Comments on: One Room Country School Houses Still Exist

By: Hilltop Farm Wife

Hilltop Farm Wife — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 20:06:46 +0000

I really enjoyed this post. Our area also continues to have one and two room schools. Don’t know how much longer the state will allow them to continue. The one closest to us has ten students this year with only two or three who actually live in that school district. The other students are from families who have chosen to take advantage of the one-on-one attention each child receives and send their children to the smaller school. (Some of the “bigger” schools only have 12 to 15 kids per grade. One district has less than 50 students in K-12) Our kids went to school in town 30 miles away but the bus route was 40 miles one way. It made for a very long day when they were little but they got used to it and often used the bus ride for doing homework, or sleeping on the way home.

By: Quilt Lady

Quilt Lady — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 03:58:09 +0000

Great post! I didn’t go to a one room school house but my father did. I have a print of the school house that he went to hanging on my living room wall.

By: Mary Connealy

Mary Connealy — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 19:30:04 +0000

One really important aspect of a country school is the older students help the younger students.
The teacher calls each class to the front of the room where they sit at a table together.
Third Grade English, come forward.
Then the rest of the school remains very quiet while class is going on, and the class is also quiet. So everyone can study. But if a younger child needs help and the teacher is busy, which is almost always is, the younger students go to teh older students. This is fantastic for the older students because TEACHING forces them to truly grasp the lesson, plus it is a constant review for them. And the more advanced classes going on are helping the younger student, without them being more than mildly aware of it, prepare for what’s coming and have a base knowledge of terms and subject matter.
A statistic says that when a person teaches something they (the teacher) retains almost 100% of what they teach, which is logical. But to make the students teach, is a great way to make them have a deep understanding of the material.

By: catslady

catslady — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 18:37:14 +0000

I had no clue either that they still existed. I guess there are pluses and minuses to everything but how wonderful that they had such one on one interaction with the teacher(s). I had 350 kids in my class and lots were strangers. Class sizes were 25 to 40 kids so you got very little individual attention. And I think the so called privileged class really are clueless and feel way too entitled. My 2 girls had large classes also but they also worked part time and I’m very proud of their accomplishments and work ethics. Something that I think is lacking when everything is handed to someone (in a lot of cases but of course not all).

By: Linda Broday

Linda Broday — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 16:53:59 +0000

Mary, what a neat post! I didn’t realize that there are still one room school houses in the rural communities. The schools I attended were all very large with sometimes 40 or 50 students in each class. My graduating class had over 500 kids. I can see the advantages of country schools. A student gets much more attention and they don’t struggle along without help. In a big school usually by the time a teacher realizes that a student is flunking it’s too late to turn things around. Kids are so good at covering up and pretending that everything’s fine. You and your daughters have lots to be proud of.