, for that next level of learning. So rather than putting everything together and just mixing it and getting it done with, she actually learned about the processes, and the chemistry of cooking, the spices, the seasonings, the procedures.

(Leonard Hagel shares memories from his home over zoom)

Leonard Hagel: The school had a big map of the world on one wall and that was very important for all the grades, especially during times that we were all going through.

(John Richter shares memories at the Beiseker Golden Years Club, he holds up a lamp. It has three colors of wood in the base and a light colored shade.)

John Richter: This lamp is something that I built in Industrial Arts class, it is about 75 years old.

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

Vera Schmaltz: The subjects were arithmetic, reading, English geography, and current events.

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

Jean Schwengler: We had a whole class we had to make pages full of A’s, small a’s, capital A’s. In grade one and two. And essays, and it all had to be written. Change…

(Leonard Hagel shares memories from his home over zoom)

Leonard Hagel: There was a big chalkboard with ABC’s written on top and that was our teaching equipment. I don’t remember that we had any kind of a library.

(Leah Uffelman shares memories from her home over zoom)

Leah Uffelman: Some of the stories that I recall at that time, was Beautiful Joe, that was about a dog that had lost its ears. Black Beauty and the Burgess series, and he wrote about wildlife.

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

Jean Schwengler: I think the girls did read Anne of Green Gables. I can remember grade one, Dick and Jane and Spot and Puff, I wish I had those books now.

(Leah Uffelman shares memories from her home over zoom)

Leah Uffelman: We were assigned seats, the desks that we had had the flip up seats and the open shelf underneath and had an inkwell.

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

Matt Schmaltz: We had books I guess too, but I remember we had inkwells. There were no ball point pens. I remember making circles and things and practicing with that and of course pencils and erasers and pencil sharpeners in those days. No computers.

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

Adrian Wolfleg: The Pow Wow dance was actually incorporated into a social dance, so instead of learning how to fox trot and lindy and proper waltz, they also learned the Owl dance and how to round dance.

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

John Richter: The three R’s, reading writing and ‘rithmatic as they say. Those basic courses, there weren’t too many optional courses. We did have on optional course to take in high school and that was typewriting and we thought it was a frivolous course, but we took it to get the credits, now I wish I had paid more attention to that because of the current technology using the keyboard.

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

Matt Schmaltz: I remember reading a book and I forget what it was, I wasn’t one for reading books. But the teacher, Mr. Plant, that had to be in high school, gave me a book and told me to read it. I did read it, it wasn’t a long book but I did get one book under me that year. But I do a lot of reading now, I kind of enjoy reading now, but when you are a kid you’ve got different ideas.

(Leonard Hagel shares memories from his home over zoom)

Leonard Hagel: Report cards were always interesting, it was at the discretion of the teacher. Anyways, that was over 80 years ago, hard to recall some of these things.

(the Beiseker Station Museum logo appears).