Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Before class begins, teacher Phyllis Ramage collects payment from students in the form of fruit, nuts and logs for the classroom fire.
Students go 'colonial'
Fifth-graders spend a day in 1770
By Leigh Ann Maze
On Nov. 24, the students in Phyllis Ramage's fifth-grade class at Sacred Heart School began their day as American children would have in 1770--they walked to school. Around Thanksgiving every year, the class not only learns about colonial life, they actually live it for a day.
Boys dressed in knickers and button-down shirts and girls in long skirts, white bonnets and shawls walked from Saratoga Library to Sacred Heart school. They carried firewood for the classroom fireplace, and simple, colonial-style lunches in baskets or wrapped in handkerchiefs. No packaged fruit snacks or cold cuts were allowed.
Upon arriving at the simple classroom decorated only with patchwork quilts, each child presented the teacher with a gift of payment for class such as an apple or walnuts.
Colonial Class: More photos from Sacred Heart School's colonial day.
Class began with the children standing to recite the Lord's Prayer. The children were allowed to speak only to others in colonial dress, and only when spoken to. They remained standing at their desks until the teacher gave them permission to be seated. At their desks, the children sat quietly with their hands folded, backs straight and feet flat on the floor. Mrs. Ramage, who was dressed in a long pink colonial dress and white bonnet, reminded those who did not about proper posture. Misbehaving children had to wear a sign around their necks stating the nature of their crime: "answers impolitely," "tattletale" or "cheater."
Mrs. Ramage reviewed proper manners and courtesy with the class, and the children recited the dutiful child's promise, swearing to respect God, the King, parents, teachers, siblings and friends. Students practiced penmanship using quill pens dipped in inkwells, and a hornbook hung around each student's neck demonstrating the proper form of each letter of the alphabet.
Tin drinking cups on the students' desks were filled with water from a nearby well. During lunch, the children were allowed quiet conversation and games of jacks and marbles. After a day of strict teaching and serious learning in the Spartan colonial classroom, the children left to spend the long Thanksgiving weekend with their families with much to be thankful for, and a better understanding of what life was like for the founders of the Thanksgiving Holiday.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
