First Grade: The Pattern Remains

Though Mrs. Caplow had anticipated that twelve of the children from the kindergarten class would attend the first grade in Attucks School, eighteen of the children were assigned during the summer to the first grade classroom in the main building. The remaining children were assigned either to a new school a few blocks north of Attucks School orto a branch school to handle the overflow from the main building, or had moved away. Mrs. Logan, the teacher in the first grade classroom, had had more than twenty years of experience in the St. Louis public school system, and all the schools at which she had taught in the city were more than 90 percent black. During the 1968-1969 school year, I made four informal visits to the first grade classroom in Attucks School. ¹ I made no visits to either the branch school or to the new school nearby to visit with children from the kindergarten class who had left their original school. During my visits to the first grade room, I made no attempt at taking notes on classroom activity. Rather, I would dictate my impressions and observations as soon afterward as possible. 181No structured observational sessions were conducted throughout the school year.