Our Memories of Miss Barker

  
We Dedicate this Reunion to:

Miss Barker

Our Much Admired First Grade Teacher
She will live on in our memories!



Special Memories of Miss Barker
Miss Barker was my first grade (1937) school teacher. I can only praise her as one of the best school teachers I ever encountered. She had a special touch that calmed the most cranky of students. Her greatest specialty was teaching us to read. Her method simply used newspaper clippings where we found letters and words. We didn't have any books at this time (The Hard Time 30's), so she improvised. Seldom did a student fail to be ready for the 2nd grade in reading skills as her method was akin to osmosis. I became an avid reader at that time and still am. To this day, I feel her method of teaching just "soaked in" without you knowing it. She was the master of teaching first graders. If you ask anyone who spent their first year with her, you will get a universal "She was the best teacher I ever had".

Her topknot hairdo was her identifying feature and all the many years I knew her, it never changed. Several years after I graduated from Berkeley High School, I stopped in to see her and she was elated that I came back to visit. She had a great sense of humor. She said, "I've had many students pass through my classes, some are in the penitentiary, some have been killed in war, many have graduated from college and some have even managed to be in high places in our country"

A search is underway for a picture of Miss Barker (Catherine Barker McDaniel). If anyone has a picture of her, please let me know and we can manage a method of reproducing it for this blog, as well as a poster for our reunion.

In our days, the boys all played marbles on the playground during recess. When we returned to class and a marble fell out of our pocket onto the floor, Miss Barker would have us pick it up and give it to her. She kept them in a big jar and on the last day of school, she formed all marble players in a circle. She then tossed the years "catch" of marbles into the air and we tried to scramble to reclaim our marbles. Unfortunately we had one boy (Henry Zeigler) who was a giant compared to all the rest of us "runts". Henry was a good 8 to 10 inches taller than the rest of us. He would make a circular sweep with his arms and scatter all of us and he got most of the marbles! Miss Barker often supervised our marble games, to teach us good sportsmanship and no cheating. She was blessed with an uncanny understanding of kids and how to nurture and develop all the many skills and manners that continued into maturity.

Another training aid she used was our grocery store to teach us math using play money. Each of us, brought an empty box of oatmeal, an empty can of beans or whatever we could scrounge up and before long the collection stocked the shelves of our grocery store. We would then use play money (which we made) and buy things from our store. We learned to make change too! (A feat that few youngsters today can master without a computer telling them the correct change to return to a customer). Her method of teaching today would be called, "Human Engineering by Osmosis"!

This page will continue to grow with "tales" that will filter in from her many students between now and the time of our Reunion.  So keep an eye out for the next episode of "Miss Barker Rides Again", as this page will be a dynamic bit of history from the minds of her students.

Joe H.Sowders
Class of 1950

Remembering Miss Barker 
I entered Miss Barker's First Grade (1939) after completing what seemed like a tumultuous kindergarten (1938) in St. Louis city school, Dozier Elementary.  Miss Barker's calm discipline and her lovely auburn hair neatly combed into a bun are my most vivid memories of her.  Her special talent was small reading groups, bringing young minds up to speed and ready for the adventures in the "Dick & Jane" books.  That calm and discipline lasted me all 12 years in the Berkeley School system until I graduated class Salutatorian 1951.  I am still saluting those wonderful years.

Patsy (Combs) Hornaday
Chestertown, MD
Class of 1951 

Obituary for Miss Barker - (Catherine Barker McDaniels)

Obituary from the collection
of Jean "Wee" (Miller) Webb 

Susie (Hamilton) McCulley Remembers Miss Barker
I attended 1st grade in 1952.  Remember, back in those days, girls had to wear dresses.  I kept raising my hand to be excused to go to the bathroom and Miss Barker said it was too close to recess; but I was too close to hold it.  She saw the overflow on the floor and took me into the bathroom.  All I remember was the bad feeling I had walking back into the classroom with no underwear on under my dress; Miss Barker hanging my underpants she had washed in the sink on the window that opened outward and the kids laughing.  I don't remember her scolding me; so she probably felt it was partly her fault.  But you can imagine the sight of my underpants blowing in the wind, for all to see! 

Susie (Hamilton) McCulley
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                     Nancy (Prack) Armstrong reflects on her memory of "Miss Barker"

I tried posting this under Ms. Barker, but apparently did it wrong.   I have a neat memory of her, she was my first grade teacher.  I loved her as most everyone did.  On P.T.A. night Ms. Barker would ride the bus (Blackie was our driver) home with me  and have dinner with my family and then go to the meeting with us. Dad would drive her home and see that she was safely in.  That was quite a treat for me. Thanks Joe for all the work you're doing , See you at the Reunion,
Nancy Prack Armstrong, class of  '53


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