A Local Legacy: One-Room Schoolhouse
0ne room schoolhouse – Search (bing.com)
Would you like to experience what going to school was like in the late 1800s?
To start with, imagine everyone in school sharing only one teacher and one classroom.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries — most American students attended a one-room schoolhouse. A single teacher would typically have students in the first through eighth grades, and she taught them all. The number of students varied from six to 40 or more. The youngest children sat in the front, while the oldest students sat in the back. The teacher usually taught reading, writing, arithmetic, history, and geography. Students memorized and recited their lessons.
The classroom of a one-room schoolhouse probably looked much like your own.
The teacher’s desk may have been on a raised platform at the front of the room, however, and there would have been a wood-burning stove since there was no other source of heat. The bathroom would have been outside in an outhouse.
In Honeoye Falls, New York, there is a one-room schoolhouse where kids today can experience what it was like to be students in the late 19th century. For a week during the summer, they wear 19th century clothes and learn the way children learned more than a hundred years ago.
Inside of the one-room schoolhouse.
Honeoye Falls One-Room Schoolhouse
– Town of Mendon Historical Society
1 Allen Park Dr.
Honeoye Falls, NY 14472
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, most American students attended a one-room schoolhouse. A single teacher would typically have students in the first through eighth grades, and she taught them all. The number of students varied from six to 40 or more. The youngest children sat in the front, while the oldest students sat in the back.
The teacher usually taught reading, writing, arithmetic, history, and geography. Students memorized and recited their lessons. The classroom of a one-room schoolhouse probably looked much like those of today. The teacher’s desk may have been on a raised platform at the front of the room, however, and there would have been a wood-burning stove since there was no other source of heat. The bathroom would have been outside in an outhouse.
In Honeoye Falls, New York, there is a one-room schoolhouse where kids today can experience what it was like to be students in the late 19th century. For a week during the summer, they wear 19th century clothes and learn the way children learned more than a hundred years ago. In 1991 the Honeoye Falls/Town of Mendon Historical Society began the transformation of an old one-room schoolhouse into a living history museum.
Mendon District School Number 15 was moved to the Village of Honeoye Falls Town Park some years ago and opened to the public as part of a Village Days celebration. The opening was met with great enthusiasm, and the Historical Society went on to restore the schoolhouse and develop a program to preserve its history.
This little one-room schoolhouse building has been beautifully restored with the inside
set up as it would have looked 135 years ago. During the 19th and early 20th century, the rural school often also served as a church, meeting place, and theater, thereby bringing the community together. One of the Historical Society’s educational programs is “Miss Eliza’s Summer Session,” a week-long summer class for graduating fourth graders.
During the class, the children dress in period clothing and are immersed in an educational experience from the past. The Honeoye Falls – Town of Mendon Historical Society is dedicated to the preservation of local history and the education of the community.
The Society operates a museum located at One Harry Allen Park, which is open to the public Sunday afternoons from 2 to 4.
The teacher’s desk may have been on a raised platform at the front of the room, however, and there would have been a wood-burning stove since there was no other source of heat.
The bathroom would have been outside in an outhouse.
During the summer they wear 19th century clothes and
learn the way children learned more than a 100 year ago.
What else has changed about school since the 19th century?
A Day in the Life – The One Room Schoolhouse (one room schoolhouses.ca)
The Logic of a One Room Schoolhouse – Bing video
One-Room Schoolhouses in America – YouTube
Lessons to be learned from a one-room schoolhouse
There’s nothing like a desk and a chalkboard to bring back memories of the one-room schoolhouse. Unless, that is, you live in one of the American towns where these fabled schools are more than just a memory. They’re alive and teaching.
Our Sunday Morning Cover Story is reported by Barry Petersen:
For a century-and-a half, Montana’s Pioneer Mountains have echoed
with the young voices from the Divide, Mont.’s one-room school.
Yes, there are still one-room public schools in America. Today about 200 one-room schools carry on a tradition that’s older than America itself. And while the frontier where they first appeared may be gone, the spirit that they helped create is alive and well in towns across rural America.
“This is the heart of the community,” said teacher Judy Boyle.
At Divide School, Boyle loves what she does: “I have teacher meetings once a week.
It’s with me, myself and I. We get along really well!”
Divide School teaches grades K through 8. At times it had as many as 30 students.
This year, with only three students, Boyle can also give such individual attention,
she makes lesson plans for each student.
There are three students at the one-room school in Divide, Mont. CBS NEWS
“You’re really designing something custom-made for these three kids.
That I would think, is something great to be able to do as a teacher,” said Petersen.
“It is, it really is,” said Boyle, “because you can respect their differences and what makes them tick.” But there are some key similarities between a one-room schoolhouse and your neighborhood school. Take the cost: it’s roughly the same per student, and all the schools have to meet the same state and national standards.
And sometimes, like at Divide, there are additional expectations at a school that has been operating since the 1870s.
“In these small communities, their schools are really important to them,” said Boyle, “because the school is what generates the reputation of that town.”
There was a time when almost every American child learned in a one-room school. In the 1700s, John Adams taught in a one-room school near Boston; Abe Lincoln was educated at a one-room school; and Henry Ford loved him so much, he had it moved to a museum in Michigan.
As late as 1913, half of the country’s schoolchildren were enrolled in the country’s 200,000 one-room schools. But after the First World War, one-room schools started to close, as people moved into cities and small schools started to consolidate. So, for most of us, the one-room school is now just folklore — the kind that Laura Ingalls Wilder brought to life in “Little House on the Prairie.” It’s been a long time since the farmlands near Lansing, Mich., were prairie.
CBS News Poll: Are bigger schools better?
“In a big school the teacher would call in the guidance counselor —
that would be you,” said Petersen. “Or complain to the principal — that would be you.”
“Yes!” said Hydon. “At first, it was overwhelming. But now it’s part of the job. You just have to [have] the instinct to know what to do and what to say.” And here the lessons are not just about math or science, but about older children helping the younger ones with things like learning how to read.
And there is an unusual teaching tool that may only work in a one-room school: eavesdropping. It sure helps first grader Thomas Trygier: “‘Cause when I was in kindergarten, I was, like, listening to all the third-grade stuff,” he told Petersen.
“So, I learned a lot in kindergarten.”
“I remember last year he came from kindergarten, ‘Mom, what is the Silver War?'” said
his mother, Cynthia. “He didn’t know it was the Civil War. But he hears the older kids talking.” Which is why Cynthia Trygier (herself a teacher at a Christian high school) wanted seven-year-old Thomas in a one-room school, even though there were bigger schools closer to their home.
“Kindergarten, he was already moved up into first grade reading and math, and it was a smooth transition,” she said. “I don’t want him to grow up too fast; I want him to enjoy his childhood. And in this school, he is still a first grader, but he’s doing second and third grade work in reading and math.”
And at Strange, there are other lessons of life; students must clean the school every day.
Petersen asked, “What are you trying to teach there?”
“Responsibility,” said Hydon. “I think responsibility goes with every aspect of life that we do. I mean, it carries over to a work ethic that everyone should have instilled in them.'”
You might think kids would miss things like team sports, but they don’t. At Divide the local one-room schools get together to make up a track or basketball team.
But for some, it’s hard when the day comes to go to the big city high school.
It can be, in a word, terrifying. “I mean, you’re going from, you know, seven, eight kids to thousands,” said Jon Dupuis. How did he handle it?
“Pretty poorly at first. But as freshman year moved on, I came out and was able to, you know, make friends, talk to people, get on with my life.”
Jon Dupuis — now a senior who’s going to college next year for a degree in computer science — says that, in balance, the one-room school was the unique basis for a life of learning.
Petersen asked, “How do you think you did academically against the kids who had gone through a normal school system?”
“In the top ranks,” Dupuis said.
Why? “I think it was the push of education here. There was no discouragement.
It was always, what can you learn, what can you do? You can do this. You will learn this.”
“I’m with these students 180 days a year for nine years of their lives,” said Judy Boyle.
“You have a real personal interest in these kids,” said Petersen. “These aren’t just kids behind a desk for you.”
“You can’t help but love them,” Boyle said. “You’re a part of you. And I’m a part of them.”
No wonder that when it comes to education, the teachers and students in one-room schools so often consider themselves the lucky ones.
For more info:
Strange School, Grand Ledge, Mich.
One-Room School Program, The Henry Ford, Dearborn, Mich.
A Social Credit System Aimed at Modifying Climate Change Behaviors is Being Deployed in Italy. BY WAHAGEN KHABAYAN — APRIL 22, 2022
Italy will become the first European nation to implement a social credit system –
where citizens will be rewarded for their “good behavior”. Starting in the fall of 2022, the city of Bologna will begin a new pilot project. Citizens who display good behavior such as correctly recycling or using public transportation will be rewarded. The Bologna municipality is deploying a “Smart Citizen Wallet” which will be the primary method for citizens to collect digital coins in exchange for behavioral changes.
Based on the given scores, a person can also receive discounts for local shops.
The primary argument for this program is to “save resources” and promote climate friendly behavior.
As reported by Bologna Today, Massimo Bugani, the councilor for the digital agenda in
the northern city, said that while no one will be forced to use this application, he expects a high user uptake. In its current state, the system will not be tied to others, such as online identification and social media usage.
Given the increasing interest by the European Union, some fear it is only a matter of time before more regions and nations will implement similar methods to solve “social issues”.
Germany and Austria (ID Austria) have already accelerated their respective digital ID plans. Both countries are introducing new platforms to integrate more public services and IDs, digitize mail, and even national passports. These new measures have been introduced under the auspices of solving “bureaucratic problems and [saving] resources.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has also expressed keenness
over introducing ‘EU ID’, which would integrate national IDs with internet sign-ups.
In 2021, von der Leyen said: “Every time an App or website asks us to create a new digital identity, or to easily log via a big platform, we have no idea what happens with our data.”
That is why the Commission will propose a secure European e-identity.
One that we trust, and that any citizen can use anywhere in Europe to do anything from paying taxes to Renting bicycles. “Given the amount of data such a platform could log on every EU citizen, a looming privacy nightmare seems inevitable.” The European ID Wallet app began its testing phase in 2021 and will also deploy in the fall of 2022.
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