Talking With The Students
The students are the ones with the stories and experiences from inside and outside the schoolhouse. They remember their time at St. Johns and are still part of the community today. Read about some of the experiences these students had in St. Johns Elementary School by hovering over their photo.
Rebecca Kinney
An alumna of St. Johns School,
The school felt large when I was there.
Odell L. Gardner
An alumnus of St. Johns School
I acted as a kind of custodian to the school while a student.
Lucille Chapman
An alumna of St. Johns School
May Day was an enjoyable day, the whole day.
Jean Dickerson Payne
An alumna of St. Johns School
My dad drove me to school every morning
Herbert Payne
An alumnus of St. Johns School
Wow looky here, that’s going to be my lady.
Bernice Chapman
Mitchell
An alumna of St. Johns School
We would walk from Grandma's house to school
Friendships and Relationships
St. Johns Elementary School was not just about the building and the curriculum but was also about the relationships formed while the students were there. Herbert Payne was 7 years old when he attended the school and saw his future wife pull up and get out of her dad’s car. “Wow looky here, that’s going to be my lady.” He kept his word; over 50 years later they are still married. His wife is Jean Dickerson Payne.
Although Bernice Chapman Mitchell and Jean Dickerson Payne were a couple of years apart in age, they bond today over the fact that they both found their husband while at school in Albemarle County.
Some of the students of St. Johns Elementary School still sit in the same space every week. St. Johns Baptist church has kept the friendships and community together that St. Johns Elementary School made possible.
Who Taught the Students, and what was Taught?
The teachers of St. Johns truly cared about the success of the students, but that also meant it was not always easy. Odell L. Gardner remembers how his teacher loved requiring students to copy and learn words. Notepads of word lists were taken home for the students to study. The next day she would call on the students to spell them out. If the students were wrong there was a chance of losing recess. Lucille Chapman remembered the same threat of losing recess, but for her case, it was when homework was not completed. But she knew it was because her teacher cared about her and the other students.
There was not much history taught, and what was, was skewed. Odell recounted that there were not many books from the school board about history, especially African American history. In High School, slavery was covered for a week, but only about certain people. But May Day, filled with sports and games, was the most enjoyable. There were sports competitions between different schools and the students got to have fun all day.
Remembering the Schoolhouse
For Rebecca Kinney, she thought back to the schoolhouse and realized it felt so much larger when they were students. She recounted it as two big rooms, with old chalkboards, and the students’ backs facing the middle wall.
Lucille and Bernice both remembered the stoves in the classrooms being heated in the mornings by the boys and would be used to make stews for the student lunches.
For Odell, school seemed to last a little longer. He stayed after school to mop the wood floors with motor oil in order to shine them back up. The potbelly stoves, which were heated by some students in the mornings, would discolor the floors.
St. Johns School Song
St. John gon’shine tonight
St. John gon’ shine
St. John gon’ shine tonight
On down the line
St. John gon’ shine tonight
St. John gon’ shine
When the sun goes
And the moon comes up
St. John gon’ shine
Don’t we look fine tonight
Don’t we look fine
Don’t we look fine tonight
On down the line
Don’t we look fine tonight
Don’t we look fine
When the sun goes down
And the moon comes up
St. John gon’ shine
For full text and image citations reference the two linked PDFs in the website footer, at the bottom of the page.