Graduation Letter to Class of '48

So you, the first of my First Graders at Kaunoa School, are going to graduate from the eighth grade!! When you were in my room I naturally thought you were the smartest (observe that I do not add "and the best behaved") children in the world. On the other hand, I've never been a bit surprised to note, each June, a few more gray hairs in the heads of the poor teachers who have struggled with you for the preceding year. On the whole, however, you've turned out very well, so perhaps it was merely Time, no you, who did the aging.

Eight years, filled with changing First Graders, are a long time but here are a few odd thoughts which flash through my mind when I think back to when you all were six year olds. If the thought is a brief one, console yourselves with the fact that a quiet, peaceful moment is usually not remembered as long as an uneasy or noisy one.

Michael - always asking questions I couldn't answer
George - politely (a nicer word than stubbornly) keeping his mouth closed when I asked him something
Ward and Wray - presenting me with a lovely red mango which they had taken turns carrying to school, and then held it, together, as they handed it to me
Allan - that rare thing, a quiet boy
Fred - talking about rounding up the cattle with the "other" cowboys
Ronald - never thought he'd turn into the dignified, dependable Student Body President type!
Neal - holding his pencil so tightly I had to pry it loose.
Jerry - yelling a fond but loud good-bye outside my windows those days when he went home at noon.
Carolyn - trying to coax her to eat her lunch. Now I wonder why I worried!
Lois - a chatterbox -- then as now.
Keiki - watching her get up and run across the tables while I stood in the doorway talking to Jerry's mother. At that moment, murder, and of a child, too, seemed perfectly justifiable in my mind!
Roberta - a soft, sweet voice - such a peaceful contrast to the rest of that howling mob.
Maeva-Louise - being afraid to go out to the cafeteria when all the Eighth Graders were there. Don't blame you Maeva, Eighth Graders still scare me.
Janet - my "right hand man" when it came to getting things done.
Jacqueline - her resemblance to Joan Blondell of movie fame.
Joan Ann - no trouble getting her to eat.
Gertrude - does she still ahve a temper when cross?
Sally - how delighted she was when she first started to read - and what an excellent reader she was.
Carol - the quick smile which lightened up her face when she was pleased.
Constance - trying to out talk Lois.
Ruth - another "quiet" helper.
Jean - a talker, in her own way.

With much affection and many good wishes for the future,

(Signed)
Margaret Hill
Teacher, First Grade
Kaunoa School

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