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One-Room School
A nostalgic and evocative tour of old one-room schoolhouses recaptures the essence and charm of America's earliest schools, offering photographs and quotes from teachers and students from old times that realistically show the conditions of education in times past.
48 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1999
22 people want to read
About the author
Raymond Bial
120 books25 followersAuthor and photographer Raymond Bial (1948-2021) has been creating acclaimed books for children and adults for more than thirty years. His books have been published by Houghton Mifflin, Scholastic, Walker & Company, Marshall Cavendish, Crickhollow Books, and other fine publishers and university presses. Raymond also makes images on assignment, and his stock photographs have been used by book publishers such as National Geographic, advertising agencies such as Leo Burnett, and media such as PBS.
Raymond’s most recent books are Ellis Island: Coming to the Land of Liberty, which is an excellent companion volume to Tenement: Immigrant Life on the Lower East Side; The Shaker Village, a lovely collection of color photographs depicting the simplicity and grace of this remarkable utopian community; a lovely paperback edition of Where Lincoln Walked published in honor of the bicentennial of the birth of this great president; Dripping Blood Cave and Other Ghostly Stories, the third volume in a popular series of ghost stories for young readers; and Rescuing Rover: Saving America’s Dogs, which has been selected for the Junior Literary Guild Book Club. Rescuing Rover is currently receiving high praise across the country.
Chigger, his most recent novel, is receiving fine reviews from readers, young and old alike. Anyone who likes to root for the underdog will love this sweet story of an unforgettable girl.
Raymond’s most recent books are Ellis Island: Coming to the Land of Liberty, which is an excellent companion volume to Tenement: Immigrant Life on the Lower East Side; The Shaker Village, a lovely collection of color photographs depicting the simplicity and grace of this remarkable utopian community; a lovely paperback edition of Where Lincoln Walked published in honor of the bicentennial of the birth of this great president; Dripping Blood Cave and Other Ghostly Stories, the third volume in a popular series of ghost stories for young readers; and Rescuing Rover: Saving America’s Dogs, which has been selected for the Junior Literary Guild Book Club. Rescuing Rover is currently receiving high praise across the country.
Chigger, his most recent novel, is receiving fine reviews from readers, young and old alike. Anyone who likes to root for the underdog will love this sweet story of an unforgettable girl.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 11, 2019
I found this at my library's bookstore and was absolutely thrilled. I'm so glad the library took this out of their catalogue and sent it there because I LOVE this time period. The summary is utterly charming as it introduces us to the subject: "Plum Grove, Prairie Rose, Possum Hollow, Good Intent, and Apple Pie--for 250 years one-room schools with names like these helped teach children across America." I loved to hear that they're remote, made of logs, sod, wood, or stone, and that they were poorly heated and simply furnished with benches and the kids used slate pencils. So charming!
That opinion was reinforced when the first quote was from Laura Ingalls. Laura's friend told her it was almost time for the bell and they drank from a dipper in a water pail. They were tanned, windblown, hot and dusty. I love learning about life back then and Laura Ingalls is such a good source.
The picture showed a red and white school with the name Dry Creek School, with a bell tower on top and rope hanging down by the doorframe to ring it.
It's cool that one-room schoolhouses were all over the country from the east to the west.
"For nearly 250 years--from the 1700s to the 1950s--more than seven generations of children were educated in these little schools."
It's sad that only a few survived. They had desks, benches, and potbelly stoves, but that were sold at auction a long time ago. They had hand pumps, outhouses, and a ball field.
The names come from people loving places. Harmony. Apple Pie. Poison Spider. Bellyache School. Fairview. Buzzard Roost. Frog Pond.
At one time there were no schools in America. Colonial children from well-to-do families were taught at home. Others had no formal instruction. Subscription schools where parents paid an enrollment fee were started. Schoolmasters taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, but focused on religion and Latin.
By the 1830s public schools had mostly replaced private in the big cities in the East. But on the frontier, from Ohio to Oregon, homesteaders put up their own schoolhouses. They built log cabins in the woods, soddies and dugouts on the treeless prairies, and adobe buildings in the desert. Sessions lasted a few months a year. A traveling schoolmaster or local widow taught. They had few if any books. Students were called scholars and learned by reciting their lessons aloud in what came to be called "blab schools." They had rhymes to learn multiplication.
Log schools were made without nails because iron was scarce.
Abraham Lincoln and his sister walked 2 miles to school. He only went a few weeks at a time. He was the best speller and did all he writing for his family. He ciphered (solved math problems) on a wooden board, and then shaved the numbers off with a knife.
The schoolmaster taught at a desk by a fireplace and lit up by a candle. They had a bible and a switch to discipline unruly kids. There were puncheon benches, split logs with legs pegged in the underside. They were hard and uncomfortable, with no backrests, so students had to sit up straight all day.
By the mid-1800s schools were established in districts small enough that every kid would walk there. School board members were elected and decided the school's location at a county crossroads or donated acre of land by local farmer, usually in the center of the district. They started bulldog sturdy wood-frame, brick, or stone buildings. If the location was unsuitable the house could be placed on skids and pulled by a team of horses. Some schools were dugouts scraped out of a hillside.
People were devoted got suit school districts just like their farms and small businesses. They most often arranged for a skilled carpenter to make a wood-frame school building.
They had one room because they had to be managed by a single teacher. The sizes of the room were different but they were all small so the teacher's voice would carry. Most had a cloakroom at the entrance with hooks or nails for coats and hats and a shelf for lunch pails. A lower shelf had a washbasin with a bar of homemade soap and a cotton towel. There were blackboards and desks. The front row usually didn't have desktops; students sat there for recitation. Girls sat on one side and girls on the other. Those who misbehaved had to sit on the opposite side--"a punishment that sometimes backfired. One boy recalled being sent to the girls' side to sit right behind his beloved Martha." That is so cute!
The rugged farmers were often unschooled but respected education. A few communities neglected their schools and had rattletrap desks on warped floors and few supplies. Yet most board members managed their schools, and schools belonged to the whole community.
By the mid-1800s the school year was divided into summer and winter terms. Most farm boys who needed help with planting and harvesting at home attended only in winter, from mid-Nov to mid-April. After 1900 schools had one term for about 8mo.
Students enjoyed walking, riding on horseback over prairies, or taking a horse and buggy to school. They would see rabbits, muskrats, field mice, gophers, skunks, and wildflowers, and the woods. But they faced blizzards, tornadoes, thunderstorms, and rain. The weather was unpredictable. Boys might wear itchy woolen long underwear on a chilly Autumn morning only to have the day turn warm. It they forget their coats at home and an April snowstorm came in the afternoon.
Bell towers were expensive and many districts couldn't afford them. Teachers in a lot of schools would stand in the doorway or schoolyard and ring a hand bell.
School generally ran from 8-4. When the teacher dang the bell or pulled the rope on the bell tower the girls and boys formed 2 lines. They would stand by their desks, the teacher would greet them, and hey would start by saying the Pledge of Allegiance or singing The Star-Spangled Banner or My Country, 'Tis of Thee. Then they studied textbooks and wrote on slates. The teacher would walk around the room and check their progress and call small groups to the front of the room.
Ages ranged from 4-18. Teachers worked hard and prepared as any as 40 lesson plans for the 30 or more students who were grouped by their academic progress. Teachers had many helpers, older students who took price in tutoring younger classmates.
Potbelly stoves were fed with coal, split wood, or corn cobs. It was in the center or corner of the room so students froze in the corner or roasted near it.
There were usually 3 recesses: morning, noon, afternoon. Mid-morning kids would "turn out" for the outhouse and brief recess. It it was cold they would stay in but it it was a pretty day everyone wanted to be outside. At noon they had an hour for lunch and recess. They washed up for lunch. These were home-cooked meals toyed in metal buckets: sandwiches with cold sliced meat, dill pickles, hard-boiled eggs, or maybe a jar of potato salad. For dessert they might have a piece of homemade pie or chocolate cake in wax paper. There was often a lot of swapping food. Less fortunate students might have only 2 slices of bread smeared with lard as a sandwich. They had water from the well or nearby spring. They had to haul firewood or water back in the school and then they played. They washed up after playing.
The carpenter might also have been asked to make outhouses--one for girls and boys and maybe a woodshed to store fuel for the stove.
Few schools had a merry-go-round, slide, teeter-totter, or a fence. Most were just open fields. Many didn't even have a tree to cast shade. They played games of their own invention: London Bridge Is Falling Down, Ring Around the Rosy, Crack the Whip, Andy Over, Dare Base, Kick the Can, Drop the Handkerchief. Laura said boys played ante-over and catch, or threw the ball against the schoolhouse. In Hide-and-Seek, the one who was "it" counted to 100. They played baseball, marbles, chased rabbits, and gathered flowers. In winter they played Fox and Geese, skated on frozen ponds, build snowmen, slid down hills, and had snowballs fights. Hey could wander as far as they wanted and explore woods and creek as long as they could hear the bell. They sometimes fought but there was generally a feeling of family among the students of all ages and close friendships formed.
Students liked recess because they studied rigorously. Arithmetic, writing, spelling, penmanship, recitation, elocution, and religion. Grammar, literature, history, god graphs, physiology, hygiene.
Scholars in early schools used quill pens, inkwells, and blotting paper. They wrote on blank, unlined pages in copybooks, or on slates made of thin, hard rock. They used slate pencils and later soft chalk. They studied primers from 1760-1843. The McGuffey Reader was written in the 1830s and became the last influential set of books.
Most lessons were memorizations. They were required to learn a verse, new spelling words, presidents, state capitals and other facts every day. They would work at the blackboard, breaking down sentences and explaining part of speech and function of every word. They learned through drills, memory and recitation, so seldom had difficulty moving to high schools because they knew the basic subjects. Teachers often had students go to the board to see who could solve problems first to liven up the day. Kids liked the competition. They would also have students solve problems in their heads, adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing.
The boards were pine boards painted with a mixture of egg white and carbon from charred potatoes. They wrote with lumps of chalk called crayons and wiped the board with rags. When slate chalkboards were made teachers used cylinders of chalk and felt erasers. Kids wiped down the board and clapped erasers together in the yard.
On Friday afternoons there were spelldowns, where they stood in a line and spelled out the words they'd memorized. If a student missed a word and the next person got it, they would move ahead in line. The person at the head of the line when time ran out would receive the "head mark" for the day. Many proudly remembered the # they won over the years.
Discipline was enforced and teachers were quick to do so. Parents supported this and were disgraced if their child misbehaved. They used hickory switches and dunce caps. Some students said switched were used at the slightest infraction. But if they were treated justly, they respected their teacher and the necessity of discipline for growth. They were disciplined at home too. On farms cows had to be milked, crops needed tending, eggs collecting, and livestock fed. Kids carried work habits to their adult lives.
School lessons emphasized virtues like honesty, diligence, and good habits. McGuffey Reader had a verse against smoking. Inspirational sayings were displayed around the classroom. Like do your best, be kind and courteous, respect God and parents and teacher, get along with schoolmates, be quiet and don't disturb class.
Older boys who didn't want to be in school sometimes tried to get the teacher, who they saw as an enemy. They might smoke the teacher out by climbing the roof and blocking the chimney with a board. When the teacher left the smoky room they would hit him with snowballs or challenge a fistfight. Schools would often hire a male teacher during the winter to handle the older boys.
Students repeated every lesson many times over their education. They watched older students work math problems and later studied it themselves.
Teaching was one of the few respectable jobs for women. Women weren't allowed to teach after they married. Many were as young as 16. They knew what to do when danger threatened, weather or animals. One killed a rattlesnake that a prankster put in her desk drawer.
The smoke in the chimney tempted vengeful older boys who wanted to get even after an unfair or embarrassing punishment.
Teachers were paid very little and had to perform other duties, like lugging coal in buckets and keeping the fire burning. They maintained the building and treated sick or injured kids. They swept, mopped, and wiped down boards. They carried water and hauled firewood, and had to get the fire going before school. Wise teachers incorporated some manual work into the program.
In the 1870s there were rules for teachers. They had to fill lamps and clean chimneys, make pens. If they married or engaged in unseemly conduct they were dismissed. "Any teacher who smokes, uses liquor in any form, frequents pool or public halls, or gets shaved in a barber shop will give good reason to suspect his worth, intention, integrity, and honesty."
A pic showed branches stood up with many more small limbs places on top like a roof and sides in a temporary school. These were common in the Southwest esp in Texas and Oklahoma until a permanent one could be built.
Teachers worked with immigrants who spoke little or no English. Kids encountered ridicule. Some were cursed at, and fought with.
After 8th grade students had to pass a rigorous examination. Graduation was a major occasion like marriage.
The school was the gathering place. Public spelldowns were held there, and school events for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. Spring and fall programs usually had a box social, pie supper, often as a fundraiser. There might be special events for Valentine's Day, Washington's, Lincoln's birthdays, Arbor Day, Memorial Day, Parents' Day, and May Day. Everyone rushed home to finish chores and change into fresh clothes and hurry back. The end-of-year picnic had sack races, horseshoe-throwing contests and recognition of 8th grade students. Casseroles, vegetable dishes, and so many recipes for potato salad were put on tables. Pickles, preserves, pies, cakes, and cookies.
Most schools weren't red, or even painted until after 1870 when linseed oil and pigment became more economical. Most were then painted white.
Public meetings, debates, poetry readings, lectures, and music recitals for "personal improvement" were held there. Politicians made speeches and ppl cast ballots in local, state, and national elections.
After 1900 patriotism was even more important and some schools raised a flag every morning.
Ppl criticized country schools for teachers being underpaid, lack of books, plain, and simply furnished. At the end of the 1800s they were being pressured to consolidate into larger regional schools. Many rural people saw it as the end of the community. They argued that students performed as well or better than students in city schools. In 1908 President Theo. Roosevelt formed a commission to improve rural life: better farming, business and living, and close one-room schools.
School closings meant the end of community and rural heritage. Ppl gathered sadly at auctions to buy desks, books, maps, globes, and mementos they, their children, and even grandchildren had used.
After WWII consolidation increased as more ppl moved to cities. It became common to see noticed of the public sale of schoolhouses in newspapers. The growth of cities and suburbs, and importance of standardized instruction and consolidation has almost wiped out country schools. Amish and German-speaking Hutterites formed their own schools that exist today.
There are still one-room schools mostly in Nebraska, and other states in the west, also in remote mountains of New England, on the islands off Maine, and in Washington state and Alaska. They deal with the weather. Teachers might have band radios instead of phones. They routinely stock extra supplies of food and water and take survival courses.
Schools were sometimes isolated, overcrowded, and poorly maintained. Teachers frequently left for better jobs in town. Schools often had stingy school boards that didn't pay to fix leaky roofs or buy new books.
It's interesting that modern schools draw inspiration from one-room schools, like the class size, peer tutoring, and learning centers. And the concept of levels based on academic progress is drawn from back then.
It's amazing that most one-room schools had a far better quality of education than current standards. I was surprised that they have so much to teach us and we can look to the past. The author really emphasized the fine education that millions of American kids received.
I really liked the inclusion of further reading about one-room schools and his sources.
I really enjoyed this book and am so glad I own this. I love learning about this way of life and there were so many details about they operated. I love nonfiction books for their invaluable information. I'm always seeking information that will help me when writing and this would go a long way towards helping me write stories with schools during this time period.
That opinion was reinforced when the first quote was from Laura Ingalls. Laura's friend told her it was almost time for the bell and they drank from a dipper in a water pail. They were tanned, windblown, hot and dusty. I love learning about life back then and Laura Ingalls is such a good source.
The picture showed a red and white school with the name Dry Creek School, with a bell tower on top and rope hanging down by the doorframe to ring it.
It's cool that one-room schoolhouses were all over the country from the east to the west.
"For nearly 250 years--from the 1700s to the 1950s--more than seven generations of children were educated in these little schools."
It's sad that only a few survived. They had desks, benches, and potbelly stoves, but that were sold at auction a long time ago. They had hand pumps, outhouses, and a ball field.
The names come from people loving places. Harmony. Apple Pie. Poison Spider. Bellyache School. Fairview. Buzzard Roost. Frog Pond.
At one time there were no schools in America. Colonial children from well-to-do families were taught at home. Others had no formal instruction. Subscription schools where parents paid an enrollment fee were started. Schoolmasters taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, but focused on religion and Latin.
By the 1830s public schools had mostly replaced private in the big cities in the East. But on the frontier, from Ohio to Oregon, homesteaders put up their own schoolhouses. They built log cabins in the woods, soddies and dugouts on the treeless prairies, and adobe buildings in the desert. Sessions lasted a few months a year. A traveling schoolmaster or local widow taught. They had few if any books. Students were called scholars and learned by reciting their lessons aloud in what came to be called "blab schools." They had rhymes to learn multiplication.
Log schools were made without nails because iron was scarce.
Abraham Lincoln and his sister walked 2 miles to school. He only went a few weeks at a time. He was the best speller and did all he writing for his family. He ciphered (solved math problems) on a wooden board, and then shaved the numbers off with a knife.
The schoolmaster taught at a desk by a fireplace and lit up by a candle. They had a bible and a switch to discipline unruly kids. There were puncheon benches, split logs with legs pegged in the underside. They were hard and uncomfortable, with no backrests, so students had to sit up straight all day.
By the mid-1800s schools were established in districts small enough that every kid would walk there. School board members were elected and decided the school's location at a county crossroads or donated acre of land by local farmer, usually in the center of the district. They started bulldog sturdy wood-frame, brick, or stone buildings. If the location was unsuitable the house could be placed on skids and pulled by a team of horses. Some schools were dugouts scraped out of a hillside.
People were devoted got suit school districts just like their farms and small businesses. They most often arranged for a skilled carpenter to make a wood-frame school building.
They had one room because they had to be managed by a single teacher. The sizes of the room were different but they were all small so the teacher's voice would carry. Most had a cloakroom at the entrance with hooks or nails for coats and hats and a shelf for lunch pails. A lower shelf had a washbasin with a bar of homemade soap and a cotton towel. There were blackboards and desks. The front row usually didn't have desktops; students sat there for recitation. Girls sat on one side and girls on the other. Those who misbehaved had to sit on the opposite side--"a punishment that sometimes backfired. One boy recalled being sent to the girls' side to sit right behind his beloved Martha." That is so cute!
The rugged farmers were often unschooled but respected education. A few communities neglected their schools and had rattletrap desks on warped floors and few supplies. Yet most board members managed their schools, and schools belonged to the whole community.
By the mid-1800s the school year was divided into summer and winter terms. Most farm boys who needed help with planting and harvesting at home attended only in winter, from mid-Nov to mid-April. After 1900 schools had one term for about 8mo.
Students enjoyed walking, riding on horseback over prairies, or taking a horse and buggy to school. They would see rabbits, muskrats, field mice, gophers, skunks, and wildflowers, and the woods. But they faced blizzards, tornadoes, thunderstorms, and rain. The weather was unpredictable. Boys might wear itchy woolen long underwear on a chilly Autumn morning only to have the day turn warm. It they forget their coats at home and an April snowstorm came in the afternoon.
Bell towers were expensive and many districts couldn't afford them. Teachers in a lot of schools would stand in the doorway or schoolyard and ring a hand bell.
School generally ran from 8-4. When the teacher dang the bell or pulled the rope on the bell tower the girls and boys formed 2 lines. They would stand by their desks, the teacher would greet them, and hey would start by saying the Pledge of Allegiance or singing The Star-Spangled Banner or My Country, 'Tis of Thee. Then they studied textbooks and wrote on slates. The teacher would walk around the room and check their progress and call small groups to the front of the room.
Ages ranged from 4-18. Teachers worked hard and prepared as any as 40 lesson plans for the 30 or more students who were grouped by their academic progress. Teachers had many helpers, older students who took price in tutoring younger classmates.
Potbelly stoves were fed with coal, split wood, or corn cobs. It was in the center or corner of the room so students froze in the corner or roasted near it.
There were usually 3 recesses: morning, noon, afternoon. Mid-morning kids would "turn out" for the outhouse and brief recess. It it was cold they would stay in but it it was a pretty day everyone wanted to be outside. At noon they had an hour for lunch and recess. They washed up for lunch. These were home-cooked meals toyed in metal buckets: sandwiches with cold sliced meat, dill pickles, hard-boiled eggs, or maybe a jar of potato salad. For dessert they might have a piece of homemade pie or chocolate cake in wax paper. There was often a lot of swapping food. Less fortunate students might have only 2 slices of bread smeared with lard as a sandwich. They had water from the well or nearby spring. They had to haul firewood or water back in the school and then they played. They washed up after playing.
The carpenter might also have been asked to make outhouses--one for girls and boys and maybe a woodshed to store fuel for the stove.
Few schools had a merry-go-round, slide, teeter-totter, or a fence. Most were just open fields. Many didn't even have a tree to cast shade. They played games of their own invention: London Bridge Is Falling Down, Ring Around the Rosy, Crack the Whip, Andy Over, Dare Base, Kick the Can, Drop the Handkerchief. Laura said boys played ante-over and catch, or threw the ball against the schoolhouse. In Hide-and-Seek, the one who was "it" counted to 100. They played baseball, marbles, chased rabbits, and gathered flowers. In winter they played Fox and Geese, skated on frozen ponds, build snowmen, slid down hills, and had snowballs fights. Hey could wander as far as they wanted and explore woods and creek as long as they could hear the bell. They sometimes fought but there was generally a feeling of family among the students of all ages and close friendships formed.
Students liked recess because they studied rigorously. Arithmetic, writing, spelling, penmanship, recitation, elocution, and religion. Grammar, literature, history, god graphs, physiology, hygiene.
Scholars in early schools used quill pens, inkwells, and blotting paper. They wrote on blank, unlined pages in copybooks, or on slates made of thin, hard rock. They used slate pencils and later soft chalk. They studied primers from 1760-1843. The McGuffey Reader was written in the 1830s and became the last influential set of books.
Most lessons were memorizations. They were required to learn a verse, new spelling words, presidents, state capitals and other facts every day. They would work at the blackboard, breaking down sentences and explaining part of speech and function of every word. They learned through drills, memory and recitation, so seldom had difficulty moving to high schools because they knew the basic subjects. Teachers often had students go to the board to see who could solve problems first to liven up the day. Kids liked the competition. They would also have students solve problems in their heads, adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing.
The boards were pine boards painted with a mixture of egg white and carbon from charred potatoes. They wrote with lumps of chalk called crayons and wiped the board with rags. When slate chalkboards were made teachers used cylinders of chalk and felt erasers. Kids wiped down the board and clapped erasers together in the yard.
On Friday afternoons there were spelldowns, where they stood in a line and spelled out the words they'd memorized. If a student missed a word and the next person got it, they would move ahead in line. The person at the head of the line when time ran out would receive the "head mark" for the day. Many proudly remembered the # they won over the years.
Discipline was enforced and teachers were quick to do so. Parents supported this and were disgraced if their child misbehaved. They used hickory switches and dunce caps. Some students said switched were used at the slightest infraction. But if they were treated justly, they respected their teacher and the necessity of discipline for growth. They were disciplined at home too. On farms cows had to be milked, crops needed tending, eggs collecting, and livestock fed. Kids carried work habits to their adult lives.
School lessons emphasized virtues like honesty, diligence, and good habits. McGuffey Reader had a verse against smoking. Inspirational sayings were displayed around the classroom. Like do your best, be kind and courteous, respect God and parents and teacher, get along with schoolmates, be quiet and don't disturb class.
Older boys who didn't want to be in school sometimes tried to get the teacher, who they saw as an enemy. They might smoke the teacher out by climbing the roof and blocking the chimney with a board. When the teacher left the smoky room they would hit him with snowballs or challenge a fistfight. Schools would often hire a male teacher during the winter to handle the older boys.
Students repeated every lesson many times over their education. They watched older students work math problems and later studied it themselves.
Teaching was one of the few respectable jobs for women. Women weren't allowed to teach after they married. Many were as young as 16. They knew what to do when danger threatened, weather or animals. One killed a rattlesnake that a prankster put in her desk drawer.
The smoke in the chimney tempted vengeful older boys who wanted to get even after an unfair or embarrassing punishment.
Teachers were paid very little and had to perform other duties, like lugging coal in buckets and keeping the fire burning. They maintained the building and treated sick or injured kids. They swept, mopped, and wiped down boards. They carried water and hauled firewood, and had to get the fire going before school. Wise teachers incorporated some manual work into the program.
In the 1870s there were rules for teachers. They had to fill lamps and clean chimneys, make pens. If they married or engaged in unseemly conduct they were dismissed. "Any teacher who smokes, uses liquor in any form, frequents pool or public halls, or gets shaved in a barber shop will give good reason to suspect his worth, intention, integrity, and honesty."
A pic showed branches stood up with many more small limbs places on top like a roof and sides in a temporary school. These were common in the Southwest esp in Texas and Oklahoma until a permanent one could be built.
Teachers worked with immigrants who spoke little or no English. Kids encountered ridicule. Some were cursed at, and fought with.
After 8th grade students had to pass a rigorous examination. Graduation was a major occasion like marriage.
The school was the gathering place. Public spelldowns were held there, and school events for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. Spring and fall programs usually had a box social, pie supper, often as a fundraiser. There might be special events for Valentine's Day, Washington's, Lincoln's birthdays, Arbor Day, Memorial Day, Parents' Day, and May Day. Everyone rushed home to finish chores and change into fresh clothes and hurry back. The end-of-year picnic had sack races, horseshoe-throwing contests and recognition of 8th grade students. Casseroles, vegetable dishes, and so many recipes for potato salad were put on tables. Pickles, preserves, pies, cakes, and cookies.
Most schools weren't red, or even painted until after 1870 when linseed oil and pigment became more economical. Most were then painted white.
Public meetings, debates, poetry readings, lectures, and music recitals for "personal improvement" were held there. Politicians made speeches and ppl cast ballots in local, state, and national elections.
After 1900 patriotism was even more important and some schools raised a flag every morning.
Ppl criticized country schools for teachers being underpaid, lack of books, plain, and simply furnished. At the end of the 1800s they were being pressured to consolidate into larger regional schools. Many rural people saw it as the end of the community. They argued that students performed as well or better than students in city schools. In 1908 President Theo. Roosevelt formed a commission to improve rural life: better farming, business and living, and close one-room schools.
School closings meant the end of community and rural heritage. Ppl gathered sadly at auctions to buy desks, books, maps, globes, and mementos they, their children, and even grandchildren had used.
After WWII consolidation increased as more ppl moved to cities. It became common to see noticed of the public sale of schoolhouses in newspapers. The growth of cities and suburbs, and importance of standardized instruction and consolidation has almost wiped out country schools. Amish and German-speaking Hutterites formed their own schools that exist today.
There are still one-room schools mostly in Nebraska, and other states in the west, also in remote mountains of New England, on the islands off Maine, and in Washington state and Alaska. They deal with the weather. Teachers might have band radios instead of phones. They routinely stock extra supplies of food and water and take survival courses.
Schools were sometimes isolated, overcrowded, and poorly maintained. Teachers frequently left for better jobs in town. Schools often had stingy school boards that didn't pay to fix leaky roofs or buy new books.
It's interesting that modern schools draw inspiration from one-room schools, like the class size, peer tutoring, and learning centers. And the concept of levels based on academic progress is drawn from back then.
It's amazing that most one-room schools had a far better quality of education than current standards. I was surprised that they have so much to teach us and we can look to the past. The author really emphasized the fine education that millions of American kids received.
I really liked the inclusion of further reading about one-room schools and his sources.
I really enjoyed this book and am so glad I own this. I love learning about this way of life and there were so many details about they operated. I love nonfiction books for their invaluable information. I'm always seeking information that will help me when writing and this would go a long way towards helping me write stories with schools during this time period.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 14, 2014
The primitive school schools were one room. They were made out of logs, sod, adobe, dugouts, and wood framed. The class would be separated boys on one side and girls on the other. Many school had bell towers outside, stoves for heating, and outhouses for restrooms. Students had copy books and slate to write on in class. Teachers punished students with dunes hats and switches. This is an awesome book to show kids about how much schools have changed.
February 21, 2014
I believe that this is a great picture book so that students can learn about how schools were back then. This book in particular held my interest because I had visited a one room school house when I was in elementary school and I think this book teaches enough about one room school houses to spark an interest in students if you ever wanted to take them on a field trip.
April 11, 2013
Fascinating book about the history of one-room schoolhouses in our country. Written at older teen to adult level; however, with the pictures and story, it could still be interesting to read to your kids.
February 5, 2015
This book is a great one to help student's understand more about the early history of education in America. I loved the pictures and the information was great as well! I will use this book when I teach.
August 27, 2008
This is a great coffee table book that has just the right amount of information and great pictures. The author really knows her stuff and she explains it in an easy way to understand.
February 3, 2012
I really enjoyed this book! Great read for advanced middle readers or adult new learners.
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