ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Our learning is developed in the schools we attend from kindergarten, High School and beyond for those who choose a higher education. Leaving the comfort of your home and surrounding yourself with complete strangers is quite nerve wracking.

My elementary school was Dunbar Elementary School. This school was named after George H. Dunbar and was built around 1898. This historic red brick building educated students over 100 years before closing down in 2011. I attended this school from kindergarten until third grade.

Inside this school was wood flooring and tall windows on each floor. The primary and second floors contained four classrooms each and offices on the second floor. A wide wooden staircase hugged each side of the building and a basement with two dining halls separated the younger children from the older ones. The dining hall had long rectangular tables attached on one side of the yellow cinderblock walls and open to the main aisle on the other side with round colorful seats for children to sit on.

The boys and girls bathrooms were separated in the basement on either side of the dining halls. The dark and mysterious boiler room was also down here, many dared not enter in to explore it, but a few brave souls did (until they were caught!).

Our favorite lunch day was one Friday a month when we feasted on pizza! This was a welcome change from tv style dinners with a main meal, juice or milk and fruit such as apples or bananas. Those lunch breaks never seemed long enough! One minute you're enjoying your meal and chatting it up with classmates, next thing you hear is the school bell buzzing, lunch is over!

We also enjoyed recess before returning to class. Sometimes we played kickball, dodge ball, running around playing tag or just chillin. Other times teachers had us group together and play tug of war. Monkey bars and metal slides, they burned you on hot summer days but we didn’t care, we just had fun! Swingsets were prime! How high could you swing? These were the best times but receiving our education is very important!

Recess is over, so let’s make our way back inside for learning.

Classes consisted of basic learning but also fun art projects and learning from educational tv shows. One fun art project was “What I want to be when I grow up”. I chose a fireman and created a 3d world with a shoebox, cardboard cutout pieces, drawing and placing each object inside the shoebox with glue. Although my career choice in life was not a firefighter, I believe my call in life is similar, I’ll expand on this later.

Educational programs were displayed live on tv through PBS or prerecorded from a VCR. Our school’s first computer was an apple IIe and students were given timed math quizzes. When my name was called I could hardly contain myself to go ‘play’ with this cool technology. This was the early stages of my passion for art and technology, the foundation of where I am today.