PIONEER SCHOOL LIFE

Pioneer school houses were typically wooden buildings with one room. Hence the term: “One Room School House”

<< teacher's desk In a one room school house, the teacher would have their desk at the front of the room facing the students. << teacher's desk

These schoolrooms were chilly and damp. In the winter the stove would barely keep the room warm.

In the classroom the boys sat on one side and the girls on the other. At the front of the building there were two entrances, one for boys and one for girls In the classroom the boys sat on one side and the girls on the other.

Most teachers in pioneer schools were men Most teachers in pioneer schools were men. Most male teachers were retired soldiers who, after leaving the army, needed a job. Early teachers did not have college training like today. To be a teacher in pioneer times, a man or woman simply had to know how to read and write, and handle children. Female teachers had to be single, and once they married, they could no longer teach.

When a new teacher arrived in town, every family paid a small amount of money for the teacher’s salary and took turns boarding the teacher.

Because one teacher taught all the students at a school at one time, as many as 8 grades at once, bad behavior was not tolerated whatsoever. The teacher was given the responsibility of punishing students however he saw fit.

Children were disciplined for things such as incorrectly answering questions, not being prepared for class, arriving late to school, or worse---falling asleep in class. Often punishments included being ordered to write lines over and over, or having to memorize long passages. Sometimes teachers shamed their students by making them wear a “dunce cap”, or wear a humiliating sign around their neck. A boy might be made to put on a girl’s bonnet and sit on the girl’s side of the room, or students were to balance themselves on a small block of wood in the corner of the room.

With many children of different ages learning different skills at the same time, the teacher rarely had time to teach more than only three subjects. This was where the term, “The Three Rs” came from. The “Three Rs” of pioneer days education are: Reading aRithmetic wRiting

This book served all ages and reading levels. In the pioneer school, books and writing paper were scarce. One of the most used books was the McGuffey Reader. This book served all ages and reading levels.

Some children in the 19th century schools also used “hornbooks” --- a wooden paddle with a piece of paper on it showing the alphabet and numbers on one side and Bible verses on the other.

Some pioneer children practiced their writing and penmanship in “copy books”. Copybook paper was blank and students needed to draw straight lines with a ruler. If a student could not afford to buy a copybook, they used a slate. Slates were like small blackboards, but they were made from hard rock as were the pencils that were used to write on them. Students wrote by scratching the slate with these special pencils.

The ringing of the teacher’s bell signaled the beginning of a school day, and as the children entered, they “made their manners” to the teacher---that is to say either bowed (boys) or curtsied (girls) to the teacher as they entered the room.

Pioneer students were responsible for keeping their school clean and in good order. Because the only source of heat in the classroom came from the wood stove, various families in the community would supply the school with wood for the stove. Each day a different child was responsible for getting to school early, carrying a load of wood, and starting the stove fire before the other students arrived.

At the close of each school year, students in the eighth level “graduated”. Because some of these students had spent as many as eight years together in the one-room schoolhouse, the last day of school was both happy and sad. The close of school was a day of celebration, filled with games, feasting, dancing, and other activities in which the entire community participated.