Welcome!
While this site is about modern day school boards, all about them, first let’s remember reading about early American schoolhouses. These were one room with benches for chairs and tables for desktops. There were no electric lights, but rather daylight infiltrated the room through windows. Children attending the first schools were of varying ages, with all grade levels being taught by the same schoolmarm usually sitting at an actual desk at the front of the classroom with a large blackboard behind her.
Did area families each contribute to the teacher’s salary? Or might she have been the daughter of a wealthy family and taught out of care for the children? How far did our students walk to school from home and in what kind of weather? Somehow, I imagine many of them riding to school in a dilapidated tractor.
Perhaps some of the students have textbooks. (Wish they did today!). I see the teacher in one area of the room instructing the little ones, all seated near one another, how to read and write and form “numbers.” While elsewhere, intermediate grade level children work on their math or write a short story. The teacher likely stops by at varying intervals to check on their work and to let them know she is interested in their academic success.
High school age boys and girls likely read literature — the established masters — because this teacher and the student’s parents know the importance of reading and studying these great works. It’s quiet enough for all the children to concentrate, as children are taught from a young age to be respectful and to speak softly in class.
Perhaps the Schoolmarm has a pull down map, and a long wooden pointer and all the children pay attention while she explains geography. These children know that if they live in Illinois that Wisconsin is ‘up.’ and Florida is ‘down.’ I presume, or envision, that immediately following the schoolmarm’s geography lesson, she teaches the group about history and civics.
In this schoolhouse, one schoolmarm might be responsible for anywhere from six to twenty-six children. If the room is large enough, and she’s a qualified teacher, there is probably no issue in teaching a class of this size.
Do they go outdoors to study botany on sunny days? Do they have recess (did they even use that term in those days?).
Here’s the thing: In the times of this little one room schoolhouse education was simple and not very costly. Children were taught to behave and the importance of learning. What a concept!
Throughout my term as a Community Unit School District board member, I’m convinced I learn more than during my four years attending Northwestern (Poly Sci major & Writing minor) about how school boards work and why they don’t.
-Judith McConnell