One room schools

[deutz4]

I was just reading jbpaxtons post on the food section that brought me back to my past. I attended a 1 room school from k-7. I am 57 yrs. old and I assume I was one of the last of that era. There were 4 in my class. When we consolidated with the city kids I didn't understand why we were so far ahead of them. I have to admit they were much better fighters than we were.

[Jeff]

I attended a country school in North Bradley Michigan. It was two rooms and 3rd and 4th grade. Our playground had swings, a basketball hoop over dirt and 40 acres of white pine trees.

[Ianab]

Still a few one room schools around NZ, in the remoter rural areas.

A friend of Lil's taught at this school last year. It's about an hour down the road from us.
http://www.stratford.govt.nz/listingitems/37.%20Marco%20School.pdf

Currently 12 pupils, but no other schools in the area, so they keep it open.

Ian

[Ron Wenrich]

I went to a 1 room school for 1st grade.  My aunt was the teacher, and we had grades 1-8.  There was a big pot bellied stove in the back, and a hand pump for water.  Winter time we got extra time for sledding. 

[SwampDonkey]

We still have the old buildings here, they were converted and maintained by the Women's Institute groups. On our 3 mile of road we had two 1 room schools and one is still standing, they burned the second one 5 years ago. Dad's sister taught school in one of these, she is 80. My grandmother also taught here. Dad's other two sisters were also teachers. My grandmother sure never got any union pension.

I went to a 4 room school for grade 1 and 2, when we finished grade two the building was to be demolished and replaced by a seniors home.

[isawlogs]

My grand father went to school for two weeks. I do not recall the reason for not continuing , but he managed well for the amount of shooling he got. He married and bought the family farm and then the neighbours after a few years.  He also bought the old school house and it is still standing and in good shape , I will get some pics of it once the snow goes done some and I get back there.

[Patty]

I was the first of us kids in our family to NOT attend a one room schoolhouse! In 1960 our area of rural Iowa modernized with buses, and we country kids were all bused to town for our schooling. Back then Iowa was known for its excellent schools and they offered great educations. Then in 1974, our governor allowed the teachers to unionize and collective bargaining to happen. Iowa slipped from number 1 or 2 to number 27 or 28 in the nation. How sad   No I should say, how tragic!!

[pigman]

My grand father went to school for two weeks. I do not recall the reason for not continuing , but he managed well for the amount of schooling he got.

Marcel, your grandfather was just a fast learner. ;) He might of only had two weeks of formal education, but I bet he had a lifetime of learning.

[isawlogs]

  Pigman, he must of. One thing I do know though, he spent a bunch of it teaching in his own way  

[Bandmill Bandit]

I went G1-7 in the same one room school my dad went to school in but it went to grade 9 when he went there. Actually went to 9 till 64 when the the upper room teacher retired. I was in grade 4 at the time.

The teacher that taught 1 - 6 started teaching at the school when my dad was in grade nine so dad didn't have her as a teacher but I did and so did my oldest daughter when she came back from retirement for a year to fill in for a maternity leave.

The school remained open for a total of 102 consecutive years. (?? gona check my facts to be sure. might be 98. :P) It started as a church run school in the basement of the church in 1906. In the mid 50s the County took over and built a new school with 2 rooms upstairs, and room down stairs that we used for soccer and floor hockey. We had our own baseball diamond, football field and hockey rink too. The community hall was built across the road next to the church 2 years later with a basket ball court and a volleyball court.

As far as sports go our community dominated all of them but basket ball. The only reason we didn't kick butt in basket ball is because we didn't have any one that would coach. And besides we all liked playing hockey at -40 below any way.  8) Fighting! Well lets just say that when you start skating about the time you start walking and you learn to skate holding your self up with a hockey stick chasing a piece of frozen black rubber, you grow up tough!

Not sure if it was cause you were already froze so nothing hurt any way or if community spirit of excellence was just burned into your brain by watching the older kids and then the senior teams totally annihilate all challengers on all levels in the game 99% of the time that you grew up knowing that losing wasn't an option! Sacrifice wasn't a choice! And EVERYBODY had a chance to play on the team. The kids that were less talented got worked with one on one from men on the senior team. They may not have scored goals but they learned how to use elbows, how to fight and how to hit. Our team was feared for most of the 40 years that the league lasted and was contender every single year. When the New arena opened in town in 75 with artificial ice we merged with the town team and made that team a top contender for the next 20 ish years as well.            

Today the school is closed. The church (160 members when I was a kid) has about 30 members, mostly my folks age and there are more names of people on head stones in the cemetery that I know then occupy the church pews and I don't know of any people that live in the community that don't come to service unless they just cant, even today.  

The Oldtimers say that the Dirty 30s brought the community into it's own and the crazy 80s saw the beginning of it's demise. One Old Timer even said we should have never started a school before he died and yet he was one of the most adamant that starting a school was not an option. It was a must in his mind. Of his 7 children, 2 are world renowned Doctors the rest have made there mark in education, ministry and  business. Not too bad for a sawed off gap toothed German farmer with a grade 3 education that was born in the black hills of South Dakota.

Even Nashville has felt the impact of that little out of the way community.  

I was at my folks place for Christmas and took a walk around the the old grounds that were the centre of life in that community for much of the last 102 years. The trees that we planted for Canada's Centennial in 1967 are big trees today but there are no kids to climb them or build tree forts in them. The rink hasn't had Ice in it since my best friend and I put it in for the winter of 79. The community hall still is used but mostly for potlucks, church socials and family reunions every summer. And a lot of those born there do return, one last time, the church fills one more time but there are a few less to fill it every time it happens. I have wondered who would be the last to close the doors for good on more than one occasion. But I digress.

The basket ball was almost flat as was the volleyball. Even the shuffle board tables don't see much use.

Memories! WOW! Almost over whelming! Its Gone! This is an all too familiar history of way too many communities across this entire continent be they farming, logging, mining, fishing etc.  What have we allowed to slip away with it all?? What have we kept?? Can our countries and societies survive with out the things, the events, the spirit, the comradary, the rivalry and  the excellence that was born and raised there? Can we get it BACK?

"We the People......."
Do we still know what that means?

Will those that come behind us find that we have been Faithful?  
 
     

[Sprucegum]

I attended grades 1 & 2 in a one-room that went to grade 9. My mother was the teacher. She carried a yardstick in one hand and a dictionary in the other and could smack them big farm boys with either one in the blink of an eye. She was highly respected throughout the county for her teaching skills  ;)  :D

There was a barn out back for the horses that some kids still rode to school. It was a great place for war games. The only organized sport we ever bothered with was baseball. The footballs, basketballs, and soccerballs were used in a game we called murderball - ya murder whoever has the ball!

[submarinesailor]

The footballs, basketballs, and soccerballs were used in a game we called murderball - ya murder whoever has the ball!

Know the game well.  Broke a foot playing it one time in the street.  Murderball in the street....boy was that dumb or what. : : :  Talk about elbows and knees getting messed up.  A few faces too. : : : :

Bruce

[SwampDonkey]

It got so bad at times they tried to ban us from playing it. We would just move to another location on the property and continue the next day or when things cooled down with the teachers. :D

We liked mostly soccer baseball. Used a diamond, and kicked a soccer ball. A ball caught on the fly from a kick off was an out. Sometimes we never had a team and the only way to get a try at the kickoff was to catch a fly soccer ball. Used to practice at how high you could kick a soccer ball in the air, often that was done instead of someone pitching the ball. Just toss it 6 or 8 feet straight up and kick it as it came down. So everyone played outfield or on bases to tag you out.

[Bandmill Bandit]

What about "Kick the Can" and Capture the Flag in the snow or mud.

[Burlkraft]

I went to a one room school for grades 1-4.

We had K-12 there.

I was one of 3 in my class  :D :D :D

We always liked a game of smear.
Smear was played with a football and really had no rules.
If you had the ball everybody else was trying to smear you. Once you have been smeared,
if you aren't crying too bad you throw the ball to someone you hate and then lead the pack to try to eliminate him or her in the same barbaric  manner that you were smeared...only harder  :D  :D  :D

We were all farm kids so the girls played too and a couple of them I
always avoided during those games.

I wonder what you would have to call smear in this day and age of political correctness??

[isawlogs]

Don't know Steve... todays kids need an armor to ride a bike   :

[Tom]

I attended a one-room school for about two years, one day.  It was my Granddaddy's bedroom and I was sent there on an athletic scholarship for yelling at Grandmother.   It's amazing what one can learn in such a short period of time. My Assoc. degree was sufficient to last for the rest of my life.

I still tip-toe around his grave-site.

[SwampDonkey]

Burl, especially your buddy's older sister that knew karate. I took one under the ribs and got deflated right quick one time. Couldn't breath for 5 or 6 secs, felt like 10 mins. :D

Used to ride piggy back and try to knock the opponent down...by any means available. :D

[Burlkraft]

Used to ride piggy back and try to knock the opponent down...by any means available. :D

I think Jeff and Tammy saw a show like that in Vegas when we were there  :D :D :D :D

[beenthere]

................We always liked a game of smear.
Smear was played with a football and really had no rules.
If you had the ball everybody else was trying to smear you. Once you have been smeared,
if you aren't crying too bad you throw the ball to someone you hate and then lead the pack to try to eliminate him or her in the same barbaric  manner that you were smeared...only harder  :D  :D  :D

We were all farm kids so the girls played too and a couple of them I
always avoided during those games.............

'Cause they made you walk funny?  :D :D

[Burlkraft]

................We always liked a game of smear.
Smear was played with a football and really had no rules.
If you had the ball everybody else was trying to smear you. Once you have been smeared,
if you aren't crying too bad you throw the ball to someone you hate and then lead the pack to try to eliminate him or her in the same barbaric  manner that you were smeared...only harder  :D  :D  :D

We were all farm kids so the girls played too and a couple of them I
always avoided during those games.............

'Cause they made you walk funny?  :D :D

I have no idea what you are talking about  ;D

They were more manly than their brothers  ;) :D

[SwampDonkey]

Oh, man some looked like their brothers. ;D I see one gal with her mother once in awhile in the grocery and she still looks like she did 30 years ago. I sure couldn't forget that. :D

[Bandmill Bandit]

There was one real cute little girl a year younger than me. She isnt quite 5 feet tall even now and I doubt she weighs more and about a 100 pounds. She was fast, tough and if any other girl ever caned a guy, Bec had that girls number and she got it! HARD!! She was always one of the "guys". She played hockey, football (best receiver we had) soccer etc. with us all the time.

By the time she was 15 she was very much in demand at branding time on every farm that had cattle. She was small had small hands and was not only the best surgeon to handle the scalpel for the removal of prairie oysters from the bull calves she was fast too and very rarely did you get a bleeder when she did the job.     

She hunted gophers and various other varmints with us guys and was a crack shot with her own .243 that  us guys got together and bought her for her 16th birthday.  Coyote pelts were decent money in those days and lets just say we devised a sure fire way to take em down on the road most of the time.  Bec would put a slug right behind the eye and below the ear about 3 out 5 times and the coyote would be at a dead run crossing the road about fifty to a 100 yards ahead of her. 

If you didn't know her you'd a thought she was a boy but let me tell you let her mom get hold of her for an hour before a dance night and you would not know it was the same girl and she was the only one that was not afraid to get out and dance.

Good thing she wore shorts under her dress when she did. She had 3 older brothers so she had to be tough. I think she was tougher then they were.

 

[BaldBob]

Attended a 1 room school for second grade back in Pennsylvania. I doubt that they still use the building, but it wouldn't be because it wasn't built to last. The corner stone was dated 1723.

[isawlogs]

Bandmill Bandit  !!

   Well..              ..d'ya marree 'er  ???

[trapper]

8 grades 1 teacher in the school I attended my first 8 years of school

[Bandmill Bandit]

Bandmill Bandit  !!

  Well..              ..d'ya marree 'er  ???

Wellllllllll............ I woulda but she's my 2nd cousin and we got teased for beenin kissin kuz-sins as it was!  And second cousins on both sides. Her grandma and my grandma were twin sisters and her grandpa and my grandpa were brothers.

Shes a Vet today. Has 3 grown boys that were as much a hand full as she woulda been to her parents and then some for the youngest. My youngest daughter and her youngest son are pretty much twins and those 2 got about every kid they knew in trouble some how when they were in junior high and high school together and then the 2 of them would sit and laugh at them. I still don't know how they convinced the kids to do some of the stuff they did.

James got married in Oct and my Daughter was his "best man" Dressed in a 3/4 lenght ball room gown with cowboy boots. All the boys wore the normal "cowboy tux"  
 
My daughter and Beca (thats what we call her now) are a lot a like and when you compare photos to an old photo of my Great Grandma with the 2 of them every body in the family says that they look like sisters. GG and Beca are both under 5 Foot. My daughter is 5'2". you know the only time my youngest ever got dressed up was when my wife grabbed her for an hour before a function that demanded it and that mostly turned into a battle worthy of a world war 3 title. Mom always won though! Even for prom night! And that little girl was always some mad until James got here to pick her up and caught hold of her glare. Don't know how he did but she was chasin him out the door everytime they left with something or other (meant to be a weapon I am sure) in her right hand well above her head as they left. Most of the time I think it was the high heels that were supposed to be on her feet. Dont think she ever did actually wear them things. She always came home with her cowboy boots on and I never did see her leave with the boots on.

James even had to bring her first real date to the door.

I do not know of a single dress of the very few dresses she did wear that  ever survived to second function. Come to think of it my wife ALWAYS made sure she had shorts under her dresses too.

The one thing she still curses to this day; She is blessed with the chest of her mothers side of the family and her opinion hasnt changed. Dang teats! always in the*&%#$# way! :D  

[Coon]

 :D

I never officially went to a one room school unless you count out behind the barn as a school. That is where I learned a good many things some good and others well... not so much.   :D