Photo by Monique Schoenfeld, Town Crier
Los Altos resident Genevieve Arntz recalls her early years teaching in a one-room schoolhouse in South Dakota.
Town Crier Staff Writer
With a manual typewriter tucked under one arm and a metal dinner pail under the other, Los Altos resident Genevieve Arntz would sometimes have to abandon her model T and ride horseback five miles across the snow-covered roads to the one-room schoolhouse in South Dakota where she taught grades one through eight.
The self-proclaimed "farm girl" said she never let a snow flurry, a closed road or other hardships slow her down. "I got up and had things to do," Arntz, 87, said in a recent interview when she reminisced about her early years of teaching.
Arntz rose from a one-room schoolhouse teacher to county superintendent to educational consultant during her 48-year teaching career, which spanned from 1928 to 1976.
"I loved her the minute I saw her. She was very excited about what she was doing," said Mary Hedges, who was principal at Faria Elementary School in Cupertino and responsible for hiring Arntz to work there in 1966.
Esther Owen, a former teacher at Faria, described Arntz as a "true lady" who is "very involved in education." She said the beloved school teacher has captivated hundreds of school children and colleagues alike with animated stories about her life.
"I've had a good life. I'm glad I did what I did," said Arntz, who's eyes still sparkle like a girl.
In order to teach in a rural school, Arntz said she had to serve as the school nurse, school handyman and every other needed position as well as the school teacher. Arntz said before graduating from the teacher's college, she had to demonstrate how to build a fire.
She said making a fire was essential. The children could see the schoolhouse from miles away because the county was flat prairie land, she said. "As soon as the smoke came (from the stove), they would start coming to school. As a rule, I never started until the classroom reached 20 degrees," she said.
Arntz said she was hired to teach 13 students aged 11 through 18 as her first job because "I was tall, and they didn't think I would have any discipline problems."
Arntz was promoted to deputy superintendent of the 150 schools in Brown County in 1934 and promoted again in 1939 to superintendent, at which point her $100 a month teacher's salary "progressed down to $60 a month" because of the Depression. Arntz said she also had to live with her parents because no one could afford to offer her room and board during the Depression.
As superintendent, Arntz implemented the first kindergarten program in the county's schools, something which later spread to the rest of the state.
Tired of the long winters, Arntz moved to California with her 78-year-old mother in 1955, while working as a consultant for Scot, Foresman Education Company.
After earning her California teaching credential at Stanford University, Arntz began teaching at Faria, where the classrooms were much different than those in Brown County.
She said instead of teaching three students in the class from one grade level, she had to teach 30. She said socializing with other adults was something she enjoyed but was unaccustomed to at the rural schools.
Perhaps the most unexpected change was the luxury of having a carpeted floor. While trying to get the class's attention, Arntz "stamped my foot and nothing happened - not a sound," she said.
Arntz said her mother used to say, "If the angel Gabrielle picked us up and put us in the best place, this is where he would have put us." Arntz agrees.