John and Gladys did not begin school at age six as children do today.  Why?  Simple.  There were no schools in the community.  The first school they attended briefly was the newly completed Ispas School; three and one half miles away.  I believe that they started school together.  I remember Gladys recalled that she sometimes helped her older brother with math problems.  She was pleased with herself. 

When the Deep Lake School was completed, they transferred to that school.  It was only three mile away; one half mile closer than Ispas.  Because our homestead was on the west side of the dividing road that ran south and north, all settlers on the west side belonged to the Deep Lake district while those on the east belonged to Ispas.

During those early days most teachers were male and had English backgrounds.  Mr. Thompson was the first teacher at Deep Lake.  Several years later a Mr. Manson took over.  By that time Mike joined his older siblings and a couple of years later Dan and then Helen followed.
Those teachers occasionally visited Fred and Maria (our parents) because they were some of the few adults in the district who spoke some English.  (Maria learned it while living with the Edmunds after her mother Sanfira died and Fred seemed to pick up English while working (on the railroad, in the mines, on the High Level Bridge in Edmonton, etc.) before he applied for a homestead.  Maria would invite the teachers to share a simple meal and, as she had done all her life, shared farm produce including bread, eggs, cheese, butter, milk and potatoes.  The teacher ‘batched’ in a teacerage situated west of the school.

During my growing up years, I had a feeling that Fred was regarded as ‘the black Romanian sheep’ in an otherwise Ukrainian fold.  Several incidents that occurred with neighbors hinted towards that feeling.  Our neighbors included the Odenaks, Gordeys, Shukalaks, Hunchaks, Bujaks, Hrehoriks, Skoreykos.  There were two other Romanian families.  The Yurkos  (further south) had one son who was considerably older than our family.  I doubt that he completed eight years of schooling.  The Hrenuiks, west of us had very poor land and left the district.

Families closer to the school and west of it included the Kutashes, Farruses, Andreshewskis. Leontys, Koreluks, Menzaks, Garricks, Chornahuses. Karbashewskis. Poherlaiks, and three Romanian families: the Morgans (Morgoche), Tomas and Semenuiks..

Our dad often cautioned us about our association with the other children.  We were to ‘keep our noses clean’.  One day when in about fifth grade I broke Father’s rule.  During those days when there were no telephones, messages (often gossip) were sent in letters through the children.  A girl who walked in our direction asked me to accompany her to deliver a letter to a family on the Ispas side of the road.  That was one quarter of a mile off our beaten path.  She promised that we would run there, deliver the letter and then catch up with our siblings in the remaining mile home.
When we got there, Mrs. Bujak gave us each a coolie.  The two spoke in their language while I feared that I was going to be in trouble.  I nudged the girl but she didn’t budge.  At last we left and ran the whole mile home.  Apparently my siblings, knowing I was going to be in trouble walked very slowly.  They even stopped and waited.  But we just took too long so they went home.  Dad immediately noticed that I was missing.  Minutes later, when I arrived, Dad ‘marched up one side of me and down the other’!  I wished that he would whip me and get it over with.  But he did not hurt me but just reminded me over and over that I was expected to go straight to school and then back home.  He did not tolerate me wandering all over the community.  Humiliated and used as an example in front of the rest of the family, made me wish that I could sink through the floor.

There seemed to exist a certain amount of jealousy towards our family.  That was probably so because our family did well in their studies, or because Mr. Thompson and later, Mr. Manson visited our home, or because Fred, although a homesteader like the rest of the neighbors, was progressive and innovative.  His truck and thresher were the first in the area.  He understood machines.  However, in time, he and his family would be respected and accepted by the community.  Some even married into our family.

By the time Helen began school changes were occurring.  The former teacher had been replaced by a female; a Miss Ewanchuk.  The local school board’s secretary (school divisions did not exist) had the power to hire and fire teachers.  He did not like Fred.  Jobs were difficult to find and teachers feared firing.

It was during that period that Fred experienced some altercations with the school system.  Fred theorized later that it likely began because the teacher, knowing that the secretary did not like Fred, would win his favor by picking on Fred’s children.  Since they were good students she could not punish them for their studies.  But she picked on them in other ways.  Fred ignored the negative reports the children brought home, but he suspected that all was not right.  The teacher’s ultimate error happened when, with a yardstick, she whacked Helen (a timid and shy child in third grade) across the arm for some simple reason like dropping a pencil to the floor.  When Helen returned home that day with a red welt across her little arm, Father took drastic action.  He kept his children at home.  The summerhouse became a temporary schoolroom and John, the oldest taught his younger siblings the three R’s.  That action, of course, was contrary to the education laws.  Eventually the children were returned to school.  However, Fred had made a statement that affected all those involved and surprised the rest of the community.  Now when I look back, I admire Dad’s insight and courage. 

As the older family members were finishing the last year of their formal education (grade eight), Nick and then Steve joined the school group.   For several years there was an average of at least four of our family members attending school each year.

Our dad knew the value of education and hoped his family could continue beyond grade eight.  But with no high school near, there was little he could do.

Although Fred was grateful for the opportunity to own his own land, and was up to the challenge of farming, he could not expect a regular paycheck.  Farming was a gamble.  Success depended mostly on the weather.  For instance, the drought during the thirties could not sustain a family.  Yet he could not foresee anything else but farming for his children’s future.

Arrangements were made for John to live with his aunt and uncle’s family, the Harrisyms, in order for him to attend Moose Lake School where he could take his ninth and tenth grades.  Besides very little financial help John was to do chores after school and weekends for his board.  But it didn’t work.  John worked diligently after school; helped with the harvest, milked cows and did chores.  As the end of the first term approached and chores during the winter were less, his aunt preferred not to have him live with them any more.  Dejected, John returned home, walked to Shalka School (Little Boian) where ninth grade was taught; five and one half miles south of the farm.  That was just too far to walk so he studied at home.  I believe that in the spring he wrote the ninth grade ‘departemental’ exams.  Further studies for John were interrupted for about ten years.

Opportunity?  None.  It saddens me when I think of the older half of our family whose lives may have been more fulfilling had they had the opportunity for further study.  Yet, learning does not end with the completion of a certain grade.  Learning continues throughout one’s lifetime; through conversati9ns with others, through personal experience and especially now, through the media.  The basic studies completed in a country school served each of our family members well.  But more would have been better.