In 1942, the building serving Rural School District #59, a one-room school known in the area as The Hilly View School, sat atop a rise three miles south of Dodge, Nebraska. When Iris (Kauffold) Bicak heard that Hilly View was in search of a teacher, she embraced the opportunity and began teaching there two months after her 18th birthday.
As a high school student in Dodge, Iris knew that she wanted to teach as she followed the normal, or teaching curriculum, as a junior and senior. Those two years of required courses in methods of teaching math, reading, and geography resulted in her certification as a country school teacher.
Each Monday, Ernest Kauffold, Iris’s father, drove her to her residence about a quarter-mile from Hilly View. She spent a third of her $60.00 monthly pay on rent as a tenant at a farmhouse. Each day, her host, Mrs. Kernovic, prepared a lunch pail that Iris carried as she walked to school. She ate dinner with the family each evening.
Iris taught 14 students across all grades. On a typical day, students from a single grade approached the recitation desk for the oral component of the day’s lesson. The students
in the other grades remained in their seats, ostensibly to complete seat work.
Iris was responsible for starting a fire in the stove in the middle of the room. She made a small pile of corn cobs, sprinkled them with kerosene, and monitored them as they began to burn. Then, she added wood. At the end of the day, she made sure the fire was out or very low, swept the floors, cleaned the bathrooms and organized the room to prepare for the next day.
The building had no electricity or running water, but it did have a pump organ. Iris played the organ and encouraged the students to sing. A Christmas program was a highlight of the year as parents and guests from around the area filled the building. The children hung decorations and a curtain to create a stage. The older boys brought in straw for a nativity scene. Iris’s father, a printer and publisher of the Dodge Criterion, provided printed programs.
After her year at Hilly View, Iris completed her teaching certificate at Wayne State College in 1943. She taught at Creighton Elementary School for one year and Stanton Elementary for two years. From 1944-1946, Mrs. Bicak taught at Yorkfield Elementary in Elmhurst, IL. She received in 1950 a BFA in Music Education from Wayne State. In 1951, Iris married Laddie Bicak, a classmate from Dodge, and after Laddie received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, the couple and their children moved to Kearney in 1962. She attended to raising five children, and returned to the classroom as a teacher’s aide at Northeast Elementary School and Emerson Elementary (1975-1978) in Kearney.
Without hesitation, Iris describes her time at The Hilly View School as “my best year of teaching.”
As a high school student in Dodge, Iris knew that she wanted to teach as she followed the normal, or teaching curriculum, as a junior and senior. Those two years of required courses in methods of teaching math, reading, and geography resulted in her certification as a country school teacher.
Each Monday, Ernest Kauffold, Iris’s father, drove her to her residence about a quarter-mile from Hilly View. She spent a third of her $60.00 monthly pay on rent as a tenant at a farmhouse. Each day, her host, Mrs. Kernovic, prepared a lunch pail that Iris carried as she walked to school. She ate dinner with the family each evening.
Iris taught 14 students across all grades. On a typical day, students from a single grade approached the recitation desk for the oral component of the day’s lesson. The students
in the other grades remained in their seats, ostensibly to complete seat work.
Iris was responsible for starting a fire in the stove in the middle of the room. She made a small pile of corn cobs, sprinkled them with kerosene, and monitored them as they began to burn. Then, she added wood. At the end of the day, she made sure the fire was out or very low, swept the floors, cleaned the bathrooms and organized the room to prepare for the next day.
The building had no electricity or running water, but it did have a pump organ. Iris played the organ and encouraged the students to sing. A Christmas program was a highlight of the year as parents and guests from around the area filled the building. The children hung decorations and a curtain to create a stage. The older boys brought in straw for a nativity scene. Iris’s father, a printer and publisher of the Dodge Criterion, provided printed programs.
After her year at Hilly View, Iris completed her teaching certificate at Wayne State College in 1943. She taught at Creighton Elementary School for one year and Stanton Elementary for two years. From 1944-1946, Mrs. Bicak taught at Yorkfield Elementary in Elmhurst, IL. She received in 1950 a BFA in Music Education from Wayne State. In 1951, Iris married Laddie Bicak, a classmate from Dodge, and after Laddie received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, the couple and their children moved to Kearney in 1962. She attended to raising five children, and returned to the classroom as a teacher’s aide at Northeast Elementary School and Emerson Elementary (1975-1978) in Kearney.
Without hesitation, Iris describes her time at The Hilly View School as “my best year of teaching.”