A boy pouring a bucket of coal into a heating stove in their classroom, Claiborne County, Tennessee (1940)

Wonder why they put the older kids in the front? Little ones in the back can’t see!

My Grandma taught in a One room Schoolhouse
She said they had to teach All grade levels
I bet the younger ones did their work while the older ones had their lesson and needed the Chalkboard

When my Dad was a kid in the 1930s, he walked a mile and a half every morning to build a fire at the school house and tend the fire Catholic Church.

I would think that as a younger child in the same room, hearing the older kids lessons in the background may have helped future learning thru sub conscious recollection?

Osky

My dad was in charge of lighting the stove in the one room school house he attended. He lit it and blew up the stove one morning.

My kids went to a two room school house , k-3 in one room, 4-8 in the other. It was a great education. Older kids helped teach younger kids so they had to know the material. There were only around 20 +~ kids. Mostly Mennonite.

wws

Different classes

I know of a member here who went to a one room school.
I bet there are others.
Osky

Catholic school had 3 rooms k-2 3-5 6=8. Nun taught 1 class at a time. Mostly book learnen.8 kids in my class. When I went to public school I was months ahead of classmates.
just

Looks like they're all girls too, what up with that?

My mom and dad went to the same one room school. It was less than a 1/4 mile for him to walk and 1/2 mile for her to walk. Since high school was 6 mi away and my mom was not a cowboy she chose to take the 8th grade over a couple times until she was 16. Since no doubt over and over again would be boring, the girls would help teach the younger, there was 8 grades for just one teacher to teach after all. Distance kept a lot of girls closer to home and thus more older girls in class.

My dad rode 6 mi on his horse to high school for 4 years. The first year the stable was close to the high school. But they built a new high school across town and changed the high school into the grade school. There wasn't a stable close to the high school so he had to leave his horse at the same stable and still walk almost 3/4 to the new high school.

Another story about the teacher. She was young and had to walk 2 1/2 mi morning and evening. One day a boy was unruly and she whipped him. He went home and told his mom and the next morning she walked 1/2 mi down to the main road and met the teacher and gave her a whipping and broke her watch and got her clothes muddy, and she still had to walk over a mile to school. Both woman in their older years were my dearest friends. When something would come up to remind them of the whippings, they would laugh it off. Love covers a multitude of sins.

Also in that time frame when the 1925 tornado that covered 3 states went thru here, the teacher having no weather report of any kind, I think just by intuition sent all the kids home in time for them all to get home safely before the twister came thru. Most homes had fruit cellars, the school did not.

That is a great picture. My mother taught in one room school for many years. Wood stove no connivences in those days. I'm sure was hardly anything but student's parents were good to these teachers and did a lot for them.
She had some great stories from those years gone bye.

This is a description of my mother's first day of school in a one room school house in rural South Dakota in 1916:



She later went on to teach at a one room school house during the early part of the depression. Her duties included making a fire in the coal power boiler in the basement and helping all the kids stable their horses. Also all the janitoring, and helping kids get their heavy winter clothes off and hung in the cloak room.

I went to a two room school house, 1st-3rd in one room, and 4th-6th in the other (two teachers), that was only 30 years ago. My kids went to the same school up until last year. They changed the grades to allow for kindergarden through 8th grade for my kid's generation. It still is an excelent school, but our oldest grew out of 8th grade, and homeschooling all four makes more sence for our family, so they are all being home schooled now. We are still good friends with the 2 current teachers, and one of my teachers from when I went there. It is one of the oldest schools in California, founded in 1858. They sing God Bless America, and do the pledge of aligence every morning.

Listening to my mom and dad and grandparents the trip was always uphill both ways!

My Dad went to a one room schoolhouse, 1st through 4th grade. He said that the older kids were bused to another school. What is interesting is that he said one of the high school kids would drive the school bus. I have a picture of the school bus taken about 1930.

I remember talking over the phone a few times with your dad Bruce. Wish I could have got to know him better.

Looks like the teachers got them under control. Everyone paying attention. Might have something to do with the stick he is wielding.