School #14 - It's A New World

The first school that I attended was Indianapolis Public School #14.  It was late summer of 1953 when my mother took me to register.  It was a big brick building.  We walked up the steps and went in.  The kindergarten room was to the left and I walked in holding my mother's hand.  The teacher told me that I could look around the room while she and my mother talked.  At the back left corner was a play kitchen with sink, play stove, dolls - there was a lot of pink. Along the back wall towards the other corner were blocks, toy cars and trucks.  There were shelves of paperback books, paints, paper, rugs and easels standing up.  Plastic aprons and musical instruments like bells, triangles - all sorts of wonderful toys.  There was a blackboard that had the alphabet with a capitol letter and a small letter from A to Z and numbers.  It was a big room with a wood floor and wooden chairs to sit on.

I went over to the building blocks and toy cars and played with those while my mother and teacher were talking - school was going to be so much fun.  I was growing up.......

It was September 1, 1953 and my first day of school had arrived.  I was so excited to go to school and play with all the wonderful toys.  I just wished my brother could go with me, but he couldn't because he was too young.  There was a lady cross guard at the corner of State St and Ohio St.  She made sure the cars stopped so we could cross the street.  I walked down Ohio and turned north on Arsenal Ave and then continued on Ohio St. again.  I walked by a catholic school with a church.  It was called Holy Cross.  It was surrounded with a wrought iron fence - seemed very mysterious.  I arrived at School 14.  I went in and turned left into the Kindergarten room.
 

The teacher was there greeting the kids.  Her name was Nancy Highland (this is a picture of her).  There were lots of kids in the room and I didn't know anyone.  All of a sudden, I felt very alone and was really afraid to talk.  When we were able to go play with the toys, I wanted to go play with the blocks and cars.  But, I was told to go play in the kitchen with the other girls.  Boys played with the blocks and cars and girls played in the kitchen.  I was not a happy camper.  I follow directions and didn't throw a fit or anything, but I didn't understand why we all couldn't play with all the toys.  That was how my brother and I played.  My mother never told us we could only play with certain toys.

I think my favorite thing was painting pictures on the easel.  We had to wear the plastic aprons to paint.  We also got in a  circle and walked around playing the different instruments.  I wanted to play the triangle, but don't think I got to play it too much.  I really was afraid to say anything.  But, there were some cute boys in my class.  I never went through that "I hate boys" stage.  We also had to take a nap.  That was what those little rugs were for.  Everyone got a rug and laid it on the wooden floor and we were suppose to nap.  The teacher turned the lights off so the only light was the light coming in through the windows.  There was no way that I could sleep - I just laid there until it was time to get up, folded my rug up and put it back on the shelf.

I did meet my best friend that I had while I went to School #14.  She was very pretty and nice.  She had a very nice smile and beautiful curly hair.  Her name was Kathryn Campbell.  We started walking back and forth to school with each other.  Katie lived on Walcott, about 2 blocks from my house.  When she reached State St., we would walk the rest of the way to school together.  Because we lived so far from each other, we couldn't play together all that much.  If I went to her house, my mother would walk me down to Walcott and then watch me until I got to her house.  Neither one of us were allowed to go to each other's house unless someone watched us.  But, even though we couldn't play together a lot, we considered ourselves best friends.

And, because of Facebook, we have been able to reconnect.  It is so cool reconnecting with childhood friends that we really cared about and considered best friends.

My brother, sister and I found all of our report cards that my mother had saved.  I'm going to say this now, but I believe we were very fortunate that our mother was a hoarder.  She saved everything and it is so cool to go through all of these fantastic mementos.  I didn't remember what my teachers had written on my report cards.  Some of the comments really surprised me.
The 1st report from Ms Highland read:  "Donna is a quiet child and has found it very difficult to adjust to the group situations of Kindergarten.  However, she is slowly taking her place as an individual and as a member of the group."   Really Ms. Highland?  Well, I would have found it much easier if I had been allowed to play with the blocks and cars.

2nd report:  "Donna is becoming more cooperative and participates in all activities.  She has overcome her fear of school."   Well, I really didn't have a choice now, did I.

3rd report:  "Donna has adjusted very well to school.  She has learned self control and group participation.  She is now ready for the first grade."  Did she just say that I didn't have self control?  What was that all about?  I would have never, ever disobeyed a teacher or anyone else.  I was scared to death of adults and people I didn't know.  I never talked back to teachers.  Oh well,  I was only going to kindergarten for the first semester and now I was going into the first grade.  First grade - I won't have to play in the pink kitchen anymore............AND I was now a midtermer.