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Erin
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These two threadshave me thinking and pondering, I'm really enjoying the talk going on 
Just what to your knowledge was included in the education of students in the era of Anne of Green Gables and Laura Ingalls? Do you think we (well some of us perhaps) idealize something that perhaps isn't deserving.
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mom3aut1not
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Erin,
I'll try to ask my mom what her curriculum was. I know she was after the Anne of Green Gables era, but she went to a one room school house until high school. (I think her high school graduating class was very small; her high school had four rooms IIRC -- and offered three years of Latin.)
In Christ,
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Willa
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I found this very brief history
There is an autobiography of a schoolteacher here
Here's an account of a curriculum
And it's fun to browse through 19th century textbooks
But I couldn't find much directly comparing the past with the present.
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Willa
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julia s.
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Erin,
I was going over TWTM and in the chapter where Jessie Wise talks about her experiences homeschooling Susan and her siblings she mentions this:
But I was raised by elderly relatives who had been taught by classical methods popular before the turn of the century. Meme, as I called her, had only finished eighth grade in a one-room schoolhouse, learned Latin and algebra, and Uncle Luther had learned advanced practical mathematics and how to think and write.
I just thought it was interesting.
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stellamaris
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Reading over the interesting article Willa posted about one-room schoolhouse curriculum, I was struck by three things:
1. There were no grade levels. Each level was related not to age but to mastery of material.
2. There was constant reinforcement of earlier material.
3 The curriculum was highly focused on essential subjects.
I've also read elsewhere that the lack of available books forced children to copy their lessons from the board (which I had to do myself in grade school). This copying process reinforced correct spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. These aspects could all be easily integrated into a homeschool environment, except I don't think I would be happy without some science, because it is so fun!!
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Caroline
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Shari in NY
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A local second grade teacher bought a one room school house a few years ago and got permission to hold "school" with her class for a couple of days there. I volunteered to help as she tried to recreate the one room school expereince. The biggest change we found was that in the old schools kids had two half hour recesses and an hour for lunch! What a difference that made! The previously hyper-active kids settled right down to learning during class time. They were glad to sit after all that playing!
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Bookswithtea
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I've always wondered about this, too. My grandma was educated in a one room schoolhouse (she's in her 80's now). I'll email her and ask her what she remembers. I do know she went to nursing school and works nights as a nurse through most of her married life, to supplement their farming income.
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Willa
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Shari in NY wrote:
| A local second grade teacher bought a one room school house a few years ago and got permission to hold "school" with her class for a couple of days there. I volunteered to help as she tried to recreate the one room school expereince. The biggest change we found was that in the old schools kids had two half hour recesses and an hour for lunch! What a difference that made! The previously hyper-active kids settled right down to learning during class time. They were glad to sit after all that playing! |
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The other thing I read (I think it was in "Christy") was that there were quite a lot of schoolroom chores to do -- keeping the fire burning, etc. So the more vigorous and lively boys helped the teachers and got rid of some of that perfectly normal "boy energy" that way.
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Willa
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JodieLyn
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Also, didn't they tend to start school a bit later.. at least the kids that lived further out.. I know my grandmother (depression era childhood) didn't go to school until second grade because of the distance but she was a tiny thing and her mother kept her home because of the distance and the weather.
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Milehimama
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I attended a modern one-room schoolhouse for 4 years in the late 80s. The principal/teacher only accepted 6 students per grade level; each grade sat at a table together.
The curricula was pretty much the same as any other school, IMO. But I did love listening to the HS classes (I went for 4 years, from 4th-7th grades) and a separate teacher came to teach Catechism and History.
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Bookswithtea
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My sweet grandma emailed me back and here's what she said. I think she's 86 or 87 this year, so this would have been before the depression, I think. She uses all caps because its easier for her to see when she types. I wanna be like my grandma when I grow up. She is amazing. 
***WE HAD READING AND PENMANSHIP HISTORY BASIC SCIENCE AND GEOGRAPHY (NO LATIN ) AS I REMEMBER IT THE FIRST AND SECOND GRADES WERE TAUGHT SEPARATELY.. BUT FROM THEN ON 3 GRADES TOGETHR (3 AND 4 UP THRU 7 AND 8TH) HAD LARGE BLACK BOARDS WHICH WERE USED FOR A LOT OF THE VISUAL TEACHING.. WE HAD INDIVIDUAL DESKS LIKE THE ONES YOU SEE ON LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE.. EXCEPT MOST OF THE ONES ON THE TV SHOW ARE FOR 2 KIDS I THINK? ONE TEACHER TAUGHT ALL THE GRADES.. BUT THE YOUNGER ONES WOULD LISTEN IN ON WHEN THE OLDER CLASSES WERE BEING TAUGHT SO WE KIDS DID LEARN A LOT, EARLY! HAD A BIG OLD FURNACE IN ONE CORNER OF THE ROOM NO RUNNING WATER AND NO INSIDE TOLIETS.. AND NO AIR CONDITIONING! NO KINDERGARTEN OF COURSE.. WHEN WE FINISHED 8TH GRADE WE HAD TO TAKE A STANDARD COUNTY EXAM (PROBABLY PRODUCED BY STATE OF ILLINOIS).. DO NOT REMEMBER ANYTHING ABOUT THAT BUT MUST NOT HAVE BEEN TOO HARD SINCE I PASSED IT ON FIRST TRY... WE HAD ONE SWEDISH IMMIGRANT FAMILY WHO HAD TWO DAUGHTERS... THE OLDER ONE HAD A HARD TIME IN SCHOOL... AND COULD NOT PASS THE TEST.. SO SHE DID NOT GO ON TO H. SCHOOL.. BUT THE YOUNGER ONE WAS IN MY GRADE AND SHE DID BETTER... I GUESS THAT THE PARENTS ONLY SPOKE SWEDISH LANGUAGE AT HOME WHICH WOULD HAVE MADE IT HARD FOR BOTH GIRLS? WHEN MY OLER BROTHER WENT TO THIS SCHOOL HE WOULD DRIVE THE HORSE AND BUGGY. AND MY SISTER RODE WITH HIM.. BUT BY TIME I WENT, MY FATHER WOULD TAKE ME.. IT WAS ABOUT 4 PLUS MILES FROM OUR HOUSE TO THE SCHOOL... I DID WALK HOME A COUPLE TIMES (MY CHOICE.) NOT BECAUSE I HAD TO THAT.. WE HAD DINNER PAILS SO TOOK OUR NOON MEAL WITH US... AND IN WINTER SOMETIMES OUR TEACHER WOULD FIX HOT SOUP FOR US.. THERE WAS SORT OF FENCE AROUND THE SCHOOL YARD, BUT ONLY BARS BETWEEN POLES.. SO WE COULD OVER AND UNDER THAT... AND WALK ON THE TOP RAILING TOO... WHEN I STARTED SCHOOL THERE WERE ALL 8 GRADES I THINK.. BUT BY TIME I FINISHED THERE WAS ONE 7TH GRADER AND 4 OR 5 8TH GRADERS SO THE TEACHER HAD A SNAP THAT YR.. MOST OF THE SUBJECTS THAT YR WERE TAUGHT TO US ALL IN ONE CLASS.. WHEN I FINISHED THERE WAS ONLY ONE GIRL LEFT IN SCHOOL )7TH GRADE) SO SCHOOL WAS CLOSED FOR GOOD.. MY FATHER WAS ALWAYS ON THE SCHOOL BOARD SO MY SIBLINGS AND I HAD AN EXTRA REASON TO BEHAVE OR WE WOULD HAVE BEEN DISCIPLINED TWICE.. ONCE BY OUR TEACHER AND ONCE AT HOME.. MY MOTHER HAD TAUGHT SCHOOL FOR ONE OR TWO YRS BEFORE SHE WAS MARRIED... ALL THE ADVANCE EDUCATION SHE NEEDED THEN, WAS A YR. OF WHAT THEY CALLED NORMAL SCHOOL TRAINING.. THAT IS ABOUT ALL I REMEMBER ABOUT THAT PART OF MY LIFE.. BUT WE DID GET A GOOD BASIC EDUCATION SINCE ALL OF THE COUNTRY SCHOOL KIDS WHEN THEY WENT ON TO HIGH SCHOOL USUALLY DID BETTER ACADEMICALLY THAN THE ONES WHO WERE EDUCATED IN THE TOWN ELEM. AND JR. HIGHS.. ***
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JodieLyn
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that's neat.. thank you so much for sharing..
If she's 87 she would have been born in 1922 (when my grammy had been born too) and would have been 7 when the stock market crashed in 1929. So most of her school would have been during the depression then.
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mom3aut1not
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My mother is 85 and did go to a one-room schoolhouse until high school. She doesn't remember much about the curriculum -- or at least she couldn't recall much when suddenly asked. She did say that they had fairy tales.
One thing I do remember her saying was that most of the "country" boys did not go on to high school, but the girls and the "town" boys did. I had never thought about it before, but I guess it stands to reason that more girls than boys would go on to high school. My uncle went to high school despite being a "country' boy -- I suspect that my grandmother's relatively high level of education -- a couple of year of college -- had something to do with it. (This grandma would be 110 now if she were still alive, so having any college education was unusual back then.)
I am glad that I wrote down some of her experiences in my son's first grade scrapbook. Not only did she go to a one-room schoolhouse, but her parents never used any sort of equipment with an internal combustion engine. My uncle was the only person in her family that ever learned to drive a car or ride a bicycle -- not counting me or my daughters.....
In Christ,
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Bookswithtea
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JodieLyn wrote:
that's neat.. thank you so much for sharing..
If she's 87 she would have been born in 1922 (when my grammy had been born too) and would have been 7 when the stock market crashed in 1929. So most of her school would have been during the depression then. |
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 ...well, what can I say... I am a product of public schools 
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JodieLyn
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I had some help figuring that out.. one I checked on her year of birth with the calculator.. but mainly, my oldest loved/loves the American Girl stories and one we got her was Kit.. and we'd figured out that the year the book was set in my grammy would have been 12 (the main character was 9) so it was really neat to read.. plus the fact that I'd heard so many of those things in the book from my grammy..
So I wasn't depending on the public school education.. but something much more recent 
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Barbara C.
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My mother-in-law (in her early 60's) went to a one-room schoolhouse. She's talked about the whole school doing an experiment outside with centrifugal force swinging a full-water bucket around on a rope.
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MarieA
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I used to live and teach in VT in the early 90s. I remember they still had one room school houses in a few areas. Here is an article that I came across about one that I remember. Granville to close 158-year-old one-room schoolhouse  An end of an era for that community and such sad news...
MarieA
(In No. Va with an adored dh of almost 21 years, and two great kids, a 15 year old ds and 13 year old dd.)
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Erin
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Books,
Thank you for your sharing, maybe it was more a case of your grandmother was well prepared rather than the exam was easy. Pondering blackboards, I recollect reading somewhere that they are rather effective, the looking up looking down somehow.
Willa,
Thanks for the links
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florasita
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My grandmother was a one room schoolhouse teacher and my mother attened of course where my grandmother taught . She has nothing but fond memories the only complaints I ever heard from my mum or uncles etc. was about the cold , lack of food etc. they never complained of actual school in fact for some of the pooer families it was a relief to attend as homelife was not always the perfect situation .My mother often told us stories of taking the dog sled to school .
My great uncle in his book wrote about how it was his job to go ahead in the morning and start the fire . One morning after a storm he arrived to find the school washed away into the lake ! It was a big deal to get a new building up as soon as possible the whole community felt school was of great importnace .
My grandmother attended what was called Normal school in order to teach . She then took university courses each summer as her salary would increase by each credit added .
On how good was the education well my mother came out with flying colours she in fact homeschooled for gr. 11 skipped gr. 12 and went right into nursing school she did so well on her highschool exams .
My grandmother spent alot of time outdoors with the children and my mother said her mum had told her children should not attend school until 7yo
and children should not begin a term until oct. and school should finish in May that is my kind of teaching .
of course times were hard , work was hard school teachers could be misreable just as they can be today . We can also tend to romantizie the past etc. but all the people talk about how they loved the life best when there was no road just the train and even so they did not have electricity until the 50's and did just fine . Some even regret having the hwy put in etc. people now are more independent but also a sence of community is not the same where the younger helped the elderly etc. people even though there are more conviences out there seem to me almost more isolated .
I've been watching the old videos of frontier house the pbs show and pioneer quest ( right from our own province ) and loving it !
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4Real Forums : Philosophy of Education
Topic: One Room Schoolhouse Education
