Carole Ring started school in 1946 at Sharon S.S. # 9 in Edville. She was the daughter of schoolteacher, Muriel McDonald Reddick, and this is a brief memoir of her school days.

“We each had a chair desk with a drawer where we kept such treasures as ‘Mary, John and Peter Reader,’ a lined workbook, one pencil, one eraser and one ruler….

At any given time there were usually around 20 pupils attending S.S. No. 9, Cramahe. Mom treated all of us like family. Very few children misbehaved, they all loved and respected her…The older children helped the younger ones academically and outside on the playground…We took turns as monitors for such daily chores as carrying wood from the woodshed to the hungry box stove, carrying a pail of water from the neighbour’s pump, or monitoring the Health Chart. Accomplishing five healthy functions— wash face and hands, comb hair, eat breakfast, brush teeth, clean nails - won a star….

Each pupil stuck a picture of his/her favourite late-model car, cut from a magazine, beside his/her name on the spelling chart….After dictation (we got) five miles for each (correctly spelled) word. The incentives was to get the highest mileage on that final day in June when the prizes were distributed…..”

(Originally published in How Firm Our Foundation, pp.76-77.)