Interview with Mrs. Dan R. (Mary) MacIsaac on Education

Q. What year did you start school? Do you remember what teachers you had?

A. I started school in 1905. I don't remember the teachers very well until I got into high school. We had Mother St. Andrew teaching us. At the time she had to teach grades 9, 10, and 11. I remember in grade 9 there were thirteen of us. The boys were in the class with the girls in high school. But down in the lower grades, the boys and the girls were separated.

Q. What did you have as the music teacher at this time?

A. The music teacher was Mother St. Mary Georgina. She was also the superior in the convent. She use to come at that time and teach us music.

Q. Who was the functional principal at the school?

A. Mother St. Andrew. She was a girl formally from Port hood, a MacLellan girl from Port Hood.

Q. What were her duties as principal?

A. Well, just the same duties as today. She was principal and she also taught… she worked hard.

Q. What classes were offered to the students?

A. English, French, Latin, geometry, trigonometry, and history.

Q. What were the classrooms like and how were they arranged?

A. They were arranged the same as they are today, they were long classrooms with maybe six rows of desks.

Q. How many students per classroom and what grades?

A. The classrooms were big. In the lower grades, there might be two grades per classroom, but up in high school we were all together.

Q. What was used for lighting the school? Was there any running water?

A. There was no plumbing on lighting until late in the 1920's.

Q. What sort of rules and regulations were in force when you went to school?

A. Just the same as they are today. The teachers expected the students to do their homework and too behave themselves in class.

Q. What form of punishment was used if they broke the rules?

A. Every teacher had a strap. They would strap their hands.

Q. Was there a lot of homework assigned by the teachers?

A. Well, quite a bit. We'd have to study our history, we'd have to do a little English exercise, we'd have to do our Latin and our French… we had all those everyday.

Q. When you became a teacher were there major changes made since you left school?

A. No, not in my time, just the same there were no major changes.

Q. What years did you teach?

A. I taught in 1918, 1919, 1920 and 1921.

Q. Who taught with you?

A. Alice Grant and Mrs. Peggy MacMaster taught with me. It was mainly nuns that taught in the convent school, very few lay teachers.

Q. What courses and grades did you teach yourself?

A. I taught grades 4,5 and 6.. all the courses.

Q. Were there any major personalities that came out of this school?

A. Oh yes, there were a lot big men came out of the Holy Family school. There were the Hon. Allan J. MacEacheren, Dr. Bill MacIsaac, Alex MacKinnon, he was Chief Justice of Nova Scotia. There were a lot of nurses and priests and nuns came out of the Holy family School.

Q. Was the school strict in its method of teachings?

A. Well, it wasn't too strict. The pupils were relaxed enough.

Q. Did the teachers ever have to keep students after school?

A. Oh, yes. That was the greatest punishment of all to keep a pupil in after school. It would be maybe until 4 or 4:30. It would all depend on what they would have to do.

Q. Were the general class hours the same as they are now?

A. Oh, yes. First of all we went into school at nine o'clock. We had to teach catechism from 9 to 9:30. Then from 9:30 to 10:30 we taught math. Then there was recess. After recess, we use to teach English… other subjects in the afternoon.

Q. Were there any special courses offered say to the girls for home life?

A. No, there was no such thing at that time as Home Economics.

Q. How were the teachers paid at this time?

A. Well they weren't paid too well. We use to get $52.50 a month. Of course, you could do a lot more with $52.50 then that you could do today. We use to go to the town hall to get paid. Sometimes they wouldn't be able to give us our pay. They use to give us a slip to go to the store for groceries to take home.

Q. How many teachers taught at the school?

A. At the time I taught, eight teachers taught at the school. This covered all grades from grades one to eleven.

Q. Was the school as extensive as they are now?

A. Yes, but there was no March break.

Q. What was in its place?

A. Nothing, we just kept on teaching. We didn't look for March break. We got a few days at Easter. That was it until we got our vacation in June.

Q. What was the inspector like?

A. He use to come and he'd sit in on the classes. We would teach for him, we'd teach our lessons. He'd take his notes down, he was very nice. His name was James MacKinnon from Baddeck.

Q. What was the students reaction when they knew he was coming?

A. They didn't reach much. They expected him… they were well behaved. They would do their lessons.

Q. What was the general feeling in the classroom when it came time to write provincials both for the teachers and the students?

A. At that time they started writing provincials in grade nine. In grades 7 and 8 there was an entrance exam and if you didn't pass that entrance exam you didn't get into grade nine. Then, there were provincial exams in grades 9, 10 and 11. Your papers were sent to Halifax; they corrected them and send the marks back. If we passed, we'd get a big diploma with a crown on it. If we didn't pass there would be no crown on it.

Q. So, you could do well in your studies all year and then fail the provincials', you'd lose your year.

A. Well, yes.

Q. Was there any special arrangements made for the graduating class?

A. No. there was no graduating classes. You just went to school and that was it. There were no graduations.

Q. In regards, to the school itself, did the students help with the upkeep of the school?

A. Yes, they'd brush the boards; they'd dust the desk... that's about all.

Q. What did the students and teachers do between classes?

A. There was no such thin as between classes. You just went from one subject to another. They had a recess at half past ten to half past quarter to eleven, that's all, it was the only break you got.

Q. Were there any changes ever made in the curriculum or the methods of teaching over the years?

A. Not much, no. It's pretty much the same today as it was then.

Q. What methods did they use to keep the classrooms warm in the winter?

A. They had big pot belly stoves. There was coal used in them, the children would have to carry the coal up in coal pails from the basement. There were always big roaring fires in the stores. The children at the front were warm and the children in the back were cold, because the heat didn't circulate. They were always allowed to come up front to warm themselves. The post belly stoves were always located close to the door.

Q. What would happen if there was an emergency and everyone would have to get out of the school quickly?

A. Well, there was once a fire started. At that time, they had a furnace in the old school and there was a fire started in the furnace room. The fire spread upstairs. After that they got ride of the furnace and they got big stone in each classroom instead so it could be watched by the teacher. They chances over when I was going to school in the early 1900s.