REGION 15 TEACHER REFLECTS ON HER RELATIONSHIP WITH BULLET HILL SCHOOL

  Southbury’s historic Bullet Hill School is rightly proud of its Living Museum Program, a unique learning resource that supplements the history curriculum of Region 15, serving Middlebury and Southbury, and that of other school districts. However, one teacher in the District has a strong connection to this Living Museum as her family tree is deeply rooted at the school.

  Each year, Mrs. Jane White, a third grade teacher at Long Meadow Elementary School in Middlebury, has served as the schoolmarm during her class’s visits to Bullet Hill School. Mrs. White stands at the head of the one-room schoolhouse, reenacting early American academic practices from appropriate subject matter to proper 19^th century decorum. On this day, she does so as she honors a school teacher very dear to her from many years ago.

  Mrs. White’s maternal grandmother, Gertrude Hand Hine, taught at Bullet Hill School as a young lady in the early 1900s, prior to her marriage to Southbury-native, Elliott Wheeler Hine.

  When Miss Hand came to Southbury, she boarded at a home across the street from the school. This house, as it turned out, was the boyhood home of her future husband. They soon married at St. Peter’s Church in Danbury.

  “According to the rules of the time, once a teacher married, the woman was no longer allowed to teach,” said Mrs. White.

  The young couple raised a family of four boys and four girls, one of whom is Mrs. White’s mother who also attended the Bullet Hill School prior to its closing in 1941.

  “It’s an honor knowing that my grandmother stood on the same ground where I’m standing today,” said Mrs. White. “Because of this, a special part of my teaching is bringing my students here every year.”

  She reflects upon her visit to Bullet Hill School with the memory of her grandmother close to her heart.

  “Today, I’m wearing my grandmother’s heart necklace with her initials engraved onto it,” said Mrs. White. “She gave it to a friend who, in turn, gave it to me. It signifies for me a real connection to this town, this school, and to teaching.”