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Volume 12, Issue 26 - Feature #5588

Rural One-Room Schools

My mother, Edna Louthan, attended first through eighth grades at Short Springs school West of Alva. She spoke of snow above the top wire on a four wire fence, and slogging through the snow to school. She would have begun first grade about 1910. After her one-room schooling, she attended Stella Friends Academy, and then went to NW Oklahoma Normal School. After two years of college, she was granted a â??lifetime teaching certificateâ?? She taught at Driftwood and at Fargo. When Oklahoma passed a Teachersâ?? Retirement Act, she began receiving $100.00 per month pension (this was sometime in the 1960s). Her retirement check was the largest monthly amount she had ever received as a teacher. During the depression her salary was, I believe, around $35.00 a month, plus an apartment in the teacherage (teacher housing). The last time I made the drive from Cherokee to Alva, Short Springs community center, in the historic school house, was still being maintained.

Al Weigand - 2010-06-29 00:48:53

I went to one of those one room schools Mound Ridge #114 in N.W. Woods County. I marvel now at how the teachers taught 8 grades with a room full of young sctive scholars. I had only one man teacher thru 8 grades. His name was Francis Albright and I also had him as a high school English teacher at Freedom, OK. The rest were ladies. Single ladies. We all had our jobs to help the teacher out with chores but we did get to play during noon hour and recess. We even had a ball team that went to other rural schools and played ball. I was the catcher. My dad always said "Why so you want to be a catcher, you have to handle every ball that comes across the plate?" I told him I just liked to catch. I remember when we started having hot lunchs. Each family furnished the food for a week usually soup or beans. Two pupils were in charge of cooking each day. We had a few meals of burned beand or curdled tomato soup etc etc. My memories of rural school are good and I won't even mention walking or riding a horse to school.

Marthsia (Marty) Myers - 2010-06-28 19:35:31

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