|
Memoirs
Early Days of Hubbard Avenue School
Of all the problems we face in this
troublous and war-torn world of ours, none is more vital than that of
determining just what our public schools are for. What do we want our
public schools to do for our children? As we face the future, what kind
of men and women do we see thronging into life as they close the
schoolroom door behind them? On the answer to this question depends not
only the fate of our country, but also the future of civilization
itself. The breakdown in education today is greatly due to the fact
that we have never whole-heartedly made this decision. Unless for our
children, we catch a vision of the highest and best that man can know,
and work unceasingly to translate that vision into reality and life,
education itself is doomed, and there is little hope that we shall be
able to rebuild a shattered world.
We do not forget that down the years
there have always been individuals who have caught a flash or a part of
the truth of the best in education; and across the centuries there have
always been a few courageous souls who have struggles to put into
educational practice that best, which, otherwise would have remained in
that realm which Hamlet anathematized as, “Words, Words, Words.” And,
if today, the battle seems lost, it is because those few have been so
greatly outnumbered by the indifferent and antagonistic, who have
measured results in education, if they measured them at all, by the
yard-stick of materialism.
When Hubbard Avenue School opened its
doors, nearly half a century ago, one truth about education seemed
certain to us-namely- that a love of the beautiful was one path to the
summit of education. We, therefore, felt it was a privilege to become
pathfinders to the children in this realm of beauty. Our building,
itself, made a good starting point for our journey, for it was an
attractive one, surrounded by much natural beauty. This building, to
which a principal had been appointed when it was an excavation and a
pile of stone, gradually emerged,- as one tier of a tan brick after
another was laid,- into a large, many windowed structure with sunny
rooms and spacious halls.
Hubbard Avenue, at the time, was only
sparsely built up. The fact of the matter is, that we were really set
down in the midst of a great commons; for beyond the school, on every
side, stretched the great open spaces. It was not uncommon sight to see
from our windows our neighbor’s horses grazing in the pasture, and, if
by chance, we were early enough to school in the morning, we could catch
a glimpse of a boy milking the family cow in our school yard.
Those were not the days of the
automobile; and so on foot we trod a narrow board-walk to Dennison
Avenue, or picked the burrs from our new fall suit, we went our way to
the High Street car. Many wore the children’s overshoes lost in the
mud. Perhaps the determination to bring victory out of defeat in this
instance, gave us the idea of collecting old overshoes and selling them
as a beginning fund with which to buy pictures. However that may be, we
enjoyed the pioneering of those early days.
Our neighbors were few and scattered
but they were our good friends. One, of especial interest to us, was a
quaint, picturesque, old Negro, whom the children called, “Uncle Joe.”
“Uncle Joe” lived in a broken-down shack on the commons back of our
school, and he was a frequent visitor of ours. Every now and then on
opening the door of the Art Room, we found the children with heads bent
low over their drawings-kits, intent on sketching or pausing to study
the model before them- the model, none other than “Uncle Joe,” himself.
On the occasion, when no teacher was present, Mr. Shawan with a guest
superintendent opened the door on such a scene. His pleasure was
evidenced by the twinkle in his brown eyes, and even a little warmer
note than usual in his voice, as he said, “Goodbye” to the children and
gave his favorite parting command: “All those that are happy and life
their teacher, ‘Smile’.”
The "Art Room" reminds me that we had other rooms for special subjects,
too, in fact a room for every special then taught in the elementary
schools. For we had our kindergarten, manual training, home
economics- which then meant only cooking-also German and sewing.
We were, also, within a few years, a part of the Columbus Normal School
and housed in our building two grades, taught by prospective teachers
supervised by a member of the faculty of the Columbus Normal School.
With such a building, it is no wonder that we were inspired to make each
school-room, as far as we could a place of beauty, and to provide as
part of our curriculum, materials of beauty, Pictures and pottery,
lovely copies of the old Masters, French and German colored prints came
to adorn our walls, and became not only the daily friends of the
children, but source material for the study of Art Appreciation and Art
History. It was, indeed, a great satisfaction to us to hear some
of our boys, returning after service in the World War, tell of their
pleasure in identifying the originals in Europe from the copies which
had hung on their own school room walls.
Flowers, birds, and music were other constant companions on our journey
to the Heights and their study became one of the chief joys of school
life. For a flower excursion, we needed to travel no farther than
the gardens which graced the top of the terraces in our own front yard,
or to linger beneath the row of Red Bud, which eventually hedged our
backyard from the commons.
Bird Clubs, bird lists, and bird excursions were popular among our
children and teachers. Nearly every grade had its own Bird Club
and its brightly-colored bird charts, artistically arranged on a burlap
background. Ohio State University made a valuable contribution to
our study of birds by sending us as many as thirty skins at a time from
their department of ornithology.
Our little orchestra of flutes and mouth harps was one of the first
school orchestras of Columbus, and was, I think, symbolic of the joy in
the children's school life. For it often seemed to us that song
was the natural expression of their young and happy lives.
Time forbids our telling in detail of the organization of our school
into a Junior High School, or of the further development of our
Extra-Curricular program in the field of Athletics. Two groups of
Camp Fire Girls were organized, and among them, friendships formed which
have endured to the present day.
Years have come and gone since this work was begun, and yet, today we
feel that this objective of beauty was right and good, and it is still a
very important part of Education. Much of this beauty entered
directly into the lives of our children, influencing them in their
standards of taste and their joy in life, and much of it formed a
cultural background for the more serious activities of the school
period. For it is our belief that the most important thing in the
world is children.
Carrie O. Shoemaker
First Principal
|
