OLD-TIME TEACHER RECALLS LITTLE LADIES AND GENTLEMEN

Bonnie Ludwit and her husband Charlie recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.

Bonnie Ludwig says she felt like an old mother hen without her chickens when she retired from teaching in 1975 after 28 years. Ludwig taught at four regional schools during her career -- Schoenebeck, Horrell, Sheppard and Pocahontas.

"I'd say I was an old-time teacher," she said, making no excuses. "I just taught the way I believed was right and hoped it was."

And she says her students were like anything else.

"Some you don't remember," she said. "The ones you like are the ones that were loving. And there were always two or three that bugged you." As an example she cites the time several students that "bugged her" locked her out of the Horrell School.

Things change, and Ludwig says she thinks things were done differently when she was a teacher than they are today.

"I think we tried to make the students into little ladies and gentlemen," she said. "I'm not sure if they do that anymore."

And other things changed as time wore on. Better equipment to illustrate what was being taught became available and technology greatly improved. "When I first began teaching, we didn't even have running water," she says with a laugh.

Ludwig has many fond memories from her tenure at the four schools but she enjoyed her later years more than her first.

This is because she felt she had the Holy Spirit in her and that caused a dramatic change in her and her teaching.

"I loved the children more after that," she said. "I tried to have a joy in my teaching that wasn't there before. I was a better teacher."

But she says they didn't teach the Bible, even back then. The only time they prayed during school was during meal time -- and this was only at Pocahontas.

She believes it is a tragedy that prayer is no longer permitted in schools because she feels it is really necessary. She believes it would help the students pay better attention and they would do better in school.

Ludwig's mother-in-law was the one who told her she should be a teacher because she "had a lot of patience."

But she had only taught one year when she had to stop for a bit. After her first year of teaching at Schoenebeck, which was in Fruitland, a situation arose where Ludwig was forced to take a year off.

"I became pregnant with my daughter," Ludwig said, "and teachers couldn't teach when they were pregnant."

That was in 1948. When she returned to teaching in January 1949, she went to Horrell, where she taught for one year. In 1950, she went back to Schoenebeck for about three years. After teaching at Sheppard for a year she finished out her career at Pocahontas.

And why did Ludwig become a teacher?

"It wasn't the money," she says dryly. "It has something to do with the way the children depend on you. You just do what you can and if you care about them, you put in a lot of hours."

She says she put in her share of hours. "I never beat them out the door."

There are many things that Ludwig remembers, but one thing stands out in her mind.

"I remember when Kennedy was shot. The supervisor called me out of the classroom and said a parent had called and said that the president had been shot. We decided not to tell the pupils. They didn't find out until they got home."

Ludwig said she doesn't regret her teaching career and the children had small ways of making it worthwhile.

"What flattered me the most was when a student would say they wanted to be a teacher when they grew up or when they would call me momma or grandma. That just showed they felt at home with me."

Ludwig lives in Jackson with her husband, Charlie, to whom she has been married to for 50 years. They have two daughters. Her oldest daughter is a fifth-grade teacher in Columbia.