›› Eramosa S.S. #2

By Deb Quaile

Originally, classes were held in a log school built in what later became the S.S .#3 area circa 1839. Out of a population of 420 people, 150 were pupils of school age and the pressing need for division was evident so the section was then divided into 2 and 3. A new site for a school was chosen on the Guelph-Erin road on a corner of a farm west of 2nd Line (lot 13, con. 2) and the school was erected in 1872.

During the completion of the new school, classes were sometimes held in the tavern, the Albion Hotel. No one seemed to mind this arrangement, and presumably the students were kept well away from the drinking patrons of the hotel.

The new school was a one-room red brick building with eight windows on a half-acre lot. A central box stove provided heat.

In 1906 slate blackboards were attached across the front of the classroom.

In September 1937 a new course of study was introduced for grades one to six, reportedly giving the pupil “greater freedom for self expression.”1 A year later, in September 1938, the Department of Education also issued a new program of studies for grades seven and eight.

Images of S.S.#2 courtesy of the Guelph-Eramosa Township Archives with information from Eramosa S.S.#2, General Register 1934-1944. For more information see Eramosa Anecdotes, by Deborah Quaile (Ayton: Wordbird Press, 2007).