Do you have boxes of your children’s schoolwork? We have a big collection of John and Catherine Killoran’s school work from the 1930s and 1940s including report cards, essays, and exams. John Killoran’s 8th grade final exam for English class is eight pages. The questions on the test reveal a different world. Click here to see the entire exam.
Here is John with his 8th grade class. Marion Cross was principal at the time and is also in the picture.
Norwich, Vermont. 8th grade. Gift of Jim Southworth. Dated 1942. Scanned 07/2018.
Catherine’s 8th grade essay describes a World War 2 “Travel America” campaign:
She also studied botany. Her drawings reveal they had a microscope at the Village School.
In 1942 there were five one-room schools in Norwich: Pompanoosuc (15 students), Root School (13 students), New Boston (16 students), and Beaver Meadow (9 students). The four-room Village school in Norwich had 101 students enrolled. The average cost per pupil in the elementary schools was $79.38. There were 73 students attending high school. The Superintendent of Schools reported that the children do all that is required in the war effort and “at the same time increase their power of adjustment to a vastly different world in the future.”
