Schooling & Education

St. Ninians St. School

…The Protestant school was on St Ninian Street, so was referred to as the St Ninian Street School. There were four grades in one first floor room. Grades Five, Six and Seven were also on the first floor. Grades Eight, Nine and Ten were on the second floor… Grades Eight, Nine and Ten were on the second floor. After the girls had to attend the Mount St Bernard Convent and the boys had to attend the Morrison School, or you had to be sent away to school. Both of these schools were Catholic schools and very few parents could afford private school, so many kids didn’t get educated beyond Grade Ten…

For many years Miss Katie McAmis taught the first four grades…Miss Katie’s desk was on a platform at the front of the room. In a far corner there was a large pail of water with a big dipper to drink from since there was no running water and each room had a stove which burned wood. The privies were out back, one for the boys and one for the girls. There was wooden walkway between them and a lattice work fence to hide them…

Nova Scotia parents were required to pay for all of one’s readers, work books, all writing material and other books for the other grades. When I told Dad about the pail and the dipper, he was shocked and got me a collapsible cup. Our desks all had ink wells. No ballpoint pens had been invented back then…

We girls played ball with the boys often at recess until the day our teacher asked the girls to stay after class. She told us some ladies went by the school and saw us playing with the boys and it did not look proper. So we’d have to stop…

…The Superintendent of Schools for Antigonish County made the rounds once a year and asked questions. You always wished he’d ask the other pupil a questions if you didn’t know the answer. Professor MacDonald would say, “Just so,” to a right answer, but a very positive “No,” to a wrong one. Sometimes he would grant a holiday if we did well…

Our exercising was not much more than stretching, but we had Domestic Science classes…