by Annabel Matherne Hogan
The education of Cajun children was often left to the parents, since there were no schools for many years. The first schools were Catholic schools, setup by the local church parish. Throughout the years, the Catholic church has had an important influence on the education of Cajun children, and their struggle to deal with an outside world quite different from their own.
The quest to advance came because of the thousands of Cajuns who went into World War I in 1917 and were made aware of the outside world. Many brought the English language back home, along with the desire to advance themselves in the English-speaking society of America. Until the 1930's, many still lived in crude shacks and strongly detested the wearing of shoes. In many areas, Cajuns going to school for the first time were unable to speak English; in the early 1900's Cajuns were not allowed to speak French at school, and were urged to drop the language at home. Often, the children were punished and beaten for speaking French in the schools. Certainly, they were treated as second-class citizens, or outsiders.
In school, only English was taught; the attitude was that the French language was "backwards." The feeling was that if one was to be educated, only the English language should be allowed. In our area [Bayou Des Allemands, Louisiana], none of our family knew how to speak English until we entered school. In the late 1940's and early 1950's, our parents almost stopped speaking in French so that we would forget the French language and speak English.
Many of our friends refused to change language or lifestyle, and continued to wear their sun bonnets, spin their cloth, hunt, trap and fish rather than merging with the new lifestyle.
"DOWN THE BAYOU VILLAGE"
The first school in our area opened in "Down the Bayou Village" (today called "Comardelle Village") in about 1908 in a house that belonged to Alcide Comardelle.
In 1934 a large back room was added to its rear to accommodate the large number of children from the influx of winter trappers from Lockport, Raceland and Westwego that camped in houseboats all along the bayou. Its original back room, built in Des Allemands, had been dismantled to make moving easier. A long, wooden, high wharf was built from the landing spot along the bayou to the steps of the school since the water level rose quite often.
The first teachers here were Miss Monroe, and Mrs. Zoe Petit from Ama who taught all 7 grades which consisted of 30 students. Martha Bertholet came to help teach them along with Zoe. They both were still there in 1915.
Miss Hilonese Petit taught here from 1931 to 1940. She was about 21 years old when she lived next door to the schoolhouse. After they moved the school, she commuted daily on a school boat. School boats were often used due to the availability of the bayou and the lack of paved roads.
Many of these teachers were paid very little and often worked on "script." Script was a form of working on credit, with a promise to pay when the school system collected revenues. The teachers were paid as low as $45 a month at times, and worked on credit up to two years at a time.
According to former teacher Grace Somme, "Some of the children spoke little English. They would speak French at first and we had to try to get along the best we could. I greatly enjoyed teaching, and most of the pupils were quick to learn."
"Down the Bayou Village School" teacher Louise Petit Kinler added, "I enjoyed the school boat ride on the bayou picking up the pupils along wharves. This was done in all types of weather. Some days the boat would get stuck among the water lilies, and it would take hours before someone would come to get us out. On some of these days, we would turn around and all go home."
Philonese Petit mentioned, "I remember the time I had to teach all seven grades for one month. We had no lights and when the weather was bad, we could no longer work till it cleared up again. I remember the two large 'pot-belly' heaters we had to keep warm."
"I do feel that they did an adequate job teaching. I remember writing our geography lesson as punish work on some paper bags because we were poor and didn't have much money to buy tablets," added former student Edna Dufrene Matherne, said,
Another student Edmond Dufrene stated, "I was the only one in 7th Grade. I continued to go to school for a while, but then I quit because I was alone in this grade."
Many children brought their lunch in a tin bucket, a "plantation" which contained mostly biscuits, beans, sweet potatoes and a bottle of coffee. The teacher placed these a bucket of water on the pot-belly heater in the room where lunches were also warmed. The children from the village were allowed to go home to eat.
SCHOOLBOATS
In about 1925, our area saw the first school boat. Leased to the parish by William Egnace Dufrene, the "W.E.D." began its journey in Des Allemands where the teachers lived, then proceeded to load children beginning with Black Prince Island, after its school closed, and continuing to do the same all the way down Bayou Gauche, Bayou Des Allemands, and Tête de Mort, up to school where they were all unloaded. The boat then continued for another 2 miles to the "Temple" where it picked up the children; it then loaded those living from the mouth of the lake along Bayou Des Allemands and brought them to school.
Prior to the school boat, some had to paddle a skiff or pirogue daily in all weather conditions to get to school. Those that could walked through marshy areas whenever possible. The boat didn't go past the Temple into the lake villages of Bois Choctaw and Cabanage because of the lake's unpredictable weather. Some Cajun children didn't attend school because of this lack of transportation. The school boat also served as a mailboat and a bakery boat which brought ten-cent bread and five-cent pies to the villagers.
In the winter trapping months, those from the village that camped on Bois Choctaw and Bayou Perot missed 3 to 4 months of school since the school boat did not travel there.
Due to a decreased attendance in the smaller schools, the lack of qualified teachers wanting to teach here, and a good bus transportation system catering to older students, it was decided that all students would be bused to schools outside of "Down the Bayou Village." The school was later closed down and moved.