Book About Our Family's One-Room School House Teachers

I'm compiling a book about the one-room school teachers in my family...my grandmother, my mother, my mother's two cousins and possibly others as I research.  We're a family of teachers, it seems, with my sister and me continuing this trend.  My sister's daughter also is a teacher.

My daughter and granddaughter don't teach in the classroom, but one does tutoring and the other teaches quiltmaking and designing.

My sister has encouraged me to research our teaching heritage and I've found photos, notes my mother wrote, as well as a play she wrote for her students to perform.

Are there teachers in your family?  Write their stories for your family members to add to their heritage.

Did Our Parents Disapprove of Our Books?

As I consider the modern fantasy books and find them distasteful and depressing, I wonder if my parents disliked books we read at the one-room school and the larger one I attended after fourth grade.  Since Mother had been a school teacher, she had first hand knowledge of many of our books.

However, I don't really like many of the modern fantasy books young people are reading nowadays.  I wonder, as I learn about them, if they are contributing to the disrespectful attitudes of many who read them?  Do they lead youngsters and young adults to look at the world with a depressing view?

This isn't to say that books should create a rose-colored and unrealistic view of the world and our lives.  However, so many of the modern fantasy books delve into violence and present jaded characters.

I realize many people will say I'm wrong.  They (adults and young readers) regard these books and series as wonderful.

I read fantasies, or "fairy tales" as we called them, in my youth.  But they didn't seem to have so much violence and depressing outlooks.

I did come across one mother who refuses to let her children read these types of books until they're 14.  What happens when the books are included in class reading in middle school and discussed in class?  What happens when they want to attend movies of these books at a younger age?  They will hear classmates and teachers discussing the books and movies.

Reading the books your youngsters are reading and discussing your "old-fashioned" views of them does help to give them insight into why you may not approve...and give them something to consider.

Learning Multiplication Tables

When I see students struggling with math because they don't know their multiplication and division tables, I recall having to memorize them at the one-room school house.  This wasn't a choice or something we could look up on a calculator or computer.  We were expected to MEMORIZE.  I see youngsters getting the tables correct on the computer programs nowadays, but they don't know the tables when doing their math. 

We had flash cards we used in school and at home.  We used them with one another.

Then Mrs. Burr drew a circle on the blackboard with a smaller circle in the middle.  Lines radiated out from the small circle to the outside of the large.  She divided the circle into pie shaped pieces with a number in each (1-12).  The multiplying number was placed in the small circle.  With a pointer, Mrs. Burr, or one of us students, pointed to the multiplier and then to one of the other numbers.

We had to keep at it until we knew all the facts.  This also became a game we played at recess when it was too stormy to go outside.  So I still think of learning the math tables/facts as a game.

One Room School Friends

Even though it was many, many years ago that I attended the one-room school in Poughquag, NY, I still remain in contact with three of my classmates, along with my sister.  Another classmate I've heard from, via email, intermittently.

Through postal mail, email and Facebook, we've kept up with one another.  We're grandmothers, live in different parts of the country, yet still share memories and keep up with the joys and sorrows in our families.

The Fascination of Old School Books

I'm sorting through old school books that I've accumulated. They're reminders of my mom's teaching days in one-room schools and of my attending this type of school for grades 1-4.


I enjoyed reading Mother's books when I was a child and found some of these when I cleared her house upon her move to our home in another state.

My daughter and I both have collected old reading, math and grammar books but now find we have more than we may want to save. So we'll sort them out for sale.

Some may be first editions. Others are simply of the era when they were used.

Collecting Old School Books

As I was going through my collection of books, in preparation for our recent yard sale, I came across my collection of old school books.  Some of them reminded me of my school days.  Others were from my mom's time.  Still more I've collected as I've browsed yard sales and antique shops.

Among those in my library:

Seventy Lessons in Spelling (revised) copyright 1885.  This edition was published 1905.
The Sprague Classic Readers (Book One, a Primer) by Sarah E. Sprague, published 1903. 
The Big Show, 1949, paperback
Guess Who, the New Basic Readers, 1951.
Around Green Hills, 1963

Of course, the Dick and Jane, Baby Sally, Spot and Puff were the books I read at the one-room school in Poughquag. 

First Day of School

This time of year, I looked forward to going back to school and seeing all my friends. Sister and I had new dresses for the first day. My brothers had new pants (not jeans for school) and shirts. Even though money wasn't plentiful, Mother got us something new to wear for starting school. Getting a new "store bought" dress was something I looked forward to. (Mother made many of our clothes on her treadle sewing machine. But she purchased dresses for starting school.)

The school was about half a mile from our farm. Mother or Father drove us to school in the morning. But most days we walked home from school, carrying our bookbags and lunch boxes.

I've been trying to find a picture of the Poughquag Schoolhouse but have only come across one on a postcard that probably was an earlier version. The building seems somewhat different from what a friend and I recall. So we're wondering if the original school was distroyed or dismantled an a newer one built when we attended.

Some books available about one-room schools around the country. (Eventually I should compile my blog entries into a book with photos and sketches.)

Legacy of One-Room Schools
One-Room Country Schools: History and Recollections from Wisconsin
Northwest Indiana One Room School
(Image: sxc.hu)