My mom attended a one-room school house in Milan, NY, in the early 1900s with her two brothers and sister. She went on to high school, the only one in her family, in a nearby town and stayed during the week with a friend of her parents, exchanging room and board for housework.
I only have her verbal stories about her one-room school education, with perhaps a reference or two in a letter. I must recall these and write them down before they're lost from our family heritage.
After high school, Mother attended a one-year Teachers' Training course at Pine Plains, NY. Her first teaching position was in a one-room school about 45 miles from her home in 1929, at Gardner Hollow, NY. Upon my urging, Mother wrote her memories about coming to this school, boarding with a local family, and meeting the young man she later married, my dad,
Before marriage, Mother went on to get her teaching degree at New Paltz Normal School (now SUNY New Paltz) and taught for three years before we children were born. In those days, some school districts wouldn't hire married teachers and definitely wouldn't let pregnant ones teach. After New Paltz, Mother taught at Towners, NY.
I must compile memories, photos, certificates, teaching contracts, and Mother's writings to depict her one-room school life and memories as a student and teacher.
