My Favorite Cedar Vale Teacher

By Don Cox

If you had to pick one teacher from your years in the Cedar Vale Schools as the favorite; Who would it be? I hope a few of you will chime in with your nomination, and the reason for it.

I had to winnow down from three names that immediately came to the fore, but finally my pick was not that hard. Ruth Wade is the winner. Here's why:

Ruth moved to the Cedar Vale system in the forties when the Hewins School closed. She started as the 7th grade teacher when I was a 6th grader (I think).

During that year someone decided to have boxing matches in the schoolyard during recess. There was already a set of heavy gloves in the principles office which were fetched when any two boys got into fisticuffs at school. The idea being that they could thresh it out in a manly way. Why it turned from the original to schoolyard entertainment I couldn't say.

I was a prepubescent pacifist, still with baby fat. One of my classmates was precocious physically and already an adolescent. Of course as the two biggest 6th graders it was decided we should box it out and I couldn't refuse or I would be "yellow" and gravely stigmatized. Well, of course, he beat the stuffing out of me with the whole schoolyard looking on. I did land one feeble punch and many people cheered. I was thoroughly disgraced, abased, and demoralized. I knew that boys my age weren't supposed to cry, so I staggered back toward the 6th grade room. At that point Ruth Wade, who wasn't even my teacher, sought me out, put her hand on my shoulder, and told me how brave I was to stand in there and take that beating. How I needed those words and that gesture !! I learned much later that she had many advanced study hours in psychology and counseling. It didn't surprise me.

Miss Wade was never my teacher in grade school because she was moved to the high school faculty the same year I moved up the the 7th grade. I caught up with her in high school and she was my teacher in all my math classes and in typing (that one didn't take very well). General math was a breeze and Algebra I was fun because Ruth made it interesting and made us understand, and praised us when she saw the light come on during the explanation of some equation.

After Algebra I our Jr. year, she quietly approached four of us in whom she could see some promise, and asked us if we would be interested in an advanced algebra course. Four of us said yes, and so we had that course with only four students. She was on a roll and having fun teaching us and it was infectious as we certainly applied ourselves. It was the most intense and satisfying learning experience of my years at CVHS. She was a good disciplinarian who earned respect-- and got it-- from her students. I went on to study in two Universities and remedial math was never required for me.

Miss Wade became Mrs. Depew as she married a fine gentleman from Grenola, KS I expect she was well into her forties before marriage. I believe she continued teaching in the Grenola schools. Our lives and careers diverged as I was starting a veterinary practice, then moved to California to per sue my career for the next 37 years. In the early 90s Verne Sweaney, a lifelong friend, told me Ruth was in the Ark City Hospital with cancer in her abdomen and asked me if I would like to go and see her. I said YES INDEED. We found here in her room alone with an abdominal tumor which distended her belly. I know she was not in a comfort zone, but she was recognized us and was very happy we had come. We sat a visited with her for the better part of an hour. She was quite lucid and we reminisced and held her hands. She asked us to pray with her before we left and said goodby for the last time. I had leaky eyes then and now I have again as I remember Miss Wade.