My fifth grade teacher was Gertrude Corman, who, most of the time was as stern as her first name implies. Our suburban schools were so crowded that for the first 1/2 of that school year we went half days until another new elementary school would open up. I went afternoons, so I always arrived home in the winter near dark. Mrs. Corman was great on school trips, & these trips help generate my love of history, architecture, & museums. I still remember the mummy at the Western Reserve Historical Society! I think this was also the year that my parents paid for Saturday morning art classes at the Cleveland Museum of Art. I am grateful to them, because this was way “outside the box” of their experience & interests, but they knew it interested me. Mrs. Corman was in charge of the huge bulletin board in the hallway outside our classroom. We did a mural of the “Westward Movement” & I was given the task of drawing the buildings for a Western town - general store, schoolhouse, church & some houses. I don’t think a saloon was included, even though I knew about them from all the Westerns I saw on TV!
My fifth grade teacher was Gertrude Corman, who, most of the time was as stern as her first name implies. Our suburban schools were so crowded that for the first 1/2 of that school year we went half days until another new elementary school would open up. I went afternoons, so I always arrived home in the winter near dark. Mrs. Corman was great on school trips, & these trips help generate my love of history, architecture, & museums. I still remember the mummy at the Western Reserve Historical Society! I think this was also the year that my parents paid for Saturday morning art classes at the Cleveland Museum of Art. I am grateful to them, because this was way “outside the box” of their experience & interests, but they knew it interested me. Mrs. Corman was in charge of the huge bulletin board in the hallway outside our classroom. We did a mural of the “Westward Movement” & I was given the task of drawing the buildings for a Western town - general store, schoolhouse, church & some houses. I don’t think a saloon was included, even though I knew about them from all the Westerns I saw on TV!