•Part 2
"When I was in junior high school, the teachers voted me the student most likely to end up in the electric chair." ---Sylvester Stallone
From "Rocky" to "Creed," Stallone proved them wrong. As we all know, performance in school isn't always the best measure of success in life. Still, I imagine some sensational stories supported the tally.
Continuing with the entertaining account of late local dentist and landowner Dr. T. C. W. Magee, as he reflected on his early education in Franklinton before matriculating at Baylor University and Tulane University Dental School, we pick up where we left off last week in his mesmerizing memoir entitled "Recollections of T.C.W. Magee, D.D. S. Tulane University Dental School 1922-1927."
(Continuing with Entry made 1-5-1971 in Franklinton, Louisiana)
"The incoming older students were between 15 and 20 years old and wearing long pants as men in town did….They did not take lightly to discipline and some of them smoked and chewed tobacco, which was unheard of to most of us. Some of them gave me a 'chaw' one recess and told me to just swallow the juice. Well, I did and you know what-I turned pale (I think green too) and was so sick they just about carried me back. It was a great show for the others though until I stayed sick too long….
Sometimes Richardson [the young teacher] would send one of the boys he trusted a little more out to get him a whole bundle of green switches. Learning how badly they stung and hurt and thinking he might get one of the next ones, the switch getter would run his knife in circles up and down the stem. This was called ringing and would cause the lash to break at the rung spots. Sometimes while the teacher was out someone with a good sharp knife would ring all the switches that were standing in the corner of the school room…."
(School Experiences continued on Sunday, January 10, 1971)
"One of the few things I can look back on with satisfaction in my scholastic accomplishments was my spelling record. The Louisiana State Board of Education sent out lists of 500 words for spelling each year. I participated several years with perfect scores. Also in scholastic competition between all the schools of the parish at fair time representatives from each of the grad[e]s in turn would vie for honors in a parish wide confrontation (a Spelling Bee). I won third place one year in parish and first place another in spelling, getting bronze and silver medals respectively. I won first while in the sixth grade and I remember that year there were competitors that were much older than I, some of the male students already wearing long pants. I was the last left standing of about twenty-five or thirty competing as words were given out by a teacher to the standing contestants. Whenever students misspelled a word they had to sit down and this continued until they were all eliminated but one the winner. My last grade school teacher was Miss Lessie Moore, who taught me in the seventh grade.
The high school years were not taken very seriously and I managed to get through with a minimum of study but also with marginal to average grades. I flunked 9th grade algebra, did not repeat the course but was allowed to take a written examination while in the 11th grade and on passing with little study was given credit for the course and a unit.
Burt Brock and I sat together in the ninth grade in a double desk and it is a wonder I passed anything as we had a lark the whole year. He…went to another school the next year. That helped to account for my passing from then on I am sure, but having some outstanding teachers also was bound to have been the main reason.
High school teachers were Misses Nellie Samuel, Dovie Vickers, Laware Green, Roberta Gayle (later Mrs. Levy Simmons), Susie Burnett (later Mrs. Late Foil), Hutchinson and Jennie North, although the last two did not actually teach me nor did Sarah Williamson, Elise Walker, Mary Bennet or Milligan.
Men teachers were Fred C. Frey, later dean at L.S.U. and J.O. Berhea, agriculture teacher. Principals were: Sizemore, Peters, J.I. Covington and W.J. Dunn.
Another method of punishment employed in the lower grades was if two boys had a fist fight, each was given an ear of corn which he had to shell, count the kernels and then have the shelled grains emptied out of a downstairs window into rocks. This then had to be picked up again, counted and planted in rows on school ground with a pocket knife after the grass had been removed. This procedure was used to discourage fisticuffs which was one of the popular pastimes on the school grounds at recess and noon.
Boys were prone to emulate the traditions of the Scots and Irish, just fight for the sport or fun of it, it seems. About the tenth grade (I think) I worked with Hub
ert Morris and also Kit Carson as janitor for the grade and high school buildings. Made about $50 per month. The worst part of the work was for the two of us to remove several large (about 20 gallons) metal containers from the back of the chic sales and carry them down the hill to empty. Sanitary indoor toilets were not in use at that time."
There is not much I can add to the vivid picture Dr. T. C. W., husband of Mary Gilmer Magee and father of Margaret Magee Joffrion and Mary Elizabeth Magee Macias, painted. Corporal punishment, pocket knives, and fist fights at school. Come to think of it, things had not changed all that much at school in the 1970s.
