A LOOK BACK -- JERRY PERSON

With the holidays behind us and now the beginning of a new year, I

thought we would again look at a typical school day at Dwyer Middle

School. I received quite a favorable response from the column we did last

year, and this week, we’ll travel back to 1932.

On April 26, 1932, a year before the great earthquake would change the

school’s look forever, the school held an open house for parents to see

what their children were doing in class. On hand to welcome the parents

and friends were Supt. C.B. Baldwin, Primary Division Principal Agnes

Smith and Geneva Helbing of the Central Division.

The school’s gymnasium and pool had recently been completed, and the

school was very proud to explain and show its beautiful tile-worked pool

and its many side rooms for basketball, etc. We’ll begin our classroom

tours just like those parents did so long ago by visiting the

kindergarten class, where the little ones were painting pictures that

only a proud parent could enjoy.

As student guides led the party through the room, a young girl was

seen taking the school’s doll for a ride around the room in a wagon. The

parents were next led to Esther Funk’s first-grade class, where her

students showed their parents how they were learning to read and to speak

correctly. To aid her students, Funk used drama as a means of keeping her

students interested. Other first-grade teachers used similar methods.

Miss Jones used flowers, Miss MacMillan had a puppet show, and Miss

Morgan used a beach theme.

In Mrs. Sheehan’s and Miss Dow’s second-grade classes, the concept was

continued. Their mission was to impart to their pupils reasoning,

planning, good judgment and resourcefulness. I know several drivers on

the road who could use some of that.

Miss Miller, the primary division librarian, showed parents how she

helped second-graders pick out books to read. In Miss Sundbye’s and Mrs.

Hadley’s third-grade classes, students were busy learning about numbers

and music. Their students had displays made of seashells, and around the

room were scenes and stories about the people of Japan.

Next, the parents were led into the classrooms of Miss Lockhart and

Miss Greenwald. California history was the topics of their fourth-grade

classes, with soap-carved missions and scenes depicting mission life.

Many of these students had their drawings on display for the parents to

see. Next, our assigned guides brought us to the fifth-grade classes of

Miss Newcombe and Mrs. Scales, where their students displayed scenes of

current events. It would be in this grade that our residents of tomorrow

would learn about art and music appreciation.

Again, our young guides led us around the school and into the

sixth-grade classroom of Miss Hood, where the continent of Africa was

featured. Around the room were depicted the geographical features of

Africa and a comparison between the deserts of Africa and North America.

In another sixth-grade room, students constructed a visual display of

boat-building, from primitive boats carved from a log to that of a modern

ocean liner.

Well I see by the schoolroom clock that it is time for school to let

out, and -- like most of us who went to school -- we couldn’t wait for

that big hand on the clock to reach 12, signaling “school’s out.”

Next week, we’ll finish with our tour guides in a typical day in our

school in 1932.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington Beach

resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box

7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.