School Day

High school students began their day together in the third-floor assembly room, all students, grades 9-12. They each had a locker nearby for books and coats. This was a place to gather and study.

Student artwork papered the assembly room walls. Students were seated by grade; sometimes each one had a desk, and sometimes they shared, two to a desk.

Assembly room
[Classroom Voices, p. 301]

Mildred Krenke Banks, class of 1921, wrote that her class consisted of 15 students, eight boys and seven girls, who sat across the back of the assembly room. Their class colors were maroon and gold and their class motto was "Ad astra per aspera," translated loosely "to the stars through bolts and bars."  With small class size, teachers could give much individual attention. Banks' Latin class had only four pupils.

MCHS, Class of 1924
[Classroom Voices, p. 298]

Anfin Blakstvedt, class of 1930, said, "I tried to do all my homework at school. That’s what I went to school for, not be doing it at home."

Into the mid-1930s, convocation was often held on Friday mornings. A report was presented for each class. The principal and superintendent talked, and often students were assigned to do some public speaking.

"When I was a junior, Miss Geraldine Baker, principal, was seating students, two to a seat, maybe by alphabet, up one aisle and coming back down the other side of the aisle," said Orrin Hoefer, class of 1937. "My name was next. I was to sit with Elizabeth Evans, but I wouldn’t, even though she was a nice enough girl. Miss Baker waited for me to decide, but no way. Now I think I should have sat with Elizabeth just to see if she would have let me sit with her."

MCHS K-12 faculty, 1925
[Classroom Voices, p. 300]

Henry Ebert, class of 1928, was in a ninth-grade class with 25 students, about the same size as his entire St. Bonifacius school, grades 1-8. He remembered Hazel Perry, who was the principal and also taught history from 1925 to 1929. "Some boys cut up a little bit, but she kept things under control," Ebert recalled.

Orville Cressy, class of 1932, remembered Miss Ella Gryting, who was principal in 1929 and helped Miss Denzel in music. 

MCHS Principal Hazel F.  Perry (1925-1929) and Ella G. Gryting (1929-1932)
[Classroom Voices, p. 298]

A.C. Tibbetts, Superintendent of Schools, 1927
[Classroom Voices, p. 297]

In the 1930s, coach Cappy Jones taught math. When he heard the sound of Superintendent A.C. Tibbetts jiggling his keys as he walked through the halls, coach erased the football plays and went back to teaching algebra.

In biology, Bertha Field led dissection of frogs. She was the favorite teacher of Grace McCann Johnson, class of 1933. "She’s the one who had us hold a snake and pass it around," said Johnson. "I don’t know of any of us that liked it."

Pearl Klock Edlund came to Mound in 1934 as one of the 10 high school teachers and taught English and drama for 33 years, directed plays, was class advisor and advisor to the school newspaper. For many students, she was their only English teacher for all four years of high school. She was a favorite for generations of students. "If you misspelled a word, you wrote it 50 times and never forgot it," a student remembered.

The health teacher taught about "the birds and the bees." Students changed clothes for gym class and sometimes went outside. The basketball court was painted on the wooden floor of the first-floor room that served as the gymnasium, lunchroom, and auditorium with a stage. The library was next door.

1948 Physical Education Class, in the 1917 building
[Classroom Voices, p. 313]