The daily paper is full of news about tough economic times, rising health care costs, what happens when you live beyond your means, equality for women and what should be done about improving education for our children. Let’s look back fifty years and see what life was like for a teacher in the Denver Public Schools in the 1950s and those same issues.
In the Denver Public Schools in 1956 when I started my first teaching job you could not teach if you had a child under a year old. You also couldn’t teach beyond your 4th month of pregnancy. Seems archaic now, but perhaps it would still be a good idea for the child if the first rule still existed. My husband who did not have to go by the same rules started teaching in the DPS in the Fall of 1954 at a salary of $3,200 — a year. He got his first check on Oct. 1, and our son was born on Oct. 5. We had no active health insurance covering birth (a baby had not been in our plans). And the hospital bill was $150. I was there for five days. After we paid the hospital we had $50 to live on for the rest of the month. The doctor’s bill was $100 and got paid on the installment plan which took a year.
Being impressed with our new found knowledge and college degrees (which were not in economics!) we still made a foolish purchase on time and got our first lesson not only in sales resistance but in economics by a wise parent who didn’t lecture, but also didn’t pamper. We were living in the basement apartment at my mother’s home paying $30 a month for rent. When I ask her if I could postpone one month’s payment she wisely replied, “No, you must learn that the roof over your head and the food in your mouth comes first.” A lesson learned!
So in 1956 I was excited to put my new BA degree in Elementary Education in practice and was assigned a second grade in a poor economic area. However, half of my class was bussed in from a better economic area where they were building a new school not yet finished. We were on double session and had desks wall to wall with very little room for anything else. Having 35 to 40 students was par for the course and no one seemed worried about that number. I taught the afternoon session, which meant I was there from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. although my students didn’t arrive till 12:30 p.m. This meant that the morning and afternoon teachers overlapped and so there were two of us for both sessions of reading.
The contrast in the students was noticeable, but I don’t recall any animosity between the two economic areas. I do vividly recall being on lunchroom duty one day and asking a couple of my students, “If they didn’t want milk with their sack lunch?” And they replied, “Oh no water is just fine” and didn’t seem a bit embarrassed by that remark. Hmm, that had to come from home and I thought good for the parents who taught there was no shame in having water.
Later on I substituted for many years and often filled in for a program called “Cultural Arts,” which brought elementary students from all over the city for a few days of “Art,” “Music,” “Dance” and “Drama.” It was a great program and an important one, especially for students not exposed to those fields. I also taught piano to deaf students at the old Evans School a couple days a week. We gave a smashing recital every year on a stage, the student “dressed for success” gave a bow or curtsy at the end of their performance and no matter how simple the tune, even with a hearing loss the applause gave every child a boost in self-esteem and a reason for a big smile.
Make the comparison yourself with today’s world! It isn’t all the 3R’s, the “Arts” matter also. Class size was offset by having two teachers in the room for the basics. Parent influence is important (don’t always blame the teacher). Self-discipline needs to be taught or it will be learned the hard way, and having a college degree doesn’t mean instant financial success or good judgment!
Patricia Sandstedt lives in Denver.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an online-only column and has not been edited.
