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Schools

Once Upon a Time at School No. 4

Patch speaks to three graduates of the 100-year-old School No. 4 from 1938, 1940 and 1942.

The Centennial Celebration for Fort Lee School No. 4 has caused many residents to take a step back and appreciate the fine historical value Fort Lee has to offer. Thousands of students across the decades have walked its halls, adding to an impressive story of change and learning.

Patch had the pleasure of speaking to three lovely sisters, who graduated from School No. 4 years ago, when things were very different. Each of these sisters graduated from sixth grade. Paula Bongardino graduated in 1938, Biagia Arensman in 1940 and Josephine Apricena in 1942. Back then, they shared their maiden name--Salto.

The experience of school was very different when they attended. In the morning they walked. No one was driven.

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“We weren’t so supervised," said Arensman. "We walked to school everyday. There was a traffic light there and we obeyed the signal, and went to school."

Even the walk was different. At the time, Fort Lee wasn’t as crowded as it is now. The three sisters remember passing farms and wooded areas on their way to school. There were no high rises in Fort Lee back then. The first one wouldn't be built for three decades.

After walking to school in the morning, students would all go home for lunch, only to walk back to school again.

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“Most of us had our mothers home." Arensman said. "That was a big difference."

Students who didn't go home ate lunch in their classrooms with their teacher.

“There were no facilities. There was no lunch room," Arensman said.

Students still had recess, but even there, less supervision was required. When the bell rang before class or after recess to go inside, students lined up and went right in.

“The thing is everybody did automatically what they were supposed to do," Apricena said. "No yelling or screaming… we just lined up and went in."

For each grade there was one class, consisting of between 25 and 30 children per teacher. That means each grade had just one teacher. Every desk - which were arranged in rows - had ink wells with dip pens.

“I still have mine,” said Apricena.

Another interesting tidbit the three shared was "morning exercises," which were a daily morning ritual before class started.

”We called them opening exercises," Arensman said. "Every classroom did it. We had a reading from the bible, a salute to the flag."

Yes, that’s right – a bible reading.

"And we sang 'My Country Tis of Thee!'" added Bongardino.

Paula and Josephine also remember "Music Appreciation Hour," in which all the students went to the auditorium, which also served as the gym, filled with folding chairs, to listen to classical music on the radio--there was of course no television back then--for an hour.

Paula remembers actually singing on a daily basis too. Students were brought into the auditorium to sing historical songs and old classics.

"We were taken into the auditorium every morning, and we sang classical music," she said. "We learned to like classical music that way."

Gym classes were once a week. There was just one gym teacher for the entire school system in town; she went from school to school.

“Once a week during the winter when we couldn’t go out, we had gym indoors," said Arensman.

When asked what they thought the secret to education was, since current day schools hold to the belief of “smaller classrooms, more teachers,” the three unanimously declared that the students were more disciplined back then. Patch asked them what sort of behavior would make a student a “bad kid” in their day.

“Cut across the lawn. That was horrible, you’d have detention,” said Apricena.

“Maybe chew gum,” Bongardino said.

“Or,” added Arensman, “speak disrespectfully, or out of turn.”

Arensman says that kids today are too coddled with distractions like television and more, and that the simpler life back then helped them focus better.

”Everybody knew what they were supposed to do, and they just did," Arensman said. "They didn’t have half of the disciplinary problems. Kids [today] are much too catered too, too hyper, and too catered too. And too many distractions.”

Life was simpler back then, and that was really what these three sisters remember – and miss – the most. There was a feeling of peace and “tranquility.”

When the three sisters attended School No. 4, all the teachers were single. Bongardino, who graduated from sixth grade at the school in 1938, remembers it being a requirement.

“Though that changed,” she said.

Once married teachers started cropping up, a new rule was made: no pregnant teachers. If they did become pregnant, they immediately resigned.

“There were a lot of reasons for it. At that time measles were a big thing… for their own sake they had to leave,” said Arensman.

All three sisters also agree that in the old days there was more support at home for children, and that teachers and parents were on the same side. Parents told their children to listen to the teacher no matter what, and so they did.

“You wouldn’t dare disrespect the teacher because you wouldn’t dare go home,” Arensman said.

“I think even more than that, you wouldn’t think of it,” said Bongardino.

Despite so many years having gone by, the ladies remember their teachers’ names. Bongardino remembers Mr. Woodward, who was also the principal of School No. 4  as well as a teacher there. Mr. Woodward was a history teacher, and when she took her first trip to London more than 40 years after leaving School No. 4, Bongardino thought of him and his lessons on Westminster Abbey and England.

“I attribute him for turning me on to all that,” she said.

Bongardino says she remembers a strong feeling of patriotism while she was in school; World War II was in full swing at the time. All three told Patch they remember that boys dreamed of being drafted and that there was a very strong feeling of loving one’s country even inside the schools.

All three ladies were invited to the Centennial Celebration for School No. 4 at the DoubleTree recently.


”It was nice to be acknowledged just because we’re old,” said Arensman.

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