Episode 32: One Room Schoolhouses
How many kids are in your school? Not your class, your WHOLE SCHOOL. In Indian Lake (that’s the town our hamlet of Blue Mountain Lake is in) there are just over 100 Kindergarten-12th grade students. In an elementary school we visit in Utica, there are almost 500–and that doesn’t include middle or high school! But what if your school was so small that all the students could fit in one room? That was the reality for many kids in the early days of public school, especially in rural areas like here in the Adirondacks. For many years kids around New York state went to school in tiny One Room Schoolhouses. Listen to this episode of ADKX-tra Credit to learn more about what it was like to attend a one room schoolhouse of the past.
Teacher and students pose outside of the public school in Glen, N.Y., 1910. (P002097)
Students in Blue Mountain Lake Schoolhouse. 1951. (P059223)
Raquette Lake school boat. 1912. ( P050066)
Connecting to Curriculum
Read-aloud. Students can follow along while listening. Download a copy of the transcript. Click HERE to download a copy of the transcript.
Vocabulary: Explore new words. Students will be listening to high level vocabulary in context. Have them identify the definition. Click HERE for the vocabulary page.
Science: Test your 1891 One Room Schoolhouse education, try to answer the questions in these test excerpts! Subjects include math, geography, civics, history, “physiology and hygiene,” and “methods and school economy.” Click HERE for the questions!
Questions
Higher grade level students may want to explore some topics in more depth.
- In the state of NY, it became mandatory for all children 8-14 years old to attend school in 1874. Why was that an important change? How did making education mandatory change literacy rates?
- Research requirements for school teachers in the 1880s when Edna West Teall was in school. How are they similar and different from the requirements of today? Edna West Teall made it very clear that being “frivolous” was, if not forbidden, very frowned upon and could make a teacher lose the respect of the community.. Are there similar social “respectability” standards that teachers have to adhere to today? Or is there more separation between work and personal life?
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