Across the Iron Range, from Ely to Grand Rapids, it’s time for school to begin again! Where did the summer go?
Even if it has been awhile since you went shopping for new school clothes, notebooks, and pencils, you may be aware that the season is changing and fall is in the air. There are even a few trees that are showing a branch or two of colored leaves.
So, as the school buses roll down the streets again and sweaters replace swimsuits, let’s wish all students, teachers, and school staffs a successful kick-off to the 2024-25 school year!
Mike Kosiak was born in Chisholm in 1924 and graduated from Chisholm High School in 1942. After serving in World War Two, he went to college and medical school. He and Hibbing High School graduate, Helen Rantala, were married for 64 years before Mike’s death in 2012.
In 2005, Mike published a well-written memoir about his family and Chisholm in the years of his youth. Titled “Growing Up in Chisholm on the Mesabi Iron Range,” it is long out of print, but local libraries may have a copy or keep your eyes open at garage sales.
The following is taken from a chapter about the education students received in the Chisholm schools.
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Throughout our entire school experience, from Kindergarten through the Twelfth Grade, all educational materials were provided free of charge. This included pencils, pens, papers, notebooks, and even flashcards. Crayons (artistic, not the “sixty-four-in-a box” variety), as well as watercolor supplies, and all other necessary art-related products were also available.
Current textbooks covering all subject matters were provided to all students. Dictionaries, atlases, maps, and globes were located in every classroom.
Although on occasion there might be a suggested nominal charge for programs presented at the Junior High School Auditorium, rarely was any child left behind. All athletic equipment, including shoes and socks for track, along with basketball and football, was provided free of charge. Hockey players had to provide their own skates. The school also provided all the larger, more expensive musical instruments.
Grade school was never a major challenge for any of us, at least from a purely academic standpoint. Regimentation and discipline, especially for the boys, was another matter.
Minor social infractions such as being caught chewing gum in class often resulted in immediate and sometimes rather drastic corrective measures. The child might merely be asked, in front of the whole class, to deposit the gum in the wastepaper basket next to the teacher’s desk. Solitary confinement for up to 15 minutes in the cloakroom appeared to be in accordance with the standard recommended school-wide sentencing guidelines at every grade level. The simplest form of punishment for talking or whispering in class was also to be sent to the cloakroom, which was a walled-off extension of the classroom where all the children’s outer clothing was hung on hooks during the school hours.
The major problem with being confined was the fact that there were no chairs in the cloakroom. The child serving time was thus limited to sitting on the floor, walking quietly up and down the cloakroom, or just standing still until a classmate would come to the room and signal one’s release from confinement.
Because much of the playground equipment was stored in the cloakroom, during long periods of confinement the condemned student might grab a softball, football, or basketball, toss it into the air and try to catch it. Heaven forbid if one missed the catch. The teacher would then come storming into the cloakroom, and the period of solitary confinement would be extended for several more minutes.
Being requested to leave the classroom altogether and stand in the hallway was potentially the severest form of punishment, especially if the principal were to walk by. Then one was guaranteed a stroll to the principal’s office, usually while being held firmly by one ear. Because we all had had Miss Jessie Chase, the principal, as our First Grade teacher, we were already well acquainted. We had all heard her lecture on good citizenship and scholarly behavior on so many occasions we suspected the confrontations were more frustrating to her than they were traumatic to us.
Although our parents never kept count, it appeared that I had more difficulty adjusting to the grade-school routine than did my brothers Johnny and Willie. This may have only appeared so, due to the fact that our next-door neighbor Tina was in my class. Without exception, whenever I was disciplined, Tina would come over and tell Ma all about the encounter. So, I always had some explaining to do by the time I got home.
After we had all finished our high school and college education, my Father informed me that when I was in the First Grade, he told the principal, Miss Chase, “You can do anything you want to control that kid.”
Once Miss Chase informed the rest of the Roosevelt schoolteachers about that comment, I became unrestricted, fair game.
Punctuality was also taught to the students beginning on day one. We did not enter the building until the school bell rang, except on those days when the temperature was near or below zero or there was a very heavy rain. Otherwise, regardless of the time of year, whether it be raining or snowing, we were required to wait outside until we heard the bell. What made this ordeal even more stressful was the fact that other than the few trees around the school, there were no natural shelters. Although the few trees could have provided some shelter, walking on the lawn was strictly prohibited. In fact, if anyone walked across the lawn and was observed by a janitor or a teacher, the child would have some explaining to do.
In the winter months, while waiting for the bell to ring, we would usually gather against the heating-plant wall on the southeast corner of the school, away from the brisk northwest winds. When entering the school after a fresh snowfall, we were always subjected to the close scrutiny of one of the janitors. Not only did he make sure we shook off as much snow as possible, he always had a broom available to assist in the snow removal. The boys were also, in all seasons, always expected to remove their hats and caps as soon as they entered the building.
The importance of punctuality and regular school attendance was wholeheartedly supported and strictly enforced by our parents. This parental support was present not only because they appreciated the importance of their children’s education, but they also came to realize that the child who reported to school with even a minor medical problem might have the benefit of an evaluation by the school nurse or perhaps even the school physician. This fact was especially important for those families who had no other access to medical care.
Whereas average, above average or even exceptional grades may have been reassuring to the parents, perfect attendance was the goal most strived for by the student. Though no tangible awards or recognition were forthcoming for intellectual achievement, each child with perfect attendance was awarded an actual certificate at the end of the school year.
In spite of the fact that the whole country and especially the Iron Range was in the very depths of the Great Depression throughout the 1930’s, the student dress code was strictly enforced. Footwear was of greatest importance since shoes were fairly expensive and, unlike clothing, could not be made or easily altered in the home. During the winter, four-buckle galoshes were the footwear of choice, at least through the Third Grade. High tops, leather boots with a small jackknife inserted along the outside of the boot, were in style for the Fourth and Fifth Grade boys. Rubber-toe boots, similar to present-day Sorrel boots but without the felt lining, might be worn for special occasions. Winter footwear for the girls consisted almost exclusively for four-buckle galoshes, which extended up to the knees.
Since all galoshes came in only one color, black, the only way children could identify their boots at recess time or when leaving school was to meticulously position them beneath their winter clothing in the cloakroom. Zippers for winter boots, though available in the mid-1930s, never became fashionable or popular with even the high school students. In later years, variously colored pullover boots, referred to as snow boots, replaced the black, four-buckle galoshes.
From the First through the Sixth Grade, neckties were standard and required everyday wear for the boys, winter and summer. The fact that a child might wear the same tie every day was of no apparent concern to the teachers. Since the tie was worn at lunch as well as at breakfast, one can imagine the food stains decorating the tie by the end of the school year. Our mother tied our ties only on the first day of school. After that, my brothers and I would merely slip the tie over our heads and gently tighten the knot when we put it back on.
Trousers varied in the weight of the material, heavier in the winter and lighter during the warmer months. No blue jeans were ever allowed in the schools in any season, even during high school, until a couple of decades after the war years.
The girls may have had a little more flexibility concerning the dress code. I remember on cold days the girls wore pants under their dresses to help to keep their legs warm, but those pants had to be removed soon after they came into the school building. No form of slacks for girls were ever allowed in the classroom until decades after I had graduated. In grade school, girls usually wore long winter underwear to cover their legs and long cotton stockings.
There were no teacher-parent conferences as such, but parent visits were encouraged on a designated day in both the fall and the spring. The springtime visits by the parents were usually associated with the time near Mother’s Day. Mothers were invited to visit the classrooms of all of their children, but because of language problems (the mothers speaking limited English or being embarrassed by the heavily accented English they spoke) there were rarely any prolonged personal interactions between the teachers and any of the mothers. Though our mother regularly attended these sessions, none of us remember our father ever visiting the school.
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