ONE ROOM SCHOOL HOUSE!

I mentioned that our one room school house has been torn down. It remained as a community center for the area for a long time, but now it is even gone.

I will try to describe the school house and what it was like to have all eight grades in one room.

The school was a square building and when you came in the front door, the girls cloak room was to the right and the boys to the left. Double doors led into the school room. A huge round furnace sat in the corner of the room. Fire had to be built by the teacher or her father before the children arrived. Desks of all sizes were in the room. Blackboards, maps, a bench for each class to come forward to sit on when the teacher was teaching that particular class was all that was in the room besides the teachers desk and a small cubboard to house the school library. Most homes have more books today in the home than our school had for all grades. There was a stile that was made of concrete to get over the fence of the school yard. (I suppose this was made so animals couldn't get into the school yard). Girls and boys outhouses and a coal house , a well was the only things in the school yard. Much later when money was available there were playground equipment.

Most of my teachers were excellent, but the odds of trying to teach all levels everything that todays school requires, was impossible. My daughter teaches kindergarten and her class room is so pretty and so "State of the Arts" that I often comment if we only had 1,000th of the tools and "fun" things she has to work with, I would have thought I was in heaven. Both my granddaughter and daughter has overhead projectors, computers and every tool imaginable to work with.

Depending on the year you were born, you might take 8th grade work before 7th grade work.
My sister was always in the odd year and studied one grade before she took the previous year.
So the teacher had 4 grades to teach all subjects. It was divided up by First & second, 3rd & fourth, 5th & Sixth, 7th and eighth grades. These groups would come up and sit on the bench as she taught that subject. Can you imagine the first grade getting the attention that children of that age gets today, when the teacher has so many others to teach.

We would start off with the Pledge of Allegience to the flag and a prayer. Well, that sure isn't politically correct in school today! (at least the prayer part) Somethings were better left alone, and other things improved on.

More about school days at another time.

Today's wisdom--Thank a teacher today, as they have your best interest at heart!