My Recollections of Big Coulee School 1931-34

Notes - Violet Reynolds Carr writes fondly of her first posting as a teacher at Big Coulee School in Athabasca. Ms. Carr talks of the trustees who hired her, her students, and the local families with whom she boarded. The school supplies she found on her desk for her first day are listed, along with the names of her first pupils. Ms. Carr talks of teaching English to many of her enthusiastic new immigrant students. In closing, Ms. Carr mentions how lucky she was to get this posting as there were five hundred and seventy-five applicants (Edmonton Journal ad.) for this position. She was told that the school board was looking for a good writer and narrowed it down to Ms. Carr and one other applicant, who did not get the job as this other applicant had a gender-neutral name and the Big Coulee Board wanted a female teacher. They were sure "Violet" was a girl's name! (6 pages)