Curryville's Students

Our Curryville tour now has us at the two-room school house. The school house (shown right) is directly across the road from the church. That building is now a community room owned by the church. The original blackboards, doors and wood paneling are still there. Sunday School classes and many events are held there. Local ladies gather on Tuesdays to make quilts, stitch by stitch with loving hands.

Robert (Bobbie) Ritchey and I were the only ones in the first and second grades. When I told people of this, my husband would jokingly chime in with “Their teacher said, if you two don’t behave yourselves, there will be no third grade next year.”

I remember sprouting some leadership skills when the weather kept us inside during recess. I would get the kids to sit down and write in Peterson Penmanship script a particular letter of the alphabet as many times as they could until I said “Stop.” I gave the winner a piece of penny candy. I think my success in leadership (the ability to get things done) throughout my life was partly because I was excited about the feeling of accomplishment everyone would have.

I loved recess. My favorite game was Red Rover. It was a little dangerous, but we were allowed so we played it. I liked playing softball. I preferred to be the pitcher. That way I got to touch the ball a lot.

One day when we were playing softball, the ball went into the outhouse and bounced down the hole. The substitute teacher for that day lined all the players up in front of the school room and paddled us. That was the first and only time in my youth that I felt less than beautiful because I felt anger. It was the first and only time in my whole life that I was hit on purpose by an adult. I can measure my growth by the way I changed my view of that incident.

When I was very young, I felt extremely confused and a little mistrustful of adults for the first time. I learned that some people actually thought that corporal punishment was good and it was the way kids should be brought up. I felt very sorry for that teacher that she was not creative enough to think of some other way to express her anger.

I became very drawn to how we handle injustices. I ended up spending most of my life dedicated to teaching Creative Nonviolent Conflict Resolution and setting up alternatives to incarceration and teaching peace and nonviolence. The story of my prison ministry is highlighted in a book published by the Church of the Brethren Press, “GRACE GOES TO PRISON,” by Melanie Snyder.