Volume 12 , Issue 26

Rural One-Room Schools

We did some research online and found some interesting tidbits concerning the rural one-room schoolhouses they had in the later nineteenth century and early 1900s. In some cases the one-room school houses often served as the community centers and churches and were among the first structures built in Oklahoma Territory. It was the focus of the community and the activities were considered of interest to everyone.

Farmers donated a piece of the land to build a one-room schoolhouse and boarded the teachers. Teachers pay was not much compared to today, but for back then it might have been a decent wage and respectful job for young ladies and men.

Also, I have found where the school session lasted anywhere from 70 days, 100 days to 3-1/2 months.

Early schools were often subscription schools where each child paid $1.00 per month while attending, which usually went to paying the $20 to $25 dollars to the teacher.

Eighth grade level was required for graduating from one-room schoolhouses. Students would gather in the one-room school, where one teacher prepared individual lessons for as many as thirty students.

Paper was a scarce luxury, so students worked on individual slate boards or at the blackboard. Drilling, memorization and recitation were the teacher's tools. Younger students learned by hearing the lessons of the higher levels many times. Furnishings in the room might have included the U. S. flag, a bookcase, maps or a globe, pictures of a president or two, and whatever other decorations the teacher could provide.

Student desks were aligned in rows on either side of a pot-bellied stove in the middle of the room. Usually, girls sat on one side and boys on the other. Hooks or nails were provided on the wall at the back of the room, where students hung their coats. There was also a bench for removing overshoes and under which students could place their lunches. Usually there was a crock or bucket for water with one dipper, which everyone used.

Teachers required a stricter standard of discipline than students follow today. At all times, students sat with both feet on the floor facing forward in their desks. When not doing tasks, they kept their hands folded on the desk or in their laps. Students did not speak without raising their hand, receiving permission, and then standing.

Have you ever heard from your grandparents or great grandparents about having to walk seven miles to the one-room schoolhouses? What about stories of a form of punishment where the teacher had a disobedient student draw a small circle high on the blackboard. The teacher then had the disruptive student stretch to place their nose in the circle. For more serious offenses the teacher might require a student to stand for a time with arms outstretched, palms up, holding a heavy book on each hand. A ruler rapped sharply across the hand usually improved a student's behavior or brought roving attention back to the work at hand.

An early school day began for the teacher, who arrived in time to bring in the coal, wood to start the fire and prepare for the day. At 9:00 the teacher emerged from the school house and rang the bell, calling the students to class. Boys would line up on one side, girls on the other. Students would remain standing by their desks for opening exercises. The atmosphere in the classroom was formal, but in spite of the formality it was still a room full of young people with high spirits and the usual pranks.

Teachers in the late 19th century were usually young. Just out of school themselves, often in their late teens and sometimes younger than some of their students.

Some of the other duties of the teacher were administrative, maintenance, nursing, and counseling chores as well. School boards expected teachers to focus all their attention on teaching duties. There was a strict standards of behavior required from all the teachers. School boards hired both men and women, but preferred men to control the older boys in the schools and to do the heavy winter chores.

Also, we found that rarely did men make a career of teaching in one-room country schools. Our grandpa (Wm J. McGill), when not playing professional baseball in the early 1900s taught at various onr-room schoolhouses in northwest Oklahoma.

Teaching was considered a respectable alternative for women. They could not marry, because it was considered unseemly and distracting from their duties. If the teacher was a local woman, she could live at home with her family. Otherwise, she was expected to board with the families of her students. Generally this meant that the teacher shared a room with the children and had no privacy at all.

The rural one-room teachers received low pay, no benefits and no job security. The teaching certificates today were not present back in the one-room schoolhouse era of the late nineteenth century and early 1900s. Only basic three-Rs were taught.

School boards hired teachers for only one term at a time and the least hint of impropriety was grounds for dismissal. It is hard to imagine the dedication of those teachers who persevered. How would they fare in the present teaching situations today?
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