I travel throughout Wisconsin, with great affection for the state’s rural areas. I have learned there are many old-time schoolhouses still standing, the famous one-room school. I did not attend one but they fascinate me. I’ll share photos of the ones I have found to fascinate you.
Brandon Bustead commented in Forbes in November 2020, “The one-room schoolhouse was once a signature of the American education landscape with roughly 190,000 such schools in 1919. Today, roughly 400 remain. What many would characterize as a relic of the past or a remnant of rural America, the one-room schoolhouse may instead be a vision for the future of education.”
Richard Fidler, writing “One-Room Schools a Hundred Years Ago: Of Study Time, Recitations, and Recess,” acknowledges he is fascinated by one-room schools, suggesting they are “memorials to the past (that) grace the countryside.” However, he opines they are not good models for today’s education because kids today need to do more than memorize and write neatly. Nonetheless, he says these schoolhouses dotting our landscape are “delightful artifacts of a bygone age.”
I, too am attracted to these old schoolhouses. Most often, I find them sitting out there alone. They are monuments to another day, sometimes in good shape, sometimes collapsing or ready to collapse. People have converted many into their homes, in which case they receive good attention. Oft times, communities have gathered together to preserve and restore the old school house. In other cases, they stand empty, leaving one to wonder what it must have been like to attend them.
Kris Scott reflected on 30 old schoolhouses across the nation. Some of her reflections strike a chord: a place to play with other kids; female teachers’ bodies were covered head to toe, they were single, they could not stay out past dark; an endangered species; memories of children’s pranks; pockets of “rural charm;” filled with classic vibes; school hours set around home needs for the children to do their chores; built in a day or two; lists setting the standard; boys on one side, girls on the other.
I travel throughout Wisconsin, with great affection for the state’s rural areas. I have learned there are many old-time schoolhouses still standing, the famous one-room school. I did not attend one but they fascinate me. I’ll share photos of the ones I have found to fascinate you.
Brandon Bustead commented in Forbes in November 2020, “The one-room schoolhouse was once a signature of the American education landscape with roughly 190,000 such schools in 1919. Today, roughly 400 remain. What many would characterize as a relic of the past or a remnant of rural America, the one-room schoolhouse may instead be a vision for the future of education.”
Richard Fidler, writing “One-Room Schools a Hundred Years Ago: Of Study Time, Recitations, and Recess,” acknowledges he is fascinated by one-room schools, suggesting they are “memorials to the past (that) grace the countryside.” However, he opines they are not good models for today’s education because kids today need to do more than memorize and write neatly. Nonetheless, he says these schoolhouses dotting our landscape are “delightful artifacts of a bygone age.”
I, too am attracted to these old schoolhouses. Most often, I find them sitting out there alone. They are monuments to another day, sometimes in good shape, sometimes collapsing or ready to collapse. People have converted many into their homes, in which case they receive good attention. Oft times, communities have gathered together to preserve and restore the old school house. In other cases, they stand empty, leaving one to wonder what it must have been like to attend them.
Kris Scott reflected on 30 old schoolhouses across the nation. Some of her reflections strike a chord: a place to play with other kids; female teachers’ bodies were covered head to toe, they were single, they could not stay out past dark; an endangered species; memories of children’s pranks; pockets of “rural charm;” filled with classic vibes; school hours set around home needs for the children to do their chores; built in a day or two; lists setting the standard; boys on one side, girls on the other.
