John Surratt Jr. as a teacher

[Hess1865]

I went to a Catholic school in the 60's
The nuns treated me like Moe treated Larry.

I still get the shakes when I see a nun...

[Laurie Verge]

Corporal punishment in schools was alive and well into at least the 1970s. When I was teaching, the principal and vice principal were permitted to paddle, but they seldom did.

As for John, Jr., I can see where he might take his anger and frustrations with life out on unruly students. It is also logical that Catholic schools would be the first place that he would seek and get employment. The church supports its people - even sinners in the hope of redemption, and there was a severe lack of male teachers after the war killed off so many. That's how women got their feet firmly into the education field after generations of it being a male-oriented occupation.

I believe it was while John was teaching that he met his future wife. And, we have a handkerchief on display at Surratt House embroidered with "Surratt," that came from a former student of his.

[BettyO]

Same here, Laurie. I remember my favorite third grade elementary school teacher locking disorderly little boys in the coat closet. This was back in the early 1960s. You could hear the poor little things crying and bumping around in the dark in the closet..... and she was a WONDERFUL teacher!

But that is the way that things were handled back then....today you'll sit in jail for that -

[Gene C]

I remember my favorite third grade elementary school teacher locking disorderly little boys in the coat closet. You could hear the poor little things crying and bumping around in the dark in the closet..... and she was a WONDERFUL teacher!

I'm glad I didn't go to school with you!

[LincolnMan]

I had a fifth grade teacher slap my wrist with a ruler in front of class. We're talking a Detroit Public School in the early 60's. Imagine that now?

[John Stanton]

St. Joseph's school in Emmittsburg, Md was (in the 1940's) an all girl's school, run by Catholic Nuns. They were a special group that wore huge Head-covers. I think they were a nurseing order. Mother Seaton (Their Boss) is now A Saint, and is/was? buried there. Thus they had special rules about dances -there were Nun, I mean None. About a mile down the road is Mount Saint Mary's.. an all boys school for Seminarians and the Public. (Great Basketball School). I doubt that John Surratt never got close enough to ring the doorbell.

[J. Beckert]

Corporal punishment in schools was alive and well into at least the 1970s. When I was teaching, the principal and vice principal were permitted to paddle, but they seldom did.

As for John, Jr., I can see where he might take his anger and frustrations with life out on unruly students. It is also logical that Catholic schools would be the first place that he would seek and get employment. The church supports its people - even sinners in the hope of redemption, and there was a severe lack of male teachers after the war killed off so many. That's how women got their feet firmly into the education field after generations of it being a male-oriented occupation.

I believe it was while John was teaching that he met his future wife. And, we have a handkerchief on display at Surratt House embroidered with "Surratt," that came from a former student of his.

I'm confused. Where does bouncing an eraser off a kid's head fit into the whole corporal punishment thing, Miss Laurie? Was that corporal punishment or just an incentive to pay attention? Will you have a box of erasers at the conference?

[Dave Taylor]

I was saving this article to post on BoothieBarn, but it is definitely more fitting to the conversation here. This is an article written in 1919 by "The Rambler" a correspondent for the Washington Sunday Star who enjoyed writing about the old families and places around Washington, Maryland, and Virginia. The article talks about the Rambler's visit to the old site of John Surratt's school. The whole article is lengthy and I won't post it all, but you can read it here. Here is a small excerpt from it though:

"The site of the Upper School, in which John Surratt taught, and a considerable acreage around it is now the property of Morgan H. Beach, whose home is on the Rockville pike near Montrose. A few hundred yards west of the site of the school and on the south side of School House lane is an old frame house set in a shady garden where grow fine old boxwood trace, a giant British yew tree, one of those trees bearing large panicles of blue flowers and which is called "the pride of China" or the "Empress of China" tree, an ash, a willow and a tree locally called "Illinois locust." There are tubs full of gat petunias and circles and beds of many other flowers. By the side of the house is a vegetable garden, where nearly all the vegetables that can be raised in this climate are growing. This is now the home of Conrad Franklin Maught and his sister, Miss Lucinda. Here it was that John Surratt boarded while a teacher at the "Upper School," and Mr. Maught was one of his pupils...

...Mr. Maught has a very clear remembrance of John Surratt, and says he was a good teacher, a good man, and is affectionately remembered by all the people who took their lessons under his guidance and who are still living. The first teacher at that school, so far as Maught can remember, was one whose name was Mounts. Another was Thomas Harris, one was Luther Claggett and another William Keefe. Mounts returned to this school, and, if the Rambler is reading his notes straight, he succeeded John Surratt, Miss Blanche Braddock taught at this school, and she is now a teacher in a school at or near Glen Echo. The last teacher at that school was Miss Beulah Dove, who is now living at Rockville."

[Laurie Verge]

Great article, Dave. I thought I had read most of The Rambler articles over the years. My grandmother read and saved each one for years - wonderful histories of D.C. and its environs!

Joseph,

Bouncing erasers off of students' heads was viewed as a means of survival in my classroom of the 70s! It shut up the talkative Mr. Fones in a hurry and earned me admiration from the rest of the students. The thought that a 21-year-old teacher could throw with accuracy from the front of the class to the last row of seats in the back brought shock and awe.

Believe it or not, twenty-plus years ago (when I began working at Surratt House and the government agency which owns it), one of the public affairs officers was a student of mine from that same classroom. Naturally, he related the story of my throwing skills to anyone who would listen... I still get teased.

[Jim Garrett]

I would not think that Surratt practiced what was considered that "standard" for that day and age. Although I remember my father in law telling me stories of going to Catholic school during the 1940's-where the priests (who were the teachers)would physically hit the students.

I can't believe John used to hit children. You think he would have remembered he was granted mercy. Hitting children is a horrible way no matter what century it is.

John Surratt wasn't granted mercy, he escaped the gallows. He was probably no different than any other teacher of his day. If think I remember hearing some former students of "Mean ole Verge........ well that's another story! LOL

[wsanto]

Bouncing erasers off of students' heads was viewed as a means of survival in my classroom of the 70s! It shut up the talkative Mr. Fones in a hurry and earned me admiration from the rest of the students. The thought that a 21-year-old teacher could throw with accuracy from the front of the class to the last row of seats in the back brought shock and awe.

Believe it or not, twenty-plus years ago (when I began working at Surratt House and the government agency which owns it), one of the public affairs officers was a student of mine from that same classroom. Naturally, he related the story of my throwing skills to anyone who would listen... I still get teased.

My father's student's once gave him a cartoon depicting him throwing erasers in the classroom. He has it to this day framed and on the wall of his house. It was all in good fun (mostly) for my father as he is fondly remembered by many of his student's as one of their favorite teachers.

I was a recipient of some corporal punishiment in the late 70's as well--Upon learning that I would be paddled on Monday after a late Friday crime, I prepared by putting pot-holders in my underwear--didn't feel a thing.

[Gene C]

I was a recipient of some corporal punishiment in the late 70's as well--Upon learning that I would be paddled on Monday after a late Friday crime, I prepared by putting pot-holders in my underwear--didn't feel a thing.

That's great. Thanks for the laugh!

[Laurie Verge]

I'm going to pass the pot-holder strategy on to my grandson just in case. Speaking of whom - it's bragging time. He will be inducted into the National Junior Honor Society this evening. He's got a big brain, but an equally big mouth at age 12.

[RJNorton]

Congratulations to your grandson, Laurie! That's great.