The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

SECTION THE HERALD June 17 1W1 Education has made progress In 1816 Lillian of Acton earned a as a school teacher and thought it As far as the education system Is contented we come a long way baby Back in 1MB when the first classes were held in two rented rooms of a frame house in Georgetown the government support education There were no taxes Townsfolk just chipped in enough money to hire school mar and rent a building Only after Confederation when Egerton gem of legislation was passed ensuring that schools would be government subsidized did at learning change from private to public opera One room schools were literally that No homo rooms or gyms or science labs or cafeterias No PA systems or swimming pools or audiovisual equipment No plumbing There weren even any textbooks at the first formal school in Georgetown in tie basement of the old Town Hall below the councillor meet ins place The Old Maids School of the lBSOs on Main Street across from the Congregational Church consisted a long desks and benches Bui not enough of them Some students had to iland and lour or five shared a slalennd chalk A far cry from today s doul Ic classrooms and wellstocked libraries So were the rules Children used to do what were told without question remembered Mrs Eaton bonder Contemporary teachers dare not hit a chili pioneer children dare not anger a teacher for fear of being hit Reputedly Miss McMastcr of the Old Maids schools was a iviih the hickory stick PIONEER DAYS BARGAIN TABLE EARLY BIRDS 20 OFF SPECIALS THROUGHOUT PIONEER DAYS COMPETITION OXBOW BOOKS 102 Main St S GEORGETOWN Make Hay Pioneer Days at Main ID DOWNTOWN GEORGETOWN Jack and his engines Steam engine hobby a thrill for young Always a favorite with youngsters are the steam engines Jack Layman brings to Pioneer Days The retired machinist makes them himself Iti a hobby he picked up just before retiring from Chubb Security in Brampton yean ago The steam engines are table models of mill engines used In fac tories years ago Mr Layman said The factories had boilers to produce the steam to operate the engine The engine would then turn the line shift the belts running from it to the machinery One of the steam engines Mr Layman will be demonstrating Is tbc James Watt engine It dates to James Watt was a British lnstiu- lot of people think Watt developed the steam engine but they were using steam before he was born Mr Layman said He Just improved upon it Down in the Layman basement are the lathe drill press small mill ins machine and small used to build these models I do the machining It keeps me away from the television he chuckled Mr and Mrs Layman belong to the Ontario Steam and Antique Preservers Association and to organizations Niagara and Georgian Bay They frequently travel to steam around the province and the United Stales You could be out every weekend from now to freeze out between the Ontario and US shows Mr Layman said It a popular hobby with many older participants fondly caring for original farm machinery and que engines they were used to In their day he said Every engineer who came along had his own Idea of what a steam engine should be Mr Layman aid He made It Then something better came along Models made by steam engine fan all run basically the same In stead of steam they run on air pressure from an air compressor Mr Layman explained Rght now the Georgetown man la working on a grasshopper engine named thus because It resembles a grasshopper when it running having trouble malting the crankshift Mr Layman admitted My first two tries didn t work Along with about six models of steam engines the machinist will be demonstrating how to make rope with a homemade rope machine The kids like to do it It a hands on thing Mr Layman said Using binder twine this machine of wood wire and bicycle chain makes rope of varying thickness depending on how many strands arc Mr Layman and his model steam engines have been Pioneer Days since its inception