No, we never had to do that. I guess we were all on our honor!
That goes without saying. Of course we had to put JMJ on our papers. Our school, (St Martin of Tours - Bronx, NY) also happened to be on the same block as a Fire House. Everytime they responded to a fire, we had to stop work and say a prayer.
Here's a little poem I wrote:
Bill Black and White
I remember the first grade
Drawings of block letters
Around the room, above the blackboard
Small letters – a,b,c,d and
Big letters – E,F,G,H
Learned by rote from women
In black and white.
We’d draw them over and over again
With stubby pencils
Or erase them until there
Were holes in the paper
Until they were perfect
Images on ruled paper
In black and white
We learned how to go from place to place
Two by two, hand in hand, smallest to largest
No talking on the stairs
No pushing, no shoving.
Everything was good or bad, right or wrong
All the lessons learned ,
Were In black and white.
And now things are not so simple
The maybes and what ifs pull at the mind
The grays and hues cloud our thoughts
Where once we acted decisively
Now we grind to a halt, and think, and ponder,
And yearn for the days when everything was -
In Black and white.
April 28, 2003
Love it Bill, and oh so true. That is the reason I like being an accountant....black and white.
Every time we heard the sirens, we had to say "Jesus, Mary and Joseph, pay for them"
Every Friday, the "air raid" sirens went off...testing the system. We also said the prayer then too.
We also put JMJ in the top middle of all papers in grade school (our nuns were of the "Daughters of Mary and Joseph" order) , neatly written on a line we had to draw, which needed to be at a higher level than the line for our name, followed by the date, then the subject - all in the upper right hand margin. When I got to high school (can't remember the order that taught there), it was AMDG - Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam - "To The Greater Glory of G-d".
Murphymom
I guess all of the nuns had a similar handbook. I am glad that the Sister of Providence did not make us write Latin. I took Latin my freshman year in high school and just didn't get it. Took Spanish after that. I remember that equis is horse...that is about it.
We had to put JMJ at the top of all our school papers in grade school....in the center. That was at St. John's in Chicago. Interesting to hear about all the different experiences regarding it. Can't remember what "order" the Sisters belonged to. Like jas1377, I had to take Latin in high school when my parents moved out to San Diego. They wouldn't let me out of it after my freshman year and so it was two long years of learning Latin! Wanted so much to transfer to Spanish class, but they went according to your high school test entrance scores. Did take Spanish in my Junior year however and then again in college.
I wish I had paid more attention to the Latin class. So many of the latin words are the basis for our English words. May it would have helped in my English classes.
Come to think of it Jas, I'm sure all that Latin did help me in future studies, especially English. It was always my favorite subject...English, that is. LOL
Do the schools even offer Latin as a subject anymore? Does anyone know?
I took 2 years of Latin in high school and then 2 years of French. My Latin has always helped me with English vocabulary. I am sure it helped on my SAT's. I don't think anyone teaches Latin anymore which I think is a darn shame.
