Fearless and Determined: Two Years Teaching in a One-Room School

by Linda Hutsell-Manning

Part memoir, part creative non-fiction, Fearless and Determined, takes you back to life in rural southern Ontario in the mid 1960s. With one year’s training at Toronto Teacher’s College and no curriculum resources except a list of subjects, Linda Hutsell-Manning created and taught courses for eight grades. Built in 1860, the school had seen better days and resembled many one-room schools across Canada. With a wood stove, two pit toilets, a cold water tap, and no storm windows, many students experienced their entire elementary school education here. Linda’s memoir traverses the Kennedy assassination, the Beatles craze and small pox shots. She worked ten-hour days and made on-the-spot decisions as teacher and principal. “Circumstance gave me this opportunity; time has deemed it to be one of the most challenging and great experiences of my life,” says Linda.

195 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 1, 2019

About the author

Recently published:
- a picture book for cat lovers of all ages, Finding Moufette, Pandamonium Publishers, Oct 2023
- a surreal, feminist novella, Heads I Win Tails You Lose, AOS Publishers, March 2024

A poem, Quadruple Bypass Aftermath, is in the April 2023 Pinhole Poetry https://pinholepoetry.ca/current-issue/

My memoir, Fearless and Determined: Two Years Teaching in a One Room School, blue Denim Press, Oct 2019 is selling well both in print, online and as an e-book. Available for online and in person readings.

Earlier publications include juvenile fiction, plays, poetry, short fiction & TV scripts. Experience includes free-lance journalist, Community College creative writing teacher, author reading series host, book promoter internationally.

Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, lived in Ontario since age nine. After Ryerson Poly-technical Institute & Toronto Teachers’ College, she taught for two years in a southern Ontario one room school. B.A. from the University of Guelph and began writing full time in 1981. 11 published children's books including the Wonder Horn time travel series; literary novel, That Summer in Franklin, Second Story Press,2011; novella, Heads I Win, shortlisted in Quattro Books 2014 novella competition; two act comedy, A Certain Singing Teacher, premiered, 2017.

Reviews

[Ronald Mackay · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good book is an amalgam of how well the author has written about her topic on the one hand and the extent her story resonates within the reader on the other. Linda Hutsell-Manning’s “Two Years Teaching in a One-Room School” demonstrates the commendable advantages of being well focused, well and clearly written and highly interesting, as well as the power and talent to raise in readers fondness for their schooldays whether enjoyed in in a single room or not.

These qualities alone make Fearless and Determined a good book, but there are more.

Any mention of the one-room school in Ontario, another Canadian province or in any country around the world is invariably accompanied by a certain wistfulness and romanticism. Admirably, Linda Hutsell-Manning’s book goes a long way to explaining why this is so without falling into the tempting trap of nostalgia.

The author adroitly avoids sentimentalism by recounting her memories and her stories at two levels that complement one another in a seamless bond. Her stories are told with a directness and a vivacity that brings us right into the heart of the classroom, at one with her and her 30 students.
She tells of pit-toilets, a wood stove, a cold-water tap, a pencil sharpener and, of course, desks, a book-case and slate blackboard. From her stories we learn of respect and resourcefulness, cooperation among students, willing collaboration with the teacher, obedience and contrition, of struggling and striving, warmth and laughter. We read of the visit of the school nurse with her small-pox and polio vaccinations; of the student buddy-system of mentoring; the peripatetic music teacher; of discipline by the teacher being re-administered at home thus reinforcing justified respect for age and authority; of routines like the Lord’s Prayer and the National Anthem; of tests and exams, the Christmas concert, drama, play and duty.

Students absorb the virtues of truthfulness, cooperation, empathy, kindness, resourcefulness and respectful behavior. We learn of a simpler time before we were encouraged to claim rights while evading responsibilities and to take offence even when none is intended.

The author brings the wisdom of perspective to her memories, supplemented by the recollections and observations of former pupils. Without being didactic or even explicitly judgmental, she helps us sort out the virtues and advantages as well as the imperfections and the disadvantages of a form of schooling, of teaching and learning, that has all but passed into antiquity.

Occasionally we may compare Linda’s school with schools today and we are encouraged to ponder on what has been lost and what gained. Despite the author’s admirable balance, I found myself wondering about the direction in which contemporary schooling leads our young. Are politicians and the educational experts who set the zig-zag, hap-hazard course for our schools providing adequate reassurance that the future they seek will provide adequate compensation for that which was adequate in a past that has been so hastily cast off?

A book that makes us think is a good book indeed.

[Barb Nobel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I relished reading this book. I attended a one room school house in the 1950's - early 60's. Of course as a student I didn't understand what a huge work load the teacher had preparing lessons for 45 - 50 kids in eight different grades. It was only as an adult that I thought about it. The book is well written and the author was obviously sympathetic towards the students she taught, disciplined and mentored. I was particularly impressed by her efforts to prepare her older students to enter high school - a foreign world for them. If you have rural roots, or lived on a rural route, or even if you didn't, you will be entertained and informed by this book.

[Laurie Siblock · Rating 5 out of 5]

After picking up this book from an author event two weeks ago at the local indie bookseller, Let's Talk Books, in Cobourg, Ontario where the story takes place in the mid-60s, I dug into it right away, despite already having 12 other books on the go. It is a wonderful book and I've sped through it rapidly picking it up every moment I get. I'm now on the "Our Final Days" chapter and don't want it to end. I loved hearing about Linda Hutsell-Manning's story of teaching in a one-room school told in her clear voice with so many details that brought the past to vivid life in such an endearing way. Bravo to this author's years of fearless and determined teaching and to her compelling retelling of the tale!

[Barbara Gard · Rating 2 out of 5]

brouight back memories as I went to that school