May 2007 The Megaphone Page 9
Washington Grade School -- Mr. Eherenman
by Jane Ann (Seright) Lemen
I
wrote previously about the schools in Elwood when I was growing up and
especially the elementary school I attended, Washington on the west side. I want
to give special mention to Sixth Grade at WGS and especially our teacher, Bill
Eherenman.
My mother often lamented that Miss Garwood, who I detested but Mother adored for
some reason) had spent two years making a young lady out of me, and then Mr.
Eherenman let me be a tomboy again. Imagine Mom's dismay when I announced an
achievement of mine at school. What was it? A special report? A perfect spelling
paper? The highest grade in history or science? Nope. I was the only person, boy
or girl, in the sixth grade who knew all eleven positions on a football team.
(In those days they were center, two guards, two tackles, two ends, a
quarterback, two halfbacks, and a fullback. We never talked about defensive
positions)
Sports were a big priority with Mr. Eherenman. And not just sports for the boys,
but also for the girls. We had a girls softball team as well as the boy's
baseball team. Of course we only played two games -- a home and home series with
Edgewood. (I can't remember who won, but I have a hunch it wasn't us or I would
remember.) I couldn't decide whether to go out for pitcher or catcher, so I went
out for both and wound up playing left field. That was probably the safest place
to put me.
We also had a city-wide track meet in the spring that included girls as well. I
was on the relay team and I think I also jumped high jump. Washington had won
the City Track Meet the previous two years, but during my sixth-grade year,
Central won every competition -- baseball, basketball, and track. That frosted
the rest of the schools because Central was also the only school that didn't
have a playground and still they won everything.
Basketball was the big sport of course and every school, including St. Joseph,
competed in the Kitty League at the high school gym. Members of the varsity
assisted with coaching which was an extra thrill for the boys. In those early
50'ls, the league was for boys only, but the girls got to be cheerleaders at the
games. We had both fifth and sixth grade in our room by basketball season, and 9
girls, 6 sixth-graders and 3 fifth-graders, tried out. Mr. Eherenman decided
that there would be two teams of sixth-graders and one of fifth-graders with the
sixth-grade squads doing two games a piece, and the fifth-graders doing only
one. It was a pretty fair way of doing it. We didn't have any cheerleader
uniforms, so we just wore red skirts with white blouses, Washington's school
colors. (For the life of me, I don't remember what our mascot was. Later I think
they were called the Cardinals, but I'm sure they weren't called that back
then.) We probably did more showing off than cheering, but it was a great thrill
and honor. We thought we were pretty big stuff to go out on the high school gym
floor and do cheers, even if we were the only ones who knew the words and what
we were doing.
We also had a lot of competition in the classroom. I know it's frowned on now,
but I still think it inspired everyone in the class to participate and strive to
do better. I remember one assignment in writing -- finish this poem -- "I
sat down at my desk one day. . ."
Perhaps the biggest competition was for one of the three crowns in mathematics.
Mr. Eherenman had been a pilot in World War II and and we learned a lot about
planes in his class. For math, he divided our class into three groups -- the
Rockets, the Jets, and the Propellers. Nothing much was said about why a
particular student was in a particular group, although we all figured it out immediately.
Mr. Eherenman's explanation was that although rockets were faster than jets and
jets faster than propeller planes, propeller planes still got you where you
needed to go and were important.
Each group went to the chalkboard and was given a math problem. The problems
chosen differed in difficulty according to which group was at the board. The
first student to complete the problem correctly, and to be able to explain
correctly how they had found the answer, got to wear the crown of that group for
a week. And that was a great honor! If one student began to monopolize his or
her group, they would be advanced to the next group. One day the Rockets were at
the board, and all of us got stumped on the problem. The children at their desks
were supposed to also work on the problems, and suddenly one of the boys in the
Propeller group raised his hand. Sure enough, he had the correct answer. And he
got to wear the Rocket crown! We were furious. Mr. Eherenman said the boy had
beaten us fair and square and for that week he got to wear that crown. And no,
we couldn't compete for a lower crown, only a higher crown. (And there was no
higher crown for the Rockets.) The next week, that boy was advanced to the Jets,
and when he eventually won that crown, Mr. Eherenman said that was the first
time one student had won all three crowns during the year. And I can still
remember how that boy's face beamed with pride!
We also had traffic court in our classroom. Only sixth-graders could be crossing
guards at the two main intersections of Main and 7th and at 9th and North A. We
drew up rules, and when someone in our class was charged with an infraction, the
entire sixth-grade sat as the jury. We learned a lot about trials and
"innocent until proven guilty" and how it was what we had agreed upon
as the rule, not what the guard thought, that mattered. One
time when I was a crossing guard, a person I was mad at got a ticket from me.
I gave them a ticket because they had stepped on the grass between the sidewalk
and the street. And I made an eloquent statement about how walking on that
particular grass was indeed "walking in someone's yard" since that
resident had to mow that strip just like the rest of the yard. But that was not
what the group had earlier decided should be the rule and my "ticket"
was thrown out. It was a good lesson in civics.
That fall of 1952 was a national election, and we held an election in our class,
complete with "party headquarters" on each side of the room with
streamers and posters for the two candidates, Dwight Eisenhower and Adlai
Stevenson. By that time I had advanced in my political awareness beyond voting
for the prettiest letter and following in my parent's footsteps at the time. I
was a Democrat. We drew up a platform and made campaign speeches. Mr. Eherenman
had secured some sample paper ballots and we each went into the voting booth to
vote privately. Earlier we had elected a Democrat and a Republican who would
count the votes. When the results were announced, our little class had followed
the nation and chose Eisenhower as President. The next January we were thrilled
when a TV set, a fairly new invention, was set up in our classroom and we got to
see Eisenhower's inauguration.
We studied a lot, we wrote a lot, we actively participated in learning
activities, and we had a lot of fun. Fun learning stuff. Imagine that! Bill
Eherenman was a creative and talented teacher, one of that rare breed who
understands he teaches kids first and subjects second, but taught both.
Years later, while at a basketball game at Pike High School, I noticed the last
name of one of the cheerleader sponsors was Eherenman. Figuring there couldn't
be too many people of that name with that spelling, I introduced myself and told
her about my sixth-grade teacher. It turned out that my teacher was her uncle.
He had continued in teaching, moving to Wisconsin and retiring there.
I had five teachers at Elwood I consider great teachers, and Bill Eherenman was
one of them.
Jane Ann (Seright) Lemen, '59
northwest Indy