The Almaden Country School Oral History Project
Complete Interview with Jean Delwiche
January 19, 2007

Interviewed by Caitlin Conlin and Jillian Marquard

What was your first impression of Almaden Country School?

Well my first impression was there wasn’t any Almaden Country School. I was in another school where Mrs. Hunter had some of her children and she talked to me about the idea of starting a school. And so I became involved with it and we chose some curriculum materials and eventually she found a site, a school site and it wasn’t called Almaden Country School it was the Country School of Almaden. So my first impression was an empty building that we had to get ready to become a school. We ran around to sales of furniture. We found, through the school district, desks that needed to be cleaned and scrubbed, and classrooms that needed to be cleaned and scrubbed, so my first impression was a very empty building, it was little bit grubby and we had to clean it up to get ready for children to come to school. That was the first impression, and that it was going to be a very different place for students to come to and learn. It wasn’t going to be a big school. It was going to be a small school to start with. Those were my very first impressions.

Have you been at any other schools and where?

I started out my teaching career back in 1971 in England. I was in three different schools there, and had students from, started with eleven year olds and then went all the way down to kindergarten and all the way back. I was in those schools and then I moved to the United States and I taught first out in the Evergreen School District, had a third grade there. Then I moved from there to a private school where I also had a third grade class and that was before coming here, so yes.

How has Country School changed over the years?

Oh, it has changed tremendously.  When we began as a small school and actually I meant to bring in the little apron that all the staff, all teachers, wore a little blue and white checkered apron the first day of school, and we had that that they wore in class.  The girls wore little blue and white frilly dresses with little red bows at the collar.  Our uniforms when we first started here, the sweaters were hand knit by a lady called Nancy Wallace.  Our population in school was about one hundred and seventy-five, probably a little less than half of what it is now, about half of what is now. Our buildings, our classrooms had folding walls, they didn’t have permanent walls in them.  We didn’t have all the portable buildings here.  We eventually built walls and as the population grew put on portable buildings but the philosophy of the school stayed the same.   That didn’t change that children would come in here and have the gift of learning.  They would feel worthwhile about what they were doing.  We would offer a wide variety of things for children to do.  That didn’t change but the building changed and the uniform changed and, of course, students changed as they went through.  So big changes.

How long were you at Almaden Country School?

Twenty-four years.  I came in 1982 getting ready to open school in September and then retired from Country School this past year in 2006.  Twenty-four great years.

What was your first position at Almaden Country School?

I had a double position when I first came in I was a fourth grade homeroom teacher and we separated out the subjects and I taught math and social studies and my co-teacher taught the English classes and I also taught science to grades 4th through 6th.  We only went to 6th grade and so I was the science teacher and the 4th grade teacher.

What year did you become principal?

I became the principal in the 86-87 school year.

What were some of the memorable moments at ACS?

Memorable moments at ACS.  There’s been many memorable moments.  Let’s see, our very first graduating class. Our very first graduating class was very momentous in that we only had one girl, we had eleven students , ten boys, one girl.  [There have been] many memorable field trips to a variety of places.  We used to take field trips with our classes to Ashland in Oregon, to the Shakespeare Festival.  I enjoyed that.  I took many classes to Asilomar for a little marine biology that we enjoyed.  One of my great memories was when at the end of the year we used to have a school Olympic Day and we had all kinds of events out on the field.  There was always a tug of war with eighth grade and the faculty.  I think that a really fun time was when the eighth graders, the graduating class got hold of me after that and covered me in shaving cream all over, rubbed it in my hair, covered all of my clothes with it, and I was not able to get in my car and drive home, that was very memorable.  We’ve had memorable moments where we’ve had faculty, teachers that have had babies.  I remember Caitlin here as Mrs. Conlin’s baby and the Marquard triplets, great family events that have gone on.  I think some of my favorite memories are all the Thanksgiving feasts we’ve had, that’s always been a big favorite of mine, some of our really fun things.   We’ve had some sad times here as well.  I think it’s been memorable that we’ve made a lot of friendships along the way.

Why did you choose ACS instead of any other schools?

Why did I choose it?  Well, I’m not sure I chose it.  I think Mrs. Hunter talked me into it.  It took her a while to convince me that this was going to be something that would really work.   She just kept asking and I came and once I got here I knew that it was a great place.  It was very different than other schools that I’d been in.  I had the opportunity to teach the way I wanted to teach and really see students enjoy their time at school and discovered some great hands-on ways to have students learn and so there was no where else to go, I wouldn’t move to another school from here, because ACS was just a great place to be.