To the Editor:

Editor’s note: Clarkson University’s downtown Congdon Hall and Snell Hall buildings will be redeveloped into housing and other facilities. Snell will be renovated for “attractive professional housing” on the third and fourth floors to help employers recruit professional staff to the area, including 11 “loft-style” units. In Congdon, which sits behind Snell to the east, plans call for an “apartment community" with fitness center, laundry facilities and common spaces.

Going to the Congdon Campus School on Main Street in the 1950s was something special. It was a laboratory for teachers in the making. Not only did we have one teacher--there were usually 2 more (most likely women)-- student teachers from Potsdam State Teachers’ College. We had student teachers year-round assisting our primary teacher.

If you were lucky enough your classroom had a mirrored back wall that was really glass and allowed undetected observation of the class. Behind the glass there were two rows of chairs. There were also microphones hanging from the ceiling. This was the set up in my 6th grade class. Our teacher was Miss Salati.

There was plenty of physical as well as academic instruction at the Campus School. We played kickball and dodge ball outside in a fenced in asphalt playground in the nice weather and inside in the gym the rest (majority) of the year. We had to line up and go downstairs to get to the gym and we loved to occasionally pick a piece of clear rock salt to suck on from a pail on one of the landings.

In the classroom we practiced our reading with the “Weekly Reader” newsletter and received a prize for the most books read during the year. This honor was usually bestowed at the end of the year picnic on the lawn in front of Snell Hall. As an aside--I remember learning to read “Dick and Jane” books in first grade with my teacher Mrs. Lavigne. Two of our reading groups were named the “Slow Turtles” and the “Speedy Rabbits.” So much for enlightened education.

At some point the Campus School was so crowded (with the most populous generation ever) our classroom was moved to adjoining Snell Hall. I was thrilled as I would pass my Dad (a humanities professor) in the hallway now and then.

It was there in the Snell Hall gym where we first lined up to receive the new wonder drug—polio vaccine—buried in a sugar cube. Polio was a dreaded crippling disease and many parents kept their children away from crowds at pools or movies mostly during the warm summer months.

It was also in Snell Hall—the auditorium—where we had the end of year “Sing Along” concert for our parents and guests.

We also had occasional field trips while in grade school. Today kids go to the Boston Aquarium or the World Trade Center Memorial. Our 3rd grade class went to the dairy on outer Pierrepont to watch the cows being milked. Then we were treated to an ice cream cone at their dairy bar. Another field trip was to the Potsdam Museum inside the Civic Center complex. The primary purpose was to learn about Thatcher, a famous Potsdam resident and druggist, responsible for the invention of the milk bottle. Funny but I don’t recall being bored looking at rows and rows of milk bottles. Another field trip I recall was to a wood working factory on a corner of Market Street where they made wooden bowls and utensils. These field trips were looked forward to with great enthusiasm.

That was the 1950s in Potsdam with all its innocence and simplicity. As I look back on it, I realize the quality of education at the Congdon Campus School was top notch.

It gave me the foundation I needed to launch out into the adult world prepared for whatever came my way.

Sandra Paige Sorell

Delmar