SCHOOL IN THE BACKBLOCKS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22593, 24 December 1938, Page 5 (Supplement)

SCHOOL IN THE BACKBLOCKS

[Extract from a letter from a teacher in British Columbia, Canada. Sent by Jessie Mould, Banks Peninsula.] I left Vancouver from the Union dock at noon and from Squarmich travelled into the heat by train. At Ivesnell we took the stage. Over hill, over dale we went, along the Government highway. This is a mountainous country with great tracks of birch. It has not the cedar stands of the north land. For miles and miles we saw very little but woodland and a few isolated farm houses. Then we rolled past the sign marking the. northern boundary of the Cariboo and stopped at a little wayside post office store. I was told to alight at Woodpecker. Here I found a girl and horse awaiting me. I looked at my skirt and then at the horse and wondered how much further and in what direction I was yet to travel. After four and a half miles up and down hills and round hairpin curves I came upon a two-storey house built of squared timber, cut decades ago. My heart nearly failed me. I knew already there would be school children in the family—four of them—besides two others at least. I have found more since. As I mounted the stairs I saw daylight through the cracks and blankets for partitions.

In the evening it rained and the roof leaked in my room. Next day I went to school. It is supposed to be a mile away from the house. That must be as the crow flies. As the road winds 1 am sure it must be half as far again. The family is making a new home on partially cleared land. Lately I was over watching the root cellar go down. The father handled the scraper and a girl of 16 handled the team. Round and round they went in the hot sun, digging the centre down and buLding up the sides. takes some imagination to see this wild land in pasture and crop. It will be interesting to watch log buildings going up and stumps being taken The school itself is a small building compared with the community hall I had last year. I thought I had little blackboard space before, but there is not one third as much now. It is rather speckled, too. Some folks say the last teacher lost her temper sometimes and poked the pointer through the board. The pointer is broken, so I use a twig. The building is made of logs piled one upon the other and locked at the corners. Inside there is V joining. Along one side is a wall upon which the maps are well hung on rollers. Along the other are the

four windows. The library, when I arrived, consisted of old crippled free-issue texts. My library has been put on the shelf, and the Public Library Commission books should be here soon. The seats are bright and new, but lack the customary inkwells. Corked bottles are in the holes instead. The ink and paper and notebooks are coming up from Vancouver shortly. Shoe makers’ pegs we are making from burnt matches and colouring with local dyes—coffee, onions, etc. Also we are making coloured beads from macaroni, letter and number cards from the backs of report books and annual statements. These v/e keep In chocolate boxes. One of the women found some boards along the highway. If no one claims them we shall make them into dropleaf tables along the wall. We shall use them for library work, and when we need the space for recreation let them down. We are collecting stones to use for making bookends. On Labour Day I went to the fair. How surprised I was to see a big turnout, and a large display of farm goods, women’s cooking, preserving, and handcraft. 1 followed the judge and learned what not to do when preparing potatoes and grain for show. The most interesting man there is a Finn who makes very beautiful Violins in his spare time. He farms.

The radios in this community work after all. Sometimes I shall bemoan the fact. I brought my gramophone and records, so that we shall have something besides my voice and mouth organ for music in school. Here there is little recreation, no persons my own age, male or female, no school teacher friends within walking distance, and no regular mail service down from the pOSt Office. ~ „ This evening 1 milked May. That was an adventure, since I had never had a cow iust stand for me before. It was a little tiring on the hanas, too, since I had done no milking for' three months. And so we get rusticated again.

Equation of time represents the difference between clock-time and sun-dial time. This difference is greatest in the northern hemisphere in November, when the sun is 16 minutes behind. The only days on which there is perfect accord between the two times are April 15, June 15, August 31, and December 24.

The firefly is a small winged insect which is able to throw out a strong phosphorescent light in the dark. There are some remarkable specimens in tropical countries.