Life in a School with One Room
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OK, Rusty, as per your request, and I hope this doesn't bore anyone. I began school at Thornburg, which was about 500 yards west of Rangeline Road, on what is now, I guess, called Bethany Rd. Our teacher's name was Mrs. Yost. And, all eight grades were in a single room. No lunch program. everyone brought their own lunch. There was a big pot bellied wood stove in the center of the room for heat in the winter. As you enter the room, from the back of the class, the first four grades were on the right with the 1st grade o nearest the wall. The rest of the school was on the left with the 8th grade closet to the stove. (Great incentive for being promoted. The higher you went the warmer you were in the winter. In the early fall and spring the schools air conditioning consisted of opening windows. Our classes consisted of Reading, Penmanship, Spelling, Arithmetic, English and Geography. That's it. I believe the 8th graders had some sort of Government studies but we were transferred to College Corner when i was in the 3rd grade. And, I admit, some of these memories are kind of shaky. We have a pump and outhouses outside and that was the only reason you left the classroom except for recess (three of those a day IF you were good). For all it's primitiveness, I think one-room schools had a lot going for them. You worked at your assigned class level but it wasn't difficult to pick up more advanced learning just by listening to the higher classes. "The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction [that] you give it." AYN RAND, Atlas Shrugged, ('John Galt Speech' 1957) |




Thanks. Funny stuff about being promoted in class. Tell more. How was it. What was a typical day. Did you have paper and pencil or was it a stone tablet.
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OK Jonathan
Do not leave me hanging. My dad graduated from AHS in 1957 and mom in 1958. Tell me more. This is not like a Little house on the prairie episode that I got recorded.
Tell me how the teacher did it. Was there one teacher or a bunch.
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And what year is this please?
Come on John Your fans are reading and want to know. Did you ride a horse to school. My kids always say that I did.
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What about walking in the rain, the snow etc. for miles and miles, with holes in your shoe and always uphill?
I lived at 1st and Madison. I would go to 2nd and John and hop the train to go to AHS. You had to get on the train on one side and go to the other side.
I am lucky to be alive. You folks are not so lucky.
Come on Jone Galt tell us more
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MR GALT PLEASE TELL ME MORE I JUST LOVE IT WHEN SOMEONE TALKS ABOUT THE GOOD OLD DAY AS MY MOM 84 TALKS ABOUT...
MR GALT I SEE YOU ARE ON HERE PLEASE WRITE MORE ABOUT YOUR SCHOOLS DAYS
Go on... Yuk it up. Compared to what kids have to put up with today (Political correctness, drugs, just worrying about whether you could get laid and not worry about whether such a union could give you a terminal disease...), I'll take my time frame as a student any day. But, since you asked: (1) No, I didn't walk to school but in the winter the school bus had a hard time getting up the hill beyond the bridge over Killbuck on Rangeline Rd. (2) Nope, didn't write on stone tablets. We got our school sup[plies from the same place EVERYONE did at that time, Deckers. (3) I went to Thornburg from 1947 thru December, 1950. (4) Each school had one teacher. Ours was Mrs. Creth Yost., Moonsville had Mr. James Teeters, College Corner had Mrs. Dorthy Woods and I forget who taught at Center. If any of you know Pete Danforth (he taught at AHS and was Dean at HHS) ask him. He went to Center. (5) Nope, no horse. (We did have two draft horses on our farm but that's another story. I stay away from animals who can step on me, anyway) We had a real, honest-to-goodness, yellow school bus which picked us up every morning. No fooling!
Not much to tell about life in a one room school. No gangs, no drugs, and at age 8 who the Hell knew what sex even was? Difficult as it is to believe, we went to school to learn and not socialize. Surprisingly enough, records show that scholastically, a good percentage of the kids who went on to AHS did pretty well academically. Back in the 50's, adjusting socially was another story.
Isn't there anyone else here who is as ancient as I who remember one room schools? Geeez, I feel old. (Hell. I guess I am!)
"The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction [that] you give it." AYN RAND, Atlas Shrugged, ('John Galt Speech' 1957)
MR GALT I'M NOT MAKING FUN OF YOU I DO LOVE THE STORES MY MOM IS 84 AND STILL LIVING ..SHE WAS HERE IN CHESTERFIELD SCHOOL...TODAY THE COP SHOP AND OTHER STUFF PLEASE DON'T LET SOME MAKE YOU STOP..YOU DO HAVE A LOT TO TELL...AND I FOR ONE WOULD LOVE TO HEAR ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY... PLEASE NANA