Claude Eddleman Farm (1938-1958)

Milltown School 1938-39 and 1943-50

We lived in Milltown when I began the first grade and I attended my first year of school there. All twelve grades attended classes in a new brick three story building. There were about 30 childern in the class and our teacher was Emily Benz. A few years later she became the typing and shorthand techer for the 10th and 11th grades.

In those days common school consisted of 12 years which were usually called grades. There were not special examinations betweeh the grades. Years earlier there had be an examination at the end of the 8th grade and only those passing could attend the last 4 years which were called high school. The state required boys in 7th or 8th grades to take agricultural classes and the girls of those grades to take homemaking classes. Sometimes these 7th and 8th grade students are called Junior High School.

At Milltown School, there were six rooms on the middle floor and each room was devoted to one grade and a single teacher taught all the classes to these elementary students. There was one exception, a music teacher held classes on the first floor and each elementary class left its room to attend music classes for a short time each day. The music classes mainly consisted of singing old popular songs such as "My Old Kentucky Home", "Moonlight Along the Wabash", and many Stephen Foster songs. There was no instruction in use of music instruments. Students wanting to learn to play instruments went to private teachers who had no connection to the school. There was music instrument instruction at the school for those high school students who were enrolled in the School Band.

The upper six grades had their desks in a huge assembly hall on the top floor of the building. They studied there during periods when they had no classes. The meager library consisting mostly of old text-books was located in one corner of the room. There were some current magazines including Flying, Saturday Evening Post, Life, and a few others. There were 300 books of fiction and most of the classic volumes such as Call of the Wild, The House of Seven Gables, and Don Quixote. The school was totally devoid of any popular science or math books. There were two sets of encyclopedia which I spent much of my time reading.

Thus the 6th thru 12th grades left the assembly hall to recitation rooms to study English and literature, arithemetic, history, goverment, woodworking, homemaking, bookkeeping, or typing. There was not a single class of math or science, except one year of biology which the state required. However, at the beginning of my Junior (11th) year I pointed out to the principal that I wanted chemistry, algerbra, and geometry. The next day, those classes were offered. I could not believe my good fortune. The school board was astonished when half the students enrolled in algebra.

A highschool boy took four classes each year: English, woodworking, a business class,
Freshman .......English........arithmetic......... drafting ............ biology
Sophomore.....English .......general business...woodworking ...history
Junior ............ English ...... typing ............. woodworking .....??????
Senior ........... English ...... typing .............. woodworking ..... ?????

???? was choosen from Latin, School Band, bookkeeping(accounting)

Girls had the same schedule but took homemaking in place of woodworking and drafting.

To be continued

Suggestions, corrections, and comments are appreciated: Contact Harold Eddleman indbio@disknet.com