52 ANCESTORS 52 WEEKS

                                                                             EDUCATION    

I have not found any special occupations that required additional education in my family tree.  Most had some schooling.  Not until the 20th century did I find people finishing high school.

My mother, Ruth Moore Mathews, born in 1919 lived in Brooklyn, NY and went to Catholic school from 1st to 12th grade.  This was very common for Catholics during the 1920’s up to 1960’s.  Brooklyn had a school connected with every parish church.   Ruth went to St. Edmunds for elementary school and graduated the 8th grade in 1933.  Above is the graduation photo.  Ruth is 4th from the right in the front row.

At the time Ruth was going to school, a lot of the High Schools were for just girls or just boys.  Ruth went to St. Brendans all girls High School until she graduated in 1937.  Ruth decided not to go to college and went right into the work force.  Her father, John N. Moore, worked at the Paine Webber Brokerage Firm on Wall Street and probably was instrumental in getting Ruth to work there as a Clerk and later on in communications as a telephone operator.

I am sure all the skills she learned during high school prepared her for working with the public.  They were taught all the regular subjects, English, Math and Sciences but they were also taught manners, deportment, ethics and religion.