Q & A with longtime educator: Times change, but importance of education doesn't

Sep 20, 2009 (Victoria Advocate - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- MVLY | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Ella Schorlemmer dedicated her life to teaching and counseling children.

In the 1940s, Schorlemmer taught grades first through fifth in a one-room schoolhouse in Mission Valley.

Then, in the 1960s, she was asked to start a counseling program for children, which is what she is most known for.

Schorlemmer retired in 1982 after 42 years of teaching and counseling, 27 of which were spent in the Victoria school district.

She lives at Hearthstone & Carestone assisted living center in Victoria.

This year, Victoria school district named a school after the 93-year-old. The school was dedicated on Sunday.

Q: Tell me about your childhood.

A: I'm from San Marcos. My daddy had a car agency on San Antonio Street. My father's last name was Dickens. My mom was a housekeeper. I had one brother and one sister, who are both deceased now.

I learned how to make different kinds of vegetables, cottage cheese. We had three milk cows. I would come into town with my grandmother in a buggy. We'd take the eggs and butter to the grocery store and always took our excess purchases to Ferguson's Drug Store to get an ice cream cone for 5 cents.

There was also no such thing as a washing machine.

Q: What did your parents expect of you?

A: My parents were very strict. My father and my mother were very enthusiastic about my education.

Q: How did you meet your husband?

A: We met in college. We had some classes together. He sang songs to me and poetry to attract my attention in the library. I tried to reject him. I married him in 1936.

Q: You have two boys who are both surgeons now. You must've done something right as a parent.

A: My husband and I told them that God gave them gifts and were given those gifts to use, not for foolishness. They were told to make their own decisions regarding their learning and their ability to handle their intelligence. One of them has a grandson that wants to be a reporter.

Q: How was the counseling program for elementary students started?

A: The superintendent, Mr. O. C. Chandler, called me into his office one day and said that the school district needed a counselor's program, and if I would please set one up for the elementary grades.

Q: So then what did you do?

A: Well, there wasn't a counselor in any of the buildings. I didn't have anybody to follow. I don't have anybody to show me how to organize it. I thought the first thing I'll do is see what other schools had to follow. It took quite a lot of work.

Q: What would you counsel children on?

A: I'd ask them questions about interests they had in the world, and I never tried to pry into their family affairs. If that was a problem, it came out in their conversation that they gave me, not that I wanted to hear.

One boy had trouble stuttering. He didn't know where to get help.

The children provided information very closely to my heart. They knew that.

To see more of Victoria Advocate, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.thevictoriaadvocate.com. Copyright (c) 2009, Victoria Advocate, Texas
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email
tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax
to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave.,
Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

More News:   Market Updates | Stock Alerts | All Trading News | Stock Index