O Miss Crabtree, if only you had been my teacher at elementary school, I would have never hated it. Instead we had Mrs. M-, who ranted on about communism, and how we would all grow up to be tractor drivers in potato fields; who would confiscate anything you dropped on her classroom floor and make you buy it back; and would arbitrarily whack with a metal ruler any student who happened to irritate her that day. But I'm not bitter....I also would have liked Miss Read from the Village School, who kept boiled sweets in the handwork cupboard of her classroom, and was kind to all of her students, even the troublesome ones.
OK, reeling it back in now. I found this beautiful teachers art instructor book (circa 1938) in a local antique store. The retro cover design caught my eye. It only cost me a few dollars. Swell!
The inside is full of vintage illustrations and projects, or 'handwork' as the book refers to it, for teacher to guide her students in their creative endeavors. I use the word 'her' as the book does - were all teachers 'she' in the thirties? 
I can just imagine Miss Crabtree or Miss Read decorating the sand-table with this scene. 
I took this book to the local Kinkos and made some copies on good card stock. I'm really enjoying watercoloring these figures and am planning to make a little tableau with them--for the grandchild, of course...*cough*
6 comments:
What a terrific find. I'm sure my favourite Teacher, Miss Day, must have had a copy because her classroom displays looked just like that. She was just like Miss Read and we all adored her. Later on, we had Mrs Saunders who was a dragon with strict rules and a ruler!
A teacher like Miss Read - heavenly!
The water-colour work you did is excellent!
The water-colors are indeed lovely. You should get that cough checked out though.
Love the picture of Miss Crabtree and her class and, if I may, I'd like to go off on a rabbit trail to say I love the outfit that the girl beside her is wearing :D
I know what you mean about musing about dream teachers. I always wanted a teacher like Miss. Frizzle from The Magic School Bus. Very smart, very fun, a little crazy, and knows how to bend the school boards rules just enough to let kids learn and be creative. Not to mention she always had a great dress to suit the field trip. Yeah, Miss. Frizzle is the ultimate cool teacher in my books.
"What an excellet observation" Jodi ;
- Joy
Love the Our Gang photo!
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