Ruie Nugent . . . a life in education

By Ruie Nugent
Retired Educator

My introduction to the mysteries of education took place in a three-room village school in Webster Parish in 1919.

Seven grades, comprising an elementary school were housed in this building with three teachers. The nearest high school was seven miles north in Minden. A few well-to-do families living south of the village of Dubberly sent their older children in their o wn cars daily to Minden High School. Other families who could not afford that luxury were forced to make do with seven grades for their children.

During the first two or three years I was in school the first of several innovations occurred which changed the face of education in Webster Parish. The School Board implemented a plan to furnish transportation for high school students from rural areas to high schools located in urban centers. The first vehicles used for this purpose were called "school trucks."

A Minden resident was employed by the Parish School Board to construct of lumber long rectangular boxes having a raised roof separated from the sides of the box by an open space on either side. The opening could be covered in cold or rain by unrolling and l owering heavy canvas curtains. Seats were long benches built from front to back on either side.

When this contraption was attached to wheels and an engine and seats provided for the driver, a "school truck" was born. \par It was a far cry from modern school buses, but was considered a luxury in the infancy of student transportation.

After spending five years in the village school, I moved to Minden, where the school was one large brick building which housed both high school and elementary grades.

Although a separate building for the school was in the process of construction, it was not occupied until the 1924-25 session. So, I completed grade seven in the big old building where I felt very much like the country mouse who went to the city.

During the four years between 1926-27 and 1929-30, I completed requirements for graduation from high school and immediately entered Louisiana State Normal College in Natchitoches.

I those years students were permitted to begin teaching after completing two years of college work. I was an on-campus student from the 1930 summer term continuously through succeeding terms until March, 1932.

Normal campus was very different in those days. From the main entrance a drive led upwards beside a quadrangle on the left formed by three classroo m buildings and the laundry. Caldwell Hall contained all administrative offices and numerous classrooms, while the Book Store occupied the basement at one end of the building. The Science Building formed a right angle at one end of Caldwell, while in like position at the opposite end of Caldwell was Warren Easton, used for some college classes as well as for elementary classrooms where college students did their practice teaching.

Behind the Science Building and across the Drive stood an old frame building called the Social Hall. The Dean of Women also lived in and had her office there, while the library occupied the rest of the first floor. Library Science classes were on the second floor.

The Drive continued in the same direction beside another quadrangle having four girls' dormitories, two on opposite sides and the dining hall at one end. \par Because these four buildings were not adequate to house the female students, three temporary frame buildings called Camps 1, 2, and 3, had been erected to absorb the student overflow.

Each camp was a long one-floor wooden building, divided into rooms alone one side; each room occupied by two students. The rooms faced a screened porch of the same length, on which students slept. Sanitary facilities were on one end.

Each camp and each dormitory had a resident matron. My home the first year was in Camp 3. The next year I moved to Dormitory A.

One dormitory on the back of the campus met the needs of male students.

Strict rules governing girls' behavior were rigorously enforced.

Periodically during the spring, winter, and fall sessions, the student body met in assembly on the second floor of Caldwell Hall. During the summer the assembly was held in a large arbor behind Caldwell.

Besides on-campus students, many commuted daily from surrounding areas. Even so, the number of students during that period was less than 1,000.

Those years were a part of the Great Depression which had forced a change of residents for one. From Minden, it became necessary that I move to Winnfield.

No publi c means of transportation existed between Natchitoches and Winnfield. Fortunately for me at the time I graduated, wide-spread flooding closed many roads and caused travel routes to be changed. Buses from Shreveport to Alexandria were forced to go south f rom Clarence to Montgomery, turn east to Winnfield, then south again to Alexandria. It was by that means that I arrived in Winnfield to be deposited a the old Winnfield Hotel on Main Street on March 3, 1932.

In 1932 I was not employed to teach in either Web ster or Winn Parish. The superintendent of each parish declared me to be the responsibility of the other. Therefore, it was in the fall of 1933 that I was first employed to teach grades one and two in Wheeling, for which I was paid $60 monthly in scrip, w hich could be cased at a discount of 15%.

I boarded with Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Maseberg from Monday through Friday. It was Mr. Maseberg's father. a German immigrant, who as he began his return from a visit to Germany was lost at sea at about the same time the Titanic sank.

In those years a bus owned and operated by Mr. Cole and his sons in Winnfield was driven daily to and from Normal. The present road from Winnfield to Natchitoches had not been built. So, the Normal bus, as it was called, was driven to Mont gomery, north to Clarence, then west to Natchitoches. Since its route lay through Wheeling, I made use of it each Monday morning and Friday afternoon.

During my two years in Wheeling, Mr. H.O. Schwartz was employed by the School Board as Winn Parish Supervisor of Classroom Instruction. He continued in that position until his death in 1951.

As a result of the instruction and supervision of Mr. Schwartz, I was transformed from a person with little self-confidence into a teacher worthy of respect. \par In 1935-36, the school board transferred me to Sikes to teach a class of 52 fifth graders. The size of the class necessitated the removal of a partition between two rooms.

The Sikes school was next to Winnfield in size. They boasted a new two-story brick building which housed all the high school plus the first four elementary grades. Grades five through seven were in an old frame building where the auditorium was also locat ed.

Since this was still during the Depression, only six of the 16 faculty members owned cars.

All the teachers were required to live in the community from Monday to Friday, but could if we wished go home on weekends. Another teacher and I became adept at getting a ride in an oil delivery truck each Friday afternoon.

Possibilities for entertainment were certainly not numerous. However, most of us lived near one another and managed to avoid boredom.

A short distance from town, Mr. Holly owned a syrup mill. Wh en sugar cane was harvested he used his mill to turn cane juice into syrup. One fall afternoon most of the teachers visited the mill to watch the proceedings. The mill which produced the juice was operated by a mule attached to one end of a pole which joi ned the mill and turned it as the mule walked around and around. A man stood by and fed the cane into the grinder, or perhaps crusher is the better term to use.

The juice thus secured was cooked until it reached the stage of desired thickness. Although I did not like the taste of the juice, some of the teachers accepted a drink.

Mr. Schwartz visited us regularly, always finding something to praise, then offering suggestions for improvement. He initiated a plan in which selected teachers visited classes in other schools with the aim of having teachers learn from other teachers.

Mr; Schwartz continually cast forth ideas which teachers could put into practice for their own improvement.

Thus three years in Sikes passed quickly. In 1938-39, the School Board moved me to Winnfield, where I taught fifth graders for the next 35 years.

Mr. Schwartz was my mentor until his death in 1951. Following his death, Mr. Russell L. Terry and Mr. W.D. Walker played important roles in my teaching career.

During my first two years i n Winnfield I was located with grades one through five on the third floor of the first brick school building in Winnfield. Having been built in 1908, it was being used as a stop-gap along with another old building while a new building was being constructe d in 1939. It became Westside Elementary and housed the entire elementary schools.

The session of 1938-39 saw the beginning of a classroom music program. A music teacher was employed who periodically visited classrooms. The regular teacher was expected to carry on the program between visits.

All I knew of music was the little I remembered from my own elementary school days in Minden. So, as I continued taking classes on campus and by extension from Normal, I included every available music class. I found the work to be very enjoyable and participated gladly in building the admirable music program of which Westside boasted for many years.

Mr. Schwartz recommended that upper elementary teachers develop units of work where applicable instead of the old page b y page teaching. Teachers were encouraged to plan complementary projects to illustrate and enhance particular units.

Since I happen to be blessed with a very active imagination, this type of teaching particularly appealed to me.

So, my classes printed murals, drew various kinds of maps, wrote and produced plays, wrote and sang songs, etc., etc. We made field trips and wrote letters to distant places for information. There was no end to our "doing" things to augment learning.

One of my classes visited and went down into the nearby Carey Salt Mine more than once. Tragically, the mine was flooded by an underground river or lake, ending thoughts of visits by future classes.

Following a request by Mr. Terry, at that time Winn Parish Superintendent, I directed one cl ass in a study of Winn Parish. We made numerous field trips and invited people to visit the classroom and speak to the students about past and present happenings of particular significance.

Of course, in 40 years there were many other interesting experiences. I have mentioned only a few of which were typical.

Any success that I experienced in my teaching career must be attributed to the enviable rapport which I enjoyed with the superior administrators of that period.

Because they knew me well, I needed only to keep them informed concerning my plans and goals. Then I was freed to do the imaginative teaching that I loved, using textbooks and the Westside Library for source materials.

Woven into the niches among the described activities were extension courses and summer attendance at Normal, until I earned a BA degree in 1940.

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