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The One-Room
Schoolhouse
Jack Hall of Neighborhood 11 attended this one-room schoolhouse in Humboldt County, in Northern California.
By Winola VanArtsdalen Author Winola VanArtsdalen, Blue an especially important but exhausting job.
Ribbon School, Labette County, Russell Zagrodzky (N11) was hired by his
Start a conversation with someone Kansas, Sept 1941. teacher to build the fire each morning, his
who attended a one-room country first job with pay of $1 a week!
schoolhouse long ago, and you will was a concern. There was usually a wood-
immediately have a wild exchange of or coal- burning stove in the center, and it In most schools, students brought their
stories! I, for one, have many precious was the teacher’s job to have a fire ready. lunch in metal lunchboxes, but in some
memories of long walks through the It might be negative forty degrees during smaller schools, such as mine, the teacher
fields, playground incidents, lifetime the school year in South Dakota, and cooked our lunch. We liked the smell of a
friendships formed and nervous feelings sometimes it was barely above freezing pot of soup cooking on the stove in winter,
on that first day of school. The school year in the classroom. In these areas of but I would like to forget the cooked turnips
was September to April. Children were extreme cold, having the fire ready was the teacher made us eat!
needed at home to work in fields and for
food preparation and preservation during At my school, there was a cistern, so
summer months. water was available, but many schools
were not so fortunate. The teacher
SCHOOLHOUSES sometimes brought water with her
from town, or students carried it from
Though there were differences in various home or another building nearby. Robert
regions of the country, all schoolhouses Johnston (N59) not only went to a one-
used resources available to meet needs of room school, but he later taught in one
their community as best they could. Almost while living there. Because there was no
always, there was a bell tower for ringing water available at the school, each student
the bell at the start and end of the school brought five gallons of water each day and
day, a flagpole and, of course, a four-holer a little extra on the weekend, so Robert had
outhouse in back. Some even had a horse enough for a weekend bath!
barn or, at least, a place to secure and
keep horses in shade during the day. Most School districts provided for teachers
country schools were only one room, but as best they could. My first grade
some were split into two rooms for upper teacher lived in an empty house across
and lower grades. Schools always had a the road from the school, but others
blackboard up front with desks of varying roomed with someone in the area, often
sizes and if not a cloakroom, at least a place in the home of one of the students. Some
to store coats and boots. had dinner at a different student’s house
each night. With either arrangement, the
Whether the school was in Northern teacher was close enough to parents that,
California or in the Midwest, cold weather
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