Malcolm Rosholt Online Archives

Mr. Toastmaster, Ladies and Gentlemen

In these strenuous days, when an 8th grade teacher must at-tempt to teach virtue with the zeal of a preacher, music with the melody of a nightingale, drawing with the technique of an artist, physical culture with the grace of a danseuse, history with the learn - big of a seer, mathematics with the precision and rapidity of an expert, civics with the skill of a lawyer, reading with the art of an elocutionist - in fact, impart information regarding all things in the heavens above, the earth beneath, and the waters under the earth - it is no easy thing to go back to the time of the Old White School, when we did a few simple things.

In the long ago, too many years to mention, many of the men and women present tonight were my pupils.

The schoolroom was heated with the customary stove used in school buildings those days. You will remember those near it were too hot, and those farthest away too cold. The boys looked after the fires; the girls the sweeping and dusting.

The walls were adorned with mottoes such as “Lost opportunities never return,” ”Time and tide wait for no man,” “Be diligent” and the like. These were the magnificent gift of the teacher. They were pasteboard and cost five cents apiece.

My brain is befogged when I try to recall what in the world I taught those boys and girls. I remember they had frequent spelling contests. They parsed, diagramed and conjugated the verb, “to love.” They wrote the Spencerian hand and stuck to it, instead of first Spencerian, then vertical, the Spencerian and finally not much of anything.

I am certain Hime and Charley can say Maine, Augusta on the Kennebec, Delaware, Dover near Jones Creek, etc. They stayed after stool enough to learn them for keeps. They got down to work and thought out things for themselves. Alas! I fear the teacher does too much of the thinking for the girls and boys these days, because of the multiplicity of the things that are taught.

Some were mischievous; none were bad. They were earnest, hard working, obedient girls and boys. Is it any wonder that they have become good lawyers, doctors, preachers, teachers, merchants, millers, farmers, and home-loving wives and mothers? How true it is that only the good boys and girls make honored men and women.

May the pupils of the Old White School live long and prosper.