I graduated High School in 1957, and I went to a ONE ROOM Grade school.
I would NOT trade that education for ANYTHING available today anywhere in the USA.
There were 14 kids in 8 grades with a teacher that had 2 years of college.
I would bet money today that At least 1/2 of those 14 kids got SOME college education & that 1/4 of the 14 got at least a 4 year degree.
We did NOT have running water-—it was brought in every day in a 10 gallon mile can & dispensed out of a ceramic jug. There were 2 outhouses behind the school- each with 2 seats. We had a Merry-Go-Round for recess.
Again- I would NOT trade that education for anything.
“Again- I would NOT trade that education for anything.”
I am much younger than you, and I think you are right to be so appreciative of that education. I feel so bad for these kids that have always had air-conditioning, smart phones, and social media. It is completely counter-intuitive, but those things don’t seem to have been that good for our culture.
Freegards
“a ONE ROOM Grade school.”
I’m several years younger but I lived the first 5 years of my life across the road from a one-room school just like you described. This was in southern Kansas, 1955-60. I used to look across the road longingly when those kids were out for recess and look forward to the day I’d be there with them.
Unfortunately, that was not to be. We were living in a house provided by my dad’s oil company employer so he could be close to the work on the oil field lease. They decided to sell the house and have it moved off the lease. They wouldn’t let my folks buy the house so we moved to town and I never got to go to a one-room schoolhouse. The old schoolhouse was closed as a school in 1963, IIRC.
I did, however, get my one-room schoolhouse experience a couple of times in my elementary years. My first-grade class was combined with a second-grade class so there was some of the older helping the younger. Also, my 4th grade teacher turned out to have started her teaching career at that very schoolhouse across the road from my first home. She ran that classroom like she was still working with a diverse age group. Every day was a series of challenges with students on teams for math, spelling, etc. Mrs. Johnson would be run out of town on a rail today for the way she created competition and everybody knowing who was best.