Bio: Clouse, Charlene (Exchange Teacher - 1974)

Contact: Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon
E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Clouse, Shirley

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI) /1974

Clouse, Charlene (Exchange Teacher -1974)

Charlene Clouse, a 1965 graduate of the Loyal High School wasn’t named “most likely to travel” but she has. Her college education was earned at Spring Arbor College, Spring Arbor, Mi. Then she entered the teaching profession and had taught at Longmont, Co.

While at Longmont, she learned about the International Educational and Cultural Exchange Program. A long wait followed her application before she received the name of her exchange in England.

At that time Catherine Shirley, Berinsfield, Oxfordshire, England, had not been notified but the two began corresponding anyway. After a full year of exchange teaching plus some travel, the two met at parental home of Miss Clouse during the past week. This was an added adventure for Miss Shirley to see the dairy farm of Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Clouse on Rt. 2 Loyal. In addition, Clouse is a dealer in farm equipment and he took them to see the excitement of Farm Progress Days at Stratford.

The Longmont Estates school, where Miss Clouse will be returning this fall, was as different as the country primary school where Miss Shirley will again be teaching.

The country primary school has some 700 pupils in three sections of the nursery for those below five years of age; the infant section for the five to seven-year old’s and the junior section for up to 11 years old. There are nine other teachers teaching in the infant section. Here, Miss Clouse had a sampling of learning the British vocabulary. Maybe mashed potato sandwiches are good in a comic strip but Miss Clouse said, “We had beans on toast in the school lunchroom!” Living like the people of the community she rode the rail or the tube in her travels.

Miss Shirley didn’t fare so well with the money end of the bargain but she didn’t go on strike. She was paid the same here as she would have in Berinsfield which is $2,000 plus a living grant which brings it up to $4,500 to $5,000 but, she said, “Salary varies each month with the value of the pound.” That way she never knew what her check would amount to each time.

At Longmont Estates, Miss Shirley had the kindergarten. Unlike in Oxfordshire, here the schools are less child oriented. The holidays and the semester break were not quite like the three 12-week terms in the County Primary school. Although getting out June 7 gave Miss Shirley the opportunity to spend a month raveling the west coast with her mother, Mrs. Edmund (Kitty) Shirley. She had seen much of the states on the telly (TV) but the real travel was more exciting.

Miss Clouse traveled on the mainland (part of the time in a rented car) and also on the British Isles before returning to the states. The preservation of buildings in Oxfordshire and on the European continent made a great impression upon Miss Clouse. “Thatched roofs were in the best of repair,” she said.

Educational backgrounds are different in England, too. There one must have a certain number of “A” levels earned to be able to enter college. The “O” level at the age of 16 is about the same as beginning college here. The three-year certificate course for teachers is paid by the government. Many teachers are able to teach a foreign language to the seven-year old’s and up where schools have it in their curriculum.

After touring around Wisconsin together, Miss Shirley left Friday for her return to England. Although having seen each other for only a few days but after corresponding with each other and “walking in each-others shoes,” so to say, they had shared more than a year’s friendship as exchange teachers.