Writing to a 100 - A Baby Boomer Memory

As the news breaks almost daily about what the next best thing is for children’s education – whether it be a computer in all its variations - an iPod, iPad, a laptop, etc. or some other electronic gadget – a memory stands out for me – my first time of writing to 100, on a piece of paper!

Some details of this long ago memory may be a blur; however, many are not including the feelings that went along with this grand accomplishment.

It was in second grade at Lewis and Clark School in Missoula that Miss Haines assigned us the task of writing to 100.  This seemed like such a huge number to a 7 year old. Ms. Haines gave us all a piece of paper with lines. It wasn’t white paper but the beige colored paper used for learning how to write in the 1960’s, and instructed us little ones to write all the way to 100!

Writing the first numbers were most likely not very difficult. The more numbers one had to write the more room was taken on the page.  First the single digit numbers, then the teens, the 20’s, - 21, 22, 23… - the 30’s, the 40’s - 47, 48, and 49 – and then 50! Halfway done, and hopefully the numbers went just to the middle of the page.  Then on to the 60’s and the 70’s.  I remember having to make the numbers smaller and smaller in order to fit all the numbers on one page!

And the mistakes -using the pink eraser on the end of my yellow pencil I went back to erase the mistakes – as some numbers were missing, some were out of order, etc. Sometimes along the way the mistakes were many so that the paper in one area was becoming thinner and thinner. The numbers were becoming more and more smeared as the project progressed with all the erasing and moving the paper around.

A project as big as writing to 100 cannot all be done at school – at least I’m guessing that others were like me and didn’t complete this assignment before the school day ended. Children did not have backpacks in the ‘60’s and so I must have folded my paper and (I’m guessing) stuck it in my coat pocket or placed it between pages in a book.

Most days I would go home on Fergus Street in the married student housing known as “the strips”. We (my parents, I, and three siblings) lived in the strips along with many other families while my father finished his degree at the university.

However, on this day my father picked me and perhaps my sister up from school. He must have had something to do and dropped us off at a house on South Avenue near Higgins Avenue. My mother was most likely finishing her shift at the Chimney Corner on Arthur Avenue where she worked as a waitress or perhaps she was at Main Hall on the U of M campus where she worked with  Mary Margaret Courtney.

Whatever the circumstances - this house with a nice man and lady who also encouraged me along the way with my assignment -  is where I finished writing to a 100.  As I got further and further down the page the numbers were smaller and smaller yet, squeezed together so as not to miss a number.

Next the 80’s!  Now down to the 90’s! I remember feeling that the ‘90’s were such big numbers. And I was almost finished and to the biggest number of all – 100!  Almost done with our big assignment! The paper was becoming more and more smeared and thinner and thinner in spots.  The pink eraser at the end of my pencil was smaller and smaller so that the metal holding the eraser on the pencil was beginning to cut into the paper. Also with so much erasing comes the wrinkling of the paper. 

Finally!  At the very corner of the right side of the wrinkled, lead-smeared, erased–to- bits paper I wrote the number 100!  The paper was a mess but the numbers were all there – a great accomplishment in the eyes of a seven year old little girl. I excitedly showed the paper to my parents when I was picked up from this couple’s home.

This is a memory that is still with me today - 50 plus years later.

Now Lewis and Clark School is being transformed into an International Baccalaureate Program school (which, in my opinion, is a sad decision for our children). Now children will be using their IPods, their IPads, their laptops, or whatever electronic gadget is the rage .

Fifty years from now will they have fond memories of writing to 100 on a piece of paper or just memories of numbers on a electronic gadget?

Will they have memories of a wrinkled, lead-smeared, thinning paper due to erasing over and over and finally seeing that magic number of 100 on the very right, bottom edge of the paper?

I hope so – because in my opinion an experience such as this – the tangible and real life act of writing on paper instead of typing numbers into a computer – is the most beneficial way for small children to learn.

I know it was for me – a small child from Lewis and Clark School in Miss Haines second grade class in 1962.

Also, in this Missoula baby boomers opinion, it would behoove Missoula County Public Schools administrators to reopen many of our closed schools, Prescott School just one of about 5 or 6, and return to the K-8 school configuration that Lewis and Clark was when I wrote to a 100 on a piece of paper.

Edited on September 24, 2017