Another way to put it, "The BIS - not all discipline, paddling or work." YES, there were times when the teenage boys pushed the limits and had to be reminded why they were at the BIS (or FSB) and that reminder came in various forms. For years there was a leather strap (with a wooden handle) that was used as an application of "the board of education" and sometimes simple removal of the good things or times was punishment enough. The following comments have been gleaned from our correspondence with former BIS boys during the past two years up to the Summer of 2010.

One former resident wrote, "I could never honestly, say that I recall being on the Hill, like some boys recall, going on a "Scouting" retreat. It was far from camp fire songs  and dunking apples. Nevertheless, in my particular case, it did the trick, so to speak."

Another former resident regarded his stay at the BIS with these words: "I was at the hill around 1953.. No sooner than I got there I ran off, only to be caught soon after. Then they beat my ass with a long strap fixed to a wood handle. Through the years I repeated this. Once leaving the hill I ended up in Mansfield, left [the BIS] when I turned 21. In and out of prison for many years. I now live in Alabama. I've been out of prison for 30 yrs. I became self employed as a painter. Did very well."

Another boy, now 67 years old, from the current days and looking back at his days at the BIS. "I am a retired captain and pilot on the Great Lakes. Some of the boys I tried to keep in contact with were doing good, others not quite as good. They had forgotten what we were taught while on the hill."

THESE PICTURES SHOW A VARIETY OF ACTIVITIES

Three boys all "dressed up in Sunday clothes" or visitation day.

Two residents of the Fairfield School for Boys who were WINNERS at the popular Derby Downs July 24, 1975.

DERBY DOWNS was just down the road where kids from all over got to see how good they could build a soap box derby. Soap boxes they did not resemble---that was a hang-over from the long-gone days when orange crates were transformed into the predecessor of skate boards. Old roller skates were fastened to a discarded wooden crate (in which oranges were shipped to stores). The brick streets at the BIS didn't make very smooth running for skates or skate scooters and when the official Derby Downs season came along it was common to find several boys involved.

SPIT & POLISH --- Yes, there was plenty of that. Discipline, the military style, was also common. Boys lined up, marched (sometimes with a vocal cadence) to the cafeteria or work.

Here is a cadence recalled by Larry Berens, a former employee of the BIS; he said he'd heard this called out thousands of times by the boys marching to their dinner or work details.

Nothing really beats the military way to teach a boy how to "stand up and pay attention" like being dressed up, yes as that old song says, "There's something about a soldier..." Even the "plain clothes" dude looked like he had to stand tall too.

The Boys Industrial School was called the "BIS" for 80 years, until 1964, when it was renamed The Fairfield School for Boys from 1965 till it closed in 1979, was not a Sunday school picnic nor was it always fun but whenever an atmosphere of casual fun could be created, the institution did not short change their wards. Many of the young men who were at the FSB might never have a chance to build a soap box derby car or join the Boy Scouts or get involved in sports but the institution recognized the importance of such activities and as a state organization they got the boys outfitted as good as the common community boys in town. Uniforms and sport [game] clothes were probably better than a lot of outfits the boys in town could afford (remember, the state was paying the bill--with taxes, of course).

In reality, there were high school graduation diplomas awarded to any boy who were there during grade school or high school years. During the years of 1969, 1970 and 1971 FSB students actually got to publish a school annual just like any other high school Regretfully such a publication simply involved a lot of time and effort that was difficult to continue. They even had "school dances" --

yes, they invited the girls from the reform school for girls! You can imagine what kind of chaperoning that required but the boys and girls had fun (just like their counterparts) in any city in Ohio.

Here are some comments from David Shiltz, a former teacher at the FSB. These words may sound staid or even sterile to some but they do set forth some principles and precepts the boys often either did not accept, chose not to recognize or hopefully would get the drift and make sufficient progress to graduate from the FSB school.

"Our existential philosophy of education requires us to encourage the student to a commitment to himself, to the ideal within him, or to the ideal from beyond him. The individual defines himself or. chooses what he becomes. If the student is to discover himself, then he has to understand the influences that have played upon him directly and indirectly. He must understand choices and commitments of others that have impinged upon him. He must become aware of choices that he has made, and he must become aware of possibilities for becoming through new commitments. The teacher as an integrated person is committed to ideals. He is a living witness to this commitment as he works with the students placed in his care."

These principles apply to both the student (boys in this case) and the teachers hired by the State of Ohio. As witnessed in the comments from former residents, some learned how to stay within boundaries and some simply failed to grasp "the message" and they often went back to FSB and even unfortunately graduated to higher levels of crime. You could only do so much, as a teacher, and one of the real concerns of some teachers was "Will we have the boy long enough to do him some good?"

The BIS - Not all spit & polish
Copyrighted 2010, Bill & Jean Venrick
Lancaster, Ohio

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Another article will be forthcoming about the regular school system with two elementary grade schools as well as a high school. THE WORDWRIGHT