I moved from West Jordan to Midvale in the summer of 1962. This meant starting fourth grade in a new school, Midvale Elementary. I was terrified at moving and leaving behind all my friends, and thought that life as I knew it had come to an end. I was so shy and afraid that when a classmate asked me my name the first day of school I would not answer. It was a very challenging year because of a teacher's strike as the year began. In the first few days of school I had eleven different teachers. But once the strike was over, an exciting opportunity became available.
Howard Johnson, a sixth grade teacher, assembled a class of fourth grade students an hour before school each day to teach Russian language, singing and dance. For three years we met together to study. Eventually we began putting on performances around the Salt Lake valley and even attended language forums at BYU.
These photos show Mr. Johnson and his students in our home-made (thanks, Mom!) costumes we wore when performing. The photos are of very poor quality. But they are the only ones I have of this experience and provide at least a sense of what we looked like then.
Mr. Johnson and me in his sixth-grade classroom
Russian dancing (I am left of center)
Singing Russian folk songs
2 comments:
i saw this post looking up mr johnson. i went to midvale elem in the 70s wondering if he is still alive and if so where he is? loved russian dancing...
Thanks for posting this photo of Mr. Johnson. I was in his class and he taught us Russian dancing in 1972.
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