10. Second grade was very different from first and it was a big deal in many ways. Our classroom was on the second floor, very close to the principal's office. It was during this time that St. Pete’s seemed to hit the maximum number of students it could possibly hold in one building and hurried to construct a new building east of the convent to take the overflow. There were 113 kids in my communion class and undoubtedly it wasn’t the largest grade in the school.
Sister Ann Josephine, my second grade teacher, (shown above) was a sweet nun with a very Irish face who could always make her students smile, but who still demanded good discipline. Once, when a very tall blond boy named John kept putting his head down on his desk as he did his assignments, Sister finally stuck a yardstick down the back of his shirt to remind him to sit up straight. He did sit up but was embarassed to tears, his fair skin beet-red. Still, Sister was popular with her students and would come out on to the playground to talk to the girls or throw a ball around with the boys. Susie would eventually have her in second grade too, and Sister became one of her favorite teachers as well as a favorite of my mother’s.
Second grade meant learning cursive handwriting, using funny looking Palmer pens. They were shaped to fit our hands and we began to learn the process by drawing continuous rows of up-and-down strokes followed by rows and rows of circles. The alphabet above the blackboard now had the letters in both printed and cursive styles, with little arrows indicating the direction the pen should move to create the letter. Before too long we had developed callouses on our middle fingers, but by the middle of the year, most students were well on their way to a fairly decent looking handwriting - all due to Sister's close attention to the Palmer method.
"Don't grip the pen so tightly, you're choking it to death!"
"Smooth movements, boys and girls, don't jab at the paper."
And it didn't end there. Each year we all participated in handwriting contests and by fourth grade, our class managed to produce a winner. Catholic school kids always had an edge, since most of us were taught by a nun.
"Nun handwriting" was forever known as the most beautiful handwriting in the world. It was used for your official name on your report card, for stern warnings on work and test papers, "Stay within the lines! You can do better!" or the more hoped for, "Keep up the good work! Very nice!"
One of the first things we learned to write, as opposed to print, were the letters A.M.D.G. at the top of our work papers. "Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam" or, “to the greater glory of God” is the motto of the Jesuit order of priests and since St. Peter Canisius was a Jesuit, I guess that's why we had to use it. Most other Catholic schools used J.M.J. for "Jesus, Mary and Joseph" but the Jesuits always did like to stand out among all the rest. Sister didn’t really explain all of that to us; the Latin pretty much went in one ear and out the other. Some kids repeated that it stood for “admire the might and glory of God,” - close, but no cigar. We only knew it was supposed to be done in our very best capital letter handwriting.
Sister also had a collection of angel stamps that she used on assignment papers. The cute little cartoon-y stamps complemented her handwritten comments with, for example, a sweet angel looking with prayerful hands and eyes looking heavenward was used with a “Very Good!” The stamps continued down the range to an angel with its halo askew, dissheveled gown and a “Very Messy!” admonishment. Boys usually got the “very messy” angel and it was usually because of excessive erasures on handwriting papers or a ragged edge from not tearing a sheet out of a workbook carefully.
Throughout the year, we were given gold stars after completing certain milestones in our studies. Sister created a large chart with everyone’s name in alphabetical order running along the left side. After each accomplishment, we received a star next to our names, forming a row of stars growing toward the right side. Once we filled the row with stars, we would receive a Miraculous Medal that was waiting at the end of the row - the girls had pink ribbons on the medal and the boys had blue. In looking back, it was quite an effort on Sister’s part - I was number 55 in the class and my last name began with an S! When we finally received the medal, Sister also gave us the entire strip with our names and the accumulated stars.
It stayed in my underwear drawer for years.
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