The two schools that served Okotoks for the better part of the 20th century are in the spotlight in a new exhibit at the Okotoks Museum and Archives.
Okotoks Lower School, built in 1900, and Okotoks Upper School, constructed a dozen years later, welcomed generations of students until they were both demolished in 1970.
“Their names really reflected not only the grades that they taught, but their location,” said museum and archives specialist Kathy Coutts, who put together the exhibit. “The Lower School was below the hill and taught grades 1 to 6 and the Upper School was at top of hill and taught grades 7 to 12.”
The exhibit, complete with photos, memories and treasured artifacts, takes a chronological look at the two schools through the eyes of former teachers and students.
Coutts was keen to inject a human element by sharing memories from the likes of Helen McKay, who taught at the Lower School for almost 40 years, and from various students, including one who opined that teachers were fair but strict, with the strap not far away for any students who got too far out of line.
She said the community has always been generous in donating photos and artifacts to help tell Okotoks’ story, and many such items are on display in the upper floor exhibit.
“We’ve been very fortunate to have people donate their photographs over the years," she said. "For example, I’ve got a photo of the very first students from 1912 when the Upper School was built and I also have pictures of students from early days of the Lower School.”
The exhibit also features a couple of school autograph albums, one from the 1930s and the other from the 1950s, that have been digitized so people can scroll through the pages while the originals sit under glass.
Also on display are a couple of high school rings from the ’50s, a team hockey sweater and several yearbooks.
“Some people have even been brave enough to donate their report cards,” Coutts said. “Some are really good, honours students, but there are a couple that have some Ds. It all adds to the history of our town.”
An exhibit on schooling from a century ago wouldn’t be complete without references to various forms of punishment, including the strap, dunce cap and writing on board.
“In those days, it was all about public humiliation or corporal punishment,” Coutts said. “A lot of things have changed with school discipline since then.”
The first schools built within town boundaries, they were the envy of other jurisdictions in the province. A school inspector had this to say when the Upper School opened in 1912: “With the completion of your new building, you will have school accommodations that will, I believe, compare most favourably with that of any other town in Alberta the size of Okotoks... It will be a credit to your town for many years.”
The exhibit, which opened Jan. 13, will be on display until the end of August.
