Fifth Grade and the Overthrow of Miss Majewski

I know it's been awhile since I wrote about St. Therese, but now that I'm literally having dreams about it - and specifically- the fifth grade - I thought it was time to revisit the school in my blog.

Remember - I went to Indian Village Elementary School until the second semester of fourth grade. At that time, my mother switched my sister and I over to St. Therese and my first experience with parochial school was with Mr. Wunderlin.

One thing to mention to you is that I never felt like I fit in at St. Therese (although this was a pretty universal feeling for me at ALL of the schools I attended). A couple of kids used to make fun of me for the hand me downs I wore (my winter coats always came from Goodwill/Salvation Army) and except for being tall, thin, and one of the smartest kids, I pretty much did my best to blend in to the background.

Fifth grade should have been a lot like fourth grade, right? Same building, same kids, just moving one room over, with a different teacher.

Boy - we were wrong about that!

Our teacher in fifth grade was Miss Majewski (and apologies if I have misspelled her last name). She was new. She wasn't the one that was there the year previously. Miss M - allegedly - used to be a nun before becoming our teacher. I only had heard this as a rumor and still...to this day...don't know if it was true or not.

Miss M's style of teaching was very different. We would spend a great deal of time, during the school day...meditating. Seriously. Like everyday, we would have the lights shut off in the room and the door closed and she would instruct us to close our eyes. We could even move to the floor or sit in a corner if we wanted to. It was very odd.

One day, my mother asked me what kinds of things I was learning in fifth grade. I couldn't think of anything remarkable to tell her - nothing exciting and new. For me, it seemed like a rehash of the past four years. I did tell her that I was learning how to meditate and her ears perked up real fast.

When I told her what I meant by meditating and how often we did it, she was speechless. I wasn't sure if there was something wrong with meditating (was it against the Catholic religion??) but soon enough, she told me that she wasn't spending money to have me sit in a classroom every day with the lights out.

I wasn't sure what would happen next and frankly, I had other things to worry about (they were repaving our street and I wanted to make sure that I could sneak out and leave my handprint somewhere for all of eternity).

Over the course of the next few weeks, my mother was meeting with the parents of some of my other classmates - Shannon Juza's mom, Alice Jordan's mom, Tiena Spears's mom, Gregg Jehl's mom...and pretty soon, there was this small mob of them, knocking down the principal's door. They were pretty ticked off that their kids were "meditating" instead of learning.

It's not like the adults tuned me into what was going on but I assume that Miss M was put on some sort of probation. And then one day - POOF - she was gone.

It's not like I wished her any ill will - she was nice enough - just seemed not interested in teaching the class.

For a short span of time, my mom bonding together with those other parents...well...it made me not feel like such an outsider in their world. I was very proud of my mom for taking action and I had the opportunity to get to know two of my classmates (Tiena and Shannon) lots better.

St. Therese Catholic School - Fifth Grade Class Photo

St. Therese Catholic School
2222 Lower Huntington Road
Fort Wayne, Indiana 46809

Photo Credit: KFH
Date Taken: May 23, 2008

As I've told you in earlier blog postings, I switched over to St. Therese Catholic School during the second semester of my fourth grade year. When I went for an extended visit back home in May, I made sure to stop by the place and soak up the memories. More on that later.

Because I know y'all love class photos - here's one to whet your appetite. I think I did pretty good remembering most people but of course, correct me if you know something that I've forgotten...

P.S. if you want to see the larger sized view - go here - http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3050/2906218038_34f7c136a7_b.jpg




Row 1: Principal Sister ?, Miss (Christine) Majewski, Larry Cobb, Linda Tuttle, John Gannon, Debbie D?, Bobby Braun, Wendy Farmer

Row 2: Tom Mallot, Darlene Miller, Leo Cummings, Jeff Tourney, Terri Anderson, Gregg Jehl

Row 3: Nick ?, Alice Jordan, Phil Romary, Traci Olry, Jeremy Hensler, Dianne Miller, Doug Creech, Shannon Juza

Row 4: Kristina Frazier, Dorothy Bohn, Marlene Fremion, Tiena Spears, Mary Coffee, Marci Barnibee, Patty McClenahan

St. Therese Catholic School, Fourth Grade, Mr. Wunderlin, and Gregg Jehl

As I've mentioned before, when the second semester of 4th grade rolled around, my mother had us moved over to St. Therese Catholic School.

I don't know exactly why - it's on my list to ask my mom about one of these days. I know it wasn't because of Mrs. Crowley or anything going on at Indian Village. I'm guessing that her Catholic conscious got to her...but who knows...You would think that the weekly CCD classes would have been enough for her but noooooooooooo.

Going from Indian Village to St. Therese was quite a change for me. At Indian Village, you would have multiple teachers and classrooms for each grade. Here, there was one classroom and one teacher for each grade. Also, there was no cafeteria. You ate your hot/cold packs in your room at your desk.

My first teacher (which was in fourth grade) at St. Therese was Mr. Bill Wunderlin.

What can I say about Mr. Wunderlin? I wish I had a picture of him to show you because it would speak better to him than I ever could.

He was a tall (but not too tall), thin man, who almost seemed out of place at my catholic grade school. He was friendly - but quiet. He was a man fond of routine, stability, and discipline.

Every afternoon, as we were preparing for the end of the school day bell to ring, he would put on his overcoat and reach for his black, pointy, tall umbrella. There was a hat also somewhere in this equation however, not once did I see him put it on while in the building (a sign of respect - I'm sure).

Mr. Wunderlin was passionate about two things. First, he was really into local theater. I don't know if he was an actor or a behind the scenes guy. I just know that lots of his free time was spent doing theater stuff. Second, there were these cloth banners he used to design and sew for the church. They were colorful, meaningful, and just generally stunning.

I have a confession to make. Mr. Wunderlin was the first teacher to ever indulge me re: one of my classroom crushes.

Let me explain.

Every so often, Mr. Wunderlin would rearrange our desks. I'm sure this was a way for him to keep us on our toes.

How would he decide who would sit where?

That's where the class came into the picture. He gave each one of us a grid to complete. Our job was to take all of the names of the kids in the class and place them in an order that we thought was "good" or "right".

So, when I completed my grid, I put myself next to the hunkiest guy in the room (Gregg Jehl). I put my friend Tiena Spears close by, along with the guy she was "going steady" with - Bobby Braun.

Gregg was blond, athletic in a baseball kind of way, and just hot (for your typical fourth grader that is). I wasn't usually into blond guys (Tom Stinson - my crush at Indian Village - brunette all the way) so I attribute this to turning over a new leaf. A catholic school leaf I guess.

I put my on-again/off-again good friend/arch-enemy Alice Jordan - in the opposite corner, next to the goobers (who shall remain nameless - because they may be reading this and they may not be goobers anymore).

I remember - just like it was yesterday - when Mr. Wunderlin picked my grid as the floor plan for our new desk arrangements.

Inside, I was all lit up. Outside, I pretended to protest - just like everyone else.

You see, when Mr. Wunderlin selected a student's grid, he would never share with the class, whose grid it was. Not like I was going to volunteer that information. No sireeee... I was fairly new at the school and I had no intention of making enemies out of everyone in this one room class.



Photo: Taken October 1977. Four fourth grade friends out at recess, on the playground of St. Therese Catholic School. Old church which has now been demolished, sits in the background.

(Back and left to right) Mary Coffee, Kristina Frazier, Theresa Dodane. (Front and center) Alice Jordan.