LOREN KRAMER 1970 In the Classroom Childrens Writing Class

Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 09: BIOGRAPHY
Series 17: EDUCATION
Series: STUDENTS
Loren Kramer 1970
In the Classroom
Children’s Writing Class

Harlan County School Bus. [55_Life and Work_Children and Classes_064]

LOREN KRAMER 1970 In the Classroom Children Writing Class
5th and 6th Grade, May 26, 1970


TAGS: Loren Kramer, Pine Mountain Settlement School, Community School, teachers, student teachers, Alma Tipton, Chappell’s Dairy, vocational training, fire departments, police departments, radio stations, field trips, creative writing instruction, English classes, children’s writing samples


LOREN KRAMER: Berea College Student Teacher

In 1968-69 Loren Kramer, a Berea College student, was selected to do his student teaching at Pine Mountain Settlement School’s Community Elementary School.  At Pine Mountain, he was supervised by Mrs. Alma Tipton and taught the 5th and 6th grades and assisted in other school activities and classes. He later taught at the newly dedicated Green Hills School near Pine Mountain Settlement.

LOREN KRAMER: Settlement Institutions of Appalachia (SIA)

In June of 1970 Loren Kramer was released from Pine Mountain to focus his attention on the research project known as Settlement Institutions of Appalachia (SIA) where he was a leader in the efforts to visit the regional settlement institutions and determine what benefit they may serve to the region. He and others were charged to look at which programs might benefit from college interns in some of the centers, including the Pine Mountain Settlement School.

LOREN KRAMER: PMSS Teacher

Loren was an especially effective teacher in evoking creative thinking and writing around a series of contemporary topics, events, and images. The following are selections taken from his classroom exercises.

Loren also supervised the publication of the 1968-69 The Pine Cone, a school newsletter written by the students. He assisted, as well, with a special edition of Halloween Spooks, which contained examples of students writing. In the spring of 1970, Kramer’s last semester at Pine Mountain, he assisted with a small publication, the Three Star News. This brief student publication prepared by the third grade class at Pine Mountain demonstrates further Loren’s instructional magic for evoking children’s imaginations and creative writing.

CHILDREN’S WRITINGS

The identities of the children who wrote the following examples are obscured when possible and the focus is on their responses to the assignment topic. The exact assignment is not always known but can be easily discerned in most cases. In this case, the topic appears to be the students’ field trip to Harlan, Kentucky, The responses shine light into the young minds of the children in 1970 in the remote valley on the north side of the steep Pine Mountain, in Harlan County, Kentucky.

This page contains examples of the writing exercises completed by the children in Kramer’s class. The writers have not been fully identified in the interest of privacy for individual children. However, those same children who are now adults might find it interesting to try and identify themselves.

TRANSCRIPTIONS

[NOTE: Although most of the spellings by the students have been left intact, some words in the transcriptions have been edited for readability.]

01 I like wher the fire man and wher they stay all night if a fire got out. It would not take two minutes to get rety. Wher the hospittle get on fire thay are a big thing go of[?]. they dont go down stairs thay go down a big pole.

02 I like the jail. i would not live in it a night. lt to durty as you can smell it and i like ride the far truck. They got a pole [to] slide down.

03 Reading 6. I like were we went to the chappells dairy were we seen the milk locked[?] shoot the carten and [put] the milk in the carten and [put] in the cold room. I like the fare departen were we road the truck.

04 Writing, May 26, 1970. 1. Lunch. We ate lunch at the hoplet. We ate out on the lawn. We had [cheese] sandw… penbatter.

05 5-26-70. Chappells Dairy. The farmers milk the cow and Chapples picks up the milk, put it in the storage [tanks?]. Then it is paster and could them[?] box and ship to homes, stores, and school.

06 Creative Writing. My favorite place was the fire station. There they slid down the pole for us. And [explained] all about the equipment. About the net, about the training and the tower, they train them on. And they let us ride the fire engine through town. And they were the friendliest.

07 Writing. May 26, 1970. Well the Dairy has a walk in freezer and a plant … they put it thru a pastrizer and some tanks and then it goes into a carten and then it is put in the school and stores.

08 Creative Writing. Fire Department. I liked it because I got to ride around in the fire truck and got to watch the men go down the pole and the men showed us [their] room. And they told us about it.

Chapell’s Dairy. I liked it because the man showed us how things worked. And they gave us a good (ruler, pencil, orange drink). And it was fun.

09 May 26, 1970. Fire Dept. We watch the men go down the pole and then thay got in the truck, and went out of the street and then we [thought] about it and then we road the fire truck and then we came back and seen the women and men [jail] and thay were nasty and the [?] was nice.

010 CW. On a 5 and 6 grade Trip to Harlan we visited 5 Different places. One was the fire Department. We saw were the firemen slept and they slid down the fire pole for us. Then we road on the fire engine around 4 Blocks. It was fun.

011 Creative Writing…. About the trip to Harlan. May 26, 1970. By…. Well I liked the [Vocational] School the best because it was interesting. And I would liked it very much if we could have seen the girls. Because I want to go to the girls Vocational School when I get big enough to. But I like the wood shop about the best Because they carved a neat house and they are learning quicker and they do better. And the [Machines?] was O.K. too. But where they drew call Drafting was very [sensitive?]. And I think they are good about drawing. I think those teachers over there are smart. To have such a thing like that. But I liked them all very much. The End.

012 May 26, 1970. I like were we went to the fire department and whatch the [men] go down the pole and I like to here the [siren] on the truck. When we went and rode the truck the man [blew] the [siren] and rang the bell. And people was looking at us. And the man that rode the truck with us said they had a wreck. They ran a red light and the other man [hit] him. The End.

013 first yesterday we went to the chappell’s dairy and we went and looked at the big machine and watch[ed] the milk being put into boxes. Next we went to [radio] station and seened how it works and then went to the fire department and watched them go down the fire pole and then we rode a fire truck and then we seen the Jail that the policeman take care of.

014 May 26, 1970. Creative writing. Volcation school. Vocation school is a school that teaches trades like woodwork, [mechanics?], art, eleactriking[?] witch deals with radar. Another one is electricity. the end.

015 Writing. May 26, 1970. At the Police department we saw where they [?] woman jill [jail] and men’s jill.
Fair department. At the fair department we saw the big fair truck’s and we watch them go down a big pole and we rode on a big fair truck. He told us all about the fair truck’s.

016-16a Two pages. [016] Creative Writing 5-26-70. Well on the trip yesterday I liked best going to Chappell’s Dairy best. I like going threw different parts of the Dairy and seeing all the boxes being straightened out and going threw a thing which fills them with milk and staples them. Then I liked going down stairs and going threw a room that was real cold. And also the room keeps big milk crates full of milk cold. 

[Vocational] School. I like going to the vocational school and seeing all the things that they made in [016a] wood work and watching them work on cars seems like fun. Also I liked drawing best. Being able to learn things about drawing.

017-017a May 25, 1970. Two pages. [017] Creative Writing. At Chappell’s Diary we saw many exciting things. We saw the tanks and machines they put milk in and watch them make different sizes of milk cartons. We watched the machines put handels on the milk cartons. After we watched all the machines we went in another room where the crates were going on a machine up into another room. Then the man give us an orange ade [017a] pencil and ruler. And then we loaded up and went to another place.

018 May 26, 1970. I like the fire department Where the men slid down the fire [pole]. And the fire truck [because] they have [rode] in them and where they sleep.

019 Creative Writing. May 26, 1970. When our school room went to Harlan they had fun and I did [too]. The thing I enjoyed best of all was the fire department and riding the truck and I also enjoyed seeing the man slide down the fire pole. And I liked their beds and coats and hats and I would like to be a fire man and get to do those things.

020 [Our class] went to the Chappell’s Dairy fust and after that we went to the … then we went to the far [station] and from thar we went to the [police station] than we went to the hode[?] to eat and after we ate we went to the volke [vocational] school.

021 Creative Writing. May 26, 1970. Chappell’s dairy was the best place. It showed more places than the rest and more interest[ing] things than everything.

022 May 26, 1970. Writing. In Harland we went to a fire department and a plecice [police] department and the radio station and the Chappell’s dairy and the vocationil school. It was the best trip i have ever had.


GALLERY: LOREN KRAMER 1970 In the Classroom Children’s Writing Class

This is a reflective writing exercise in which the children describe a school visit to a vocational school, a local fire department where they rode the fire truck, the police department, a radio station, and a visit to Chappell’s Dairy.

The vocational school focused on the trades, particularly automotive training which was an area of interest to many of the students. The name and location are not known. Locations of the other visited sites are also unknown. However, the children’s writings mention Harlan, Kentucky.

Chappell’s Dairy was founded by Howard E. Chappell, Sr. in 1927. Chappell was a native of Harlan and at the time of the students’ tour the dairy was under the local management of Howard E. Chappell, Jr. In 1973 Chappell’s was sold and became a division of Flavo-Rich. The Chappell family homeplace was near Pine Mountain Settlement School on Straight Creek and many of the children knew members of the successful family. During the PMSS Boarding School years, many graduated students were employed by Chappell’s Dairy or knew neighbors who had an association with the local dairy.


See Also:
LOREN KRAMER Staff – Biography

LOREN KRAMER 1969 In the Classroom Children’s Writing Class
LOREN KRAMER Correspondence Guide and Acquisition List
SETTLEMENT INSTITUTIONS OF APPALACHIA Inc. Brochure 1970