School: Athgarvan, Curragh (roll number 13350)

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1. A Hedge School in the 60s (continued)

   

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   happened Maggie promptly undressed him and put him into her bed while she dried his clothes at the fire.

   The school was situated in what may be described as an ideal positions for a "pay school". It was about three miles from the National Schools of Kilmaley. Kilnamona and Inagh and the district was densely populated at the time. Maggie's father was a hedge school master and taught in the same school for years. All the family with the exception of Maggie went to America, when they grew up, but Maggie stayed on with her mother and ran the school after her father's death.

   While my father was going to school there, Maggie used have about thirty pupils in the summer time and fifty or sixty in the Winter. She taught them reading writing spelling arithmetic and the R.C. Catechism. They wrote on slates mainly though some of the bigger pupils used copies and ink. When writing they put the copies or slates on the "form" and knelt on the floor - a clay one. They worked sums on their slates standing but if they got tired of standing they were at liberty to bring in a Carraig from outside and sit on it. When the school got overcrowded some of the bigger pupils used go out in the "street" and work their sums and learn their spellings out there. Each pupil was called up to the teacher's "desk" to say his or her lesson. Class teaching was unknown in hedge schools apparently.

   Little children used a "1st Primer" which consisted of little more than the large and small alphabets. Later on they were given a 2nd primer which contained two and three letter words. The next book was called "Reading Made Easy" and after that came the "First Reading Book". The "Second Reading Book" seems to have been fairly difficult. One of the last lessons

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. objects
      1. man-made structures
         1. buildings
            1. schools (~4,094)

   Language

   English

   Location

   Kilmaley, Co. Clare

   Collector

   Bríghid Bean Mhic Niocaill

   Gender

   Female

   Occupation

   Múinteoir