This week we will continue with Mrs. Thompson’s documentation as follows.

“Learning to write taught us Palmer Method script from the outset. As soon as we could form letters into words, rules began to appear. Writing words immediately brought strict rules of spelling, soon followed by more rules for sentences-grammar, punctuation, and all the rest. Our efforts were promptly marked for correction if we erred, and we practiced the corrections long enough to aid retention. Alt those rules were seen just the tools we needed to put writing on paper ourselves, where not in any way resented. Some parent of pupils in the school could not do that very well. My own father had only elementary education, but was able to own and manage a country store.
Although my father’s schooling was limited, he was very good at doing arithmetic – unfortunately a gift that I did not inherit. At District 22, we absorbed those infamous, memorized ‘tables,’ along with much other rote learning. But we frequently practiced arithmetic in a recess activity used in bad weather when we could not go outside. We had a cardboard box with holes of varied size cut in it. A number marked above each hole was its point value, with the smaller, harder-to-hit holes counting more. Bean bags were what we tossed at the holes, and used our arithmetic to keep score and compete toward winning. All that tossing wore out the box periodically, so it had to be mended or replaced. This is just one of the crude but useful devices that served to supplement our learning-costing nothing but some effort and ingenuity.
We learned ‘facts’ about history and geography, as there were then understood, sparsely illustrated by a few colored maps and some black and white pictures. Some of those ‘facts’ may have been less than accurate, or even untrue. Yet we glimpsed other times and places, where people lived lives very different from ours, and the differences aroused interest to seek more information. Books were the main source available then, and I learned to cherish them very early.
Certain advantages and disadvantages naturally went along being ‘the teacher’s kid.’ Charges of favoritism did not arise, because my mother was a strict disciplinarian, and she showed me no favors. My greatest advantage probably was that we went to the library in the Village of Greene at least every couple weeks. That kept a supply of good books for reading to the school by my mother-and helped me become, and remain, an avid reader. I caused the librarian some distress because I had read my way through all the children’s books by third grade, and wanted more. My mother had to do considerable persuasion before I was allowed-under close supervision-to venture into the adult stacks. Fortunately we found enough ‘safe’ books to satisfy both my interest and the librarian’s cautious concerns.
Disadvantages of being ‘the teacher’s kid’ during those grade school years included having to carry the bucket of water each morning as soon as I was big enough to do it. I couldn’t leave after classes until my mother did, so I had chores such as washing the blackboards, slapping chalk dust out of erasers, emptying the waste basket, and sweeping up debris around the wood stove. Usually it was not long before the little Ford carried us toward home.
I think that my mother, and most of those prepared for teaching in one year of training class as she had been, relied upon the mandated materials as if they were gospel. She had several thick textbooks that set forth in detail what pupils at each grade level should learn. Teachers then made sure that pupils mastered what was taught, treating it as serious business, without trying to make it ‘fun.’ However scorned the methods may seem now; the result was that ‘the basics’ usually were learned in the first six grades.
No special teachers for music, art, or physical education visited the small rural schools, but those areas were not entirely neglected. There was no piano or other instrument at our school, but we sang. The songs were mostly familiar, having been heard at adult gatherings. It didn’t matter at all if some had been learned at Sunday School or church. Art had its place, too, ranging from coloring outline pictures to making small objects with construction paper, scissors and paste. Making little boxes and baskets shows us how flat patterns can become three-dimensional shapes. Sometimes we molded animals or faces in clay, or made seasonal decorations to hand up around the room.
Recess at mid-morning and mid-afternoon, plus part of the lunch hour, provided plenty of exercise in the yard. We played active games, and in winter there was good sledding on nearby hills. If weather was really bad, we often marches up and down between desks, and even did some criss-cross maneuvers in the limited space, while stomping out a rhythm with our feet. The effects of stale air did not escape my mother’s attention, so at times all windows were opened, regardless of weather. We stood close to them and did “deep breathing exercises” which were supposed to get fresh air into our lungs. In winter, those drills were brief-windows were soon closed to regain warmth – but the fresh air was still invigorating.
One condition that could not be avoided was the odor of the ‘chemical’ toilets. The outhouse had been superseded by allegedly more modern ways of coping with human waste. Separate toilets for boys and girls were located just inside the front door at District 22, and each cubicle had a solid wooden door, but the smell could not be contained. Having separate toilets was quite an innovation in itself, but at least the outhouse had been outside. No student protests were made about the smell – most pupils used an outhouse at home, and they were well acquainted with the farm labor of shoveling manure. However, ‘chemical’ toilets never did catch on.
Many years had to pass before I became much aware of conditions in the little rural schools that were beyond the control of any teacher. Almost all of the pupils attending lived on farms, and walked a mile or two each way from home to school and back again. Most had milked several cows before starting for school, and would do that again in the evening. Household chores claimed a great deal of time and energy then, with virtually none of the conveniences later considered necessities. Children of both sexes began very early to take part in whatever work needed to be done. The word ‘homework’ literally meant work required at home, so all schoolwork had to be done at school under those conditions.
Steadily rising requirements for teachers became a constant struggle for those sparsely educated as my mother had been. During the summers between my last two years at 22, my mother attended summer school at Oneonta Normal – a place offering further education for teachers. It was beyond commuting distance, so she rented a room there and took meals at a boarding house. For one week in each of those summer sessions, I was allowed to go with her. I had to read, or draw, or sew, while she was at classes, but at mealtime I sat at the large table, surrounded by teachers. School talk naturally dominated the conversation. One thing I overheard was that the teachers were being told to learn all they could about pupils’ home situations. Afterward, home visits became a part of my mother’s agenda.
With two or three pupils in a very small school often from the same family, visiting homes may seem easy to do, but it was not. Transportation alone was a hurdle, and finding a time when parents – or even one of them – would talk proved to be difficult. Farm chores always had priority, and not all parents were willing to discuss how their children were doing at school. Those who routinely kept older children out of school whenever their help was needed at home saw no reason to alter that habit, or even to discuss it. Going with my mother on those trips showed me a side of a teacher’s work that I would otherwise not have been aware of.
It didn’t occur to me during those elementary years, but later observations convinced me that my mother probably was one of the best teachers with only limited preparation. She was the right type of person to run a country school with almost no supervision. The autonomy enhanced her satisfaction and she clearly enjoyed her work. Locally, teaching was a position of prestige and authority, since more adults had even less education and could not question what she said was correct. I still stand in awe of how much she and others in similar situations were able to achieve. The proof really came when those of us whose early schooling was only in the tiny rural schools went on to larger schools for higher grades. Most of us did surprisingly well among children who had experienced far more modern facilities and methods in their elementary education.
Other parts of the United States were farm ahead of rural areas in the 1920s so even folks of my own generation will find the conditions described here unfamiliar if they lived in cities or large villages. With no basis for comparison, some of us did not know we were poor. We learned to do without non-essentials. A welcome birthday gift may be a new washcloth, or toothbrush, or a pair of socks. My first six grades overlapped the late 1920s into the early 1930s. Those of us who experienced the “Great Depression” were permanently marked by the grim lesions it taught. But my father made steady progress during that period, and unlike many who were devastated by the financial crash of 1929, he still managed to prosper. That fact greatly affected my situation.”

This concluded the documentation that was forwarded to my attention relevant to the history of Greene’s many district schools. Mrs. Thompson’s mother was Mrs. Ruby Filer (taught 1926-1933) and the District #22 that she taught at and that Mrs. Thompson attended was that became to be known as the Towslee district which was the subject of the recent article of April 7, 2011.
In closing the usual requests, this writer would appreciate any ‘school memories’ and if you have school records or photos, do not destroy, pass them along to a repository for permanent keeping. Finally, after reading this documentation of attendance in a one-room school and the methods used in teaching in the early years, this writer will assume it will bring back many school day memories of attending either the one-room schools or a larger school in a village or city. For the most part this documentation did bring back certain memories of my own attendance in the Ward schools in Norwich!