MEMORIES OF OLWA

 

Somehow 50 years have gone by since I graduated from High School.  Last week, a large group of my classmates got together in New York to celebrate and remember.  Looking at the photos online and reading some of the e-mails between all of us brought back so many memories.

High School wasn’t a great time in my life.  My mother was very ill and my dad had to travel a lot for his job.  I’m not quite sure how my father managed it financially, especially with my mother’s high medical expenses, but I was fortunate to attend a small Catholic High School for girls – and I will be forever grateful. 

Education was a relatively simple fact of life in the l950s-- or so it seemed to me, growing up in Queens, New York.  Parents of teenagers had limited options: the local public high school or the 2 Catholic high schools – one for girls and one for boys.  All of my neighborhood friends went "public."  I went to Our Lady of Wisdom Academy – OLWA, commonly referred to by my neighborhood friends as the “Old Ladies’ Washerwoman Assn.”  I didn’t realize at the time just how much depended on which direction you took when you got off the bus each morning: East, to the public high school or West, to the Academy.

The first obvious distinction between the schools was the dress code.  It was 1958 and the public school staff tried to get their male students to wear shirts, shoes, and pants that occasionally touched the tops of their shoes.  The teachers usually settled for a white undershirt with one sleeve rolled around a pack of cigarettes, basketball sneakers, and "high-water" black chinos that were barely long enough to cover the boy's white socks. (OLWA girls thought they looked “cool.”) The girls were encouraged to wear skirts covering their knees, ladylike blouses with collars, hose, and shoes.  Each girl arrived daily in a very short poodle skirt, bobby socks, penny loafers, and a sweater set three sizes too small.

Two miles away, our school principal also struggled with the difficulty in getting teenagers to conform to her dress code. One student dared to arrive with a red barrette in her hair; another rebel had forgotten her blazer; still another brazen soul dared to wear seamless stockings.  Our Lady of Wisdom's dress code was very straightforward.  Each student was to wear the required navy blue jumper, white cotton blouse (buttoned up to her eyebrows), navy blue blazer with the proper "OLWA" emblem, stockings with seams, white bobby socks, and navy blue and white saddle shoes with bleached white shoelaces.  No makeup was allowed, nor was any type of jewelry or hair "bauble."  Mother Mary Annunciata, our principal, did allow bobby pins and rubber bands to be used, only to keep disobedient hair from straying.  We were told that this rigid standard of dress would prevent a fashion competition among the students, and, therefore, keep our minds on our studies.  I realize now that there was a second item to that agenda: to make us all appear as unappealing as possible to any member of the opposite sex whom we might encounter on our way to and from school.  The dress code was successful in both areas.

The second distinction between the schools was not quite as obvious.  At that time, the State of New York required ALL high school students to take a certain number of specific courses and to pass standardized Regents exams. My public school friends and I struggled through the required English, algebra, geometry, biology, and history. Their teachers, however, allowed the conventional length of time to cover each subject.  Our teachers, members of a religious order known as the Daughters of Wisdom, had never wholly adjusted to Eastern Standard Time.  They had all been educated in France (presumably by the Marquis de Sade).  They felt that a year was excessive for Freshman English--so I spent the second semester studying Beowulf (in Olde English).  Algebra, geometry, and trigonometry were over by the end of sophomore year; and most of us went on to calculus.

 

The public school students were allowed to fill their free periods with electives, such as typing, auto mechanics, woodworking shop, art, and music. All useful classes! At OLWA, we had a wonderful music appreciation class, to which I attribute my love of ALL genres of music.  We also had a choice of other electives.  Sister Mary Francis taught French l, 2, 3 . . . l2, l3; Sister Mary of the Crucifixion taught Latin l, 2, 3 . . . 47, 48.  Physics was a popular elective, as were theology and metaphysics.

In the New York school system, reading lists were common.  Students were given a list of books, essays, etc., early in the school year.  At "Wisdom," we were encouraged to spend our evenings, weekends, legal holidays, Christmas and Easter vacations, as well as our summers, reading selections from the "list."  I would gladly have traded with my neighborhood friends.  Their list was generally comprised of books that had been on my eighth-grade reading list and essays that were banned by our English Department. 

As important as dress codes and curricula were to the educational experience, the most enduring lesson that I learned at Our Lady of Wisdom Academy, and have carried with me throughout the years, is an ingrained respect for others.  Courtesy, consideration and respect permeated each classroom and augmented every syllabus.

At both schools in question, a loud bell would signal the end of a class period.  In one, the sound of the bell was nearly drowned out by the slamming of books, scraping of desks, and the clamor of scurrying students.  No one cared if the teacher was in mid-sentence. 

At OLWA, although the bell may have sounded, the class was not over until Sister dismissed us.  Heaven forbid a textbook should be closed prematurely; extra homework would be the result, usually for the entire class.  Following dismissal, we would exit the room in a respectful, orderly, ladylike fashion – we didn’t love it, but we did it. Respectfulness was right up there, next to cleanliness and godliness.

The nuns taught us to respect our parents, teachers, elders, those in authority, and each other.  We were taught that it was rude to speak while someone else was speaking and that it was cruel to hurt anyone's feelings. They taught self-esteem, as well as English; morals, in addition to sines and cosines; and worthy principles, along with the Gallic wars.  But most importantly, they taught personal responsibility – taking responsibility for your own actions.  That is very much lacking in today’s world.

Please don’t misunderstand.  I am not generalizing – really I’m not.  I’m speaking from my personal experience.  We had our share of problem students.  And by no means do I think that graduates of public schools have no manners.  For me, it was where I needed to be at that time in my life. 

I'm sure that, over the years, both school systems have turned out a proportionate number of scholars and fools.  However, I am equally sure that the potential public school scholars had more atmospheric obstacles and peer problems to overcome than we had at Wisdom.  I can’t speak for today, but in 1958, Catholic schools were more conducive (not to mention coercive) toward learning than public schools were at the time.

Subjectively, I am grateful for the coercion.  I will always be indebted to those French sisters, in their Flying Nun habits, for the education and life values I carry with me today.  I know that my faith and the core values I learned in OLWA and at home are what have gotten me through my ongoing health battles.

Survival Tip for Today:   Dig deep and find your core strength.  It’s there – use it to sustain your mind, body and soul through the tough times. Take responsibility for your own health.  Be an active participant in the direction your life takes.  Be present in every moment.  You’re worth it and you CAN do it!