State of Pennsylvania Responsible for Provision of Public Education

16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Tuesday, February 13, 1912: We had an inspector up at school this morning. You can bet I was glad when he had gone. Ruth and I went up to Oakes this evening. I took my Algebra along and Rachel helped me with it some.

diary.2.13.12.b — Click on the picture to enlarge the words.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

The previous Friday Grandma wrote that this would be the last week for her teacher and that she’d then get a new teacher.

I suppose that the school inspector visited McEwensville High School to make sure that all was on-course and to prepare for the transition to the new teacher.

A hundred years ago there were many schools scattered across the county. A county superintendent was responsible for making sure that they followed state requirements.

The state, then as now, was responsible for providing public education. In a 1912 book I found the language in the Pennsylvania constitution:

The General Assembly shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of public schools, wherein all the children of this Commonwealth above the age of six years may be educated, and shall appropriate at least one million dollars each year for that purpose.

Source: Pennsylvania Constitution as quoted in The Status of the Teacher by Arthur Perry, Jr. (1912)

Over the years this provision has been shortened. It now says:

Public School System

Section 14

The General Assembly shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of public education to serve the needs of the Commonwealth.

I guess there no longer is a need to indicate that at least a million dollars of state money will be spent on public education. According to Wikipedia the state of Pennsylvania allocated more than $11.4 billion for education-related programs for the 2008-2009 fiscal year. 🙂

Sending Ugly Valentines

16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Monday, February 12, 1912: Got my valentines in preparation. They’re all ugly ones. I thought one was most too much to send as it was rather mean looking. But I got it ready, so it has to go.

DON’T sit up nights admiring yourself.

The best that can be said of you

Is that you might pass in a crowd.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

What could the valentine have possibly said that was almost too bad to send? And, who was Grandma sending it to? . . . . .a classmate?. . . her teacher? . . . her sister?

For more old valentines see these previous posts:

Bought Some Vinegar Valentines

Valentines: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Anonymous Comic Valentines

“I Didn’t Cheat”

16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Friday, February 9, 1912: I am disgusted with the marks I made in my examination, but although my marks are low I am not losing faith for I can truthfully say, “I didn’t cheat.” I had not much of a desire to cheat after that awful lecture and what desire I had left I managed to trample down. I intend to improve for next month and make my next teacher happy. Jake is going to stay one week longer.

Recent photo of building that once housed McEwensville School.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

In January Grandma got caught cheating. Even though these events happened a hundred years ago and logically it makes no sense—I feel bad that Grandma wasn’t rewarded with good grades when she studied hard.

Jake was Grandma’s teacher. It sounds like he was quitting and that she was soon going to have a new teacher.

Grandma indicated that she was going to continue studying hard to impress her new teacher. Hmm . . . I can’t help wondering if she might have failed to trample all temptation at some point and “tested” her new teacher to see if he let her get away with cheating.

Will Be Glad When Exams Are Over

16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Thursday, February 8, 1912: I didn’t study much this evening. We have two more examinations tomorrow. Will be glad when they are over.

DSC03318.crop — I can picture Grandma sitting in this house a hundred years ago today as she worried about her upcoming exams.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Grandma’s diary entries that I’ve posted over the past two weeks indicated that she was working really hard on algebra. In January her teacher caught her cheating—and she’s really been trying to turn a new leaf. And, the entry I posted yesterday indicated that Grandma missed some questions on the history exam because she’d studied the wrong things.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that all went well with the remaining exams.

Studied the Wrong Things!

16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Wednesday, February 7, 1912: I certainly was a blundering dummy in my examinations today. I happened to get in General History four questions that I hadn’t looked up before. It sometimes seems that you study the very things you are least liable to get.

Recent photo of the building that once housed the McEwenvsille School. I can almost picture an upset teen--who was mad at herself for missing a couple questions--- slowly descending the stairs from her second floor classroom and heading out into the cold to begin the long walk home.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

How frustrating to have studied the wrong things!

Did the teacher ask for arcane facts about minor Civil War battles or generals?? . . . or the disputed election of 1876 between Hayes and Tilden? ?. . .or the Panic of 1837?? . . . .or . . .??

Stages of Country Church Evolution

16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Sunday, February 4, 1912: Didn’t want to miss Sunday School this morning, but all the same I did. It was too snowy to walk, and that was my only way of locomotion, so I staid at home. It was so stale this afternoon.

The old McEwensville Baptist Church probably was located somewhere on the lot that contains this yard and house.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Wow, the weather must have been really bad. I believe this is the first (or possibly the second) time that Grandma’s missed Sunday School since she began the diary 14 months ago.

Some weeks Grandma was the only pupil in her class—but she always went the following week. Other diary entries noted that she was trying to memorize more than 700 Bible verses in the expectation of eventually getting a free Bible. (One week she memorized 27 verses!!)

It amazes even more that a teen like Grandma was so dedicated to attending Sunday School when I think that the church she attended was on its last legs. Grandma never mentioned the church by name. There were three churches in McEwensville a hundred years ago, but I believe that she attended the McEwensville Baptist Church—which closed a few years after she wrote the diary.

I recently found an article in an old magazine published by the YMCA called Rural Manhood that identified the four stages of Country Church evolution.

Stages of Country Church Evolution

1. The period of pioneer struggle and weakness, through which practically all churches have had to pass.

2. The period of growth and prosperity, sharing the growth of the community; or lacking this growth, a period of marking time under the burden of a building debt.

3. The third stage, in which I presume a majority of country churches are now found, is the period of struggle against rural depletion, and for many of them it is a noble struggle.

4. The ultimate stage of this evolution is the survival of the fittest, an inevitable and a desirable result of the struggle.

The Country Church (Rural Manhood, January 1912)

Using this taxonomy the McEwensville Baptist Church failed to successfully navigate Stage 3. I’m amazed how a hundred years ago Darwinian “survival of the fittest” language provided a lens through which to examine churches.

Finally Went Skating

16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Saturday, February 3, 1912: Today proved to be a dull Saturday to me anyway. Ruth went skating this evening. It’s the first time this winter.

Source: Youths' Companion (November 16, 1911)

Skate forward, backward; start, stop, dodge. With “U.S. Hockey Player” Skates you have the jump on the other fellows.

They’re the fastest, lightest and strongest made. And they’re the only kind with chrome-nickel steel runner which can not dull.

U.S. Skates

are tempered steel, absolutely guaranteed to stand the hardest strain. The nickel-plating won’t chip or peel. They look more expensive than they are.

Send for FREE CATALOGUE

Illustrating Hockey, Club, Rink, Racing, and Ladies’ models. Showing pictures.

F. LOWENTRAUT MFG, Co.

54 Brenner St., Newark, N.J.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Since this was the first time that Grandma’s sister Ruth went skating, the weather must not have been as conducive for skating in 1912 as it had been the previous winter. In 1911 Grandma’s diary entries mentioned that friends came over to her family’s farm several times to go skating. For example, on January 17, 1911 she wrote:

Miss Stout was over this evening, wanted me to go skating or else sliding with her down on the creek with the rest of the gang. I choose to stay at home, and there I remained, and here I am at the present time.

Warrior Run Creek flows along the edge of the farm. I’m surprised that the creek froze enough to skate on. Maybe they flooded nearby land to create a homemade skating rink.