School House of the Past In 1917 about 195,000 one-room schoolhouses were located in the United States. Ohio had more than 10,000 schoolhouses in 1917. By the end of World War II the number of schoolhouses dropped to 100,000.
The only bathroom facility one-room schoolhouses had were outhouses. Many of the poor schools only had one outhouse for everybody to share. In the wealthier schools they built outhouses for boys and girls. Some schools even had outhouses that could accommodate 2 to 3 children at once. John Loughlin, in Sydney Ohio, invented the first school desk in 1880. The “Old Fashion Desks” were attached to one another. The desks were big enough to sit two to three children. Most desks had inkwells to write. These desks became very popular in one-room schoolhouses. James Pillans invented the chalkboard in 1801. In the late 1800’s and 1900’s chalkboards and slates became very popular and mainly used in everyday life. Pillans invented the chalkboard because he needed a way to teach geography. One-room schoolhouses had two entrances. The girls sat on one side of the room while the boys sat on the other side. The youngest children sat closer to the teacher in the front. There was a blackboard behind the teacher. A wood stove heated the classroom. Many male teachers were retired soldiers. They knew how to read and write and needed a job after the army. The one teacher taught up to eight grades at one time. If there were lots of children wanting to attend school the older students went during the school year and the younger children were taught during the summer months. Schools have always existed. Ever since our ancestors wanted to pass down their knowledge, we have had schools. Before they built a building and called it a “school” children learned from their parents or family members. But some parents weren’t educated, so they couldn’t teach their children. Instead their children were sent over to other people’s houses that were educated. Soon after they built buildings and children would come to learn. This is how schools began. The first one-room schoolhouse in Ohio was built in 1772. By: Abby Smith, Olivia Douglas, Becca Meyer, and Amanda Shafer (Grade 8)
Doansburg One-Room Schoolhouse When looking at one-room school houses of the past the Doansburg One-Room Schoolhouse is a good example of past school houses. This schoolhouse is located in Putnam County. It consists of a chalkboard, a teacher’s desk, three school desks, a broom, a water bucket, and a bunch of books. On the outside of the school, it is red, and has three windows on each side. As you can see, past schoolhouses were simple compared to schools of today.
By: Madison Wiseman and Renee Schroeder (Grade 5) Schoolhouse of the Past One room schoolhouses began mainly in farming communities. They started because in farming communities, houses were far apart. Schoolhouses were built so children in the farming communities would not have to walk or travel so far. One room schoolhouses were not just for classes but as well as community centers for programs and meetings. There could be churches on Sundays or town meetings held on the weeknights. It could also be a place to go and vote on Election Day. There are some schoolhouses that were called consolidated schools. This means that both black and white people are allowed to attend this school. Consolidated schools started in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Most schools today are consolidated schools.
The first consolidated high school class to graduate from a one room schoolhouse was in 1888. There were only two students who graduated: Emma Harrington and Frank Elzey. They graduated from Hilliard High School. Hilliard High School is located in Hilliard, Ohio. Religion played a big role in what the one room schoolhouses looked like. In most schoolhouses, boys and girls were mainly separated. The boys sat on one side of the room and the girls sat on the opposite side. There were also two entrances to get into the schoolhouse. One entrance was for the boys to use. The other one was the girls’ door. In one room schoolhouses there was only one teacher that taught all eight grades. Even though this may have been hard, there were things that made it easier. One was that all of the students were divided into four sections of the classroom. The students were also organized by placing the younger kids sitting in the front, and the older kids sitting in the back of the schoolroom. Schoolhouses had many needed essentials. Wood stoves were in most schoolhouses to heat them because most schoolhouses were poorly heated and ventilated. They were not very good conductors of heat or air, because most of the schoolhouses were built with wood, stone, or brick. Most schoolhouses with wood stoves also had chimneys so the smoke could escape the building. Schoolhouses also had a bell hung on the porch so teachers could call kids in and there were wells nearby to draw water from to be used in the schoolhouse. Children in one room schoolhouses played some of the same games we still play today. They played tetherball, hop scotch, and “I Spy” at recess and after school with friends. By: Mackenzie Wurth (Grade 8), Eric Warnecke, and Ryan Tabler (Grade 7)
One-Room Schoolhouse This is a model of a one-room schoolhouse. A one-room schoolhouse
was made out of brick or wood. On the inside the boys sat on one side and girls sat on the other. Back then they did not have a heater like we do today. Instead they had a potbelly stove to keep warm. Anywhere from 5 to 30 kids could fit in one classroom. Basing our schoolhouse on an early 1900 schoolhouse, we tried to make our schoolhouse as realistic as possible. By: Geddy Davis and Taylor Ellerbrock (Grade 6) Past School BuildingsSummary: We learned that every school house has three windows on each side. We learned that each desk is connected to the chair in front of it. We learned that they would stand outside and sing to the American flag. We learned that if they were bad, they would sit on a special chair and wear a dunce hat.
Facts: In school houses, the first book was the Bible and the children wrote with a chunk of chalk. Children sat on three-legged stools and their desks had a dent for chalk. Did you know the first text book was in England? Children sang to the American flag every day. A quill pen was used for very important writing. By: Caleb Morman, Mackenzie Langhals, Max Eversole (Grade 2), Ryan Bogart, Aubrey Davis, Grace Selhorst (Grade 3)
PosterBy: Mitchell Caudill (Grade 1)
What did the inside of a one room schoolhouse look like? Facts: In the olden days they used slates and chalk to write. When school would begin, the teacher rang the bell. When school was over she rang it. I looked up information on the computer. I also looked at pictures in books to see how to draw my things. Summary: This is how I made my project. I practiced drawing my pictures on old paper. Then I drew the pictures on the poster. I used crayons to color the pictures. I used a stencil to print the letters for my title. PosterBy: Chadd Martin (Grade 1)
What did it look like in a one room schoolhouse? Facts: In the olden days, they used slates to write with. It was dusty. When school would begin, the teacher rang the bell. When school was over, she rang it. I looked up information on the computer. I also looked at pictures in books to see how to draw my things. Summary: This is how I made my project. I took a poster board and stenciled in my title. I then used markers to color it. I looked at pictures from the computer and books and started to draw them. I wanted to see how much these things cost so the teacher helped me look on the computer for the prices. I put the prices on the pictures to show how much they cost. PosterBy: Taylor Schroeder (Grade 1)
What did it look like in a one room schoolhouse? Facts: In the olden days, they used wooden desks to sit in. The kids used a chalkboard and chalk to write with in school. There was no DS. I looked up information on the computer. I also looked at pictures in books to see how to draw my things. Summary: This is how I made my project. I took a poster board and stenciled in my title. I then used markers to color it. I looked at pictures to draw on my poster. Now everyone can see what things looked like in the past. I liked the dunce hat. DioramaBy: Luke Ellerbrock, Landen Wilcox (K), and Jared Kahle (Grade 1)
What did the little schoolhouses look like in the olden days? What did the kids use? Facts: The children carried their lunch in pails. They had chalkboards to write on and they had a potbelly stove to keep them warm. To begin our project, we looked at pictures in books and on websites on the computer. Summary: This is how we made our project. We cut the side of a box off. We put paper on the outside and inside of the box. We made desks out of paper and popsicle sticks. We made pencils out of green paper and slates from black. We made windows, a stove too. We used Lego people for the students. |
The Red School HouseBy: Elizabeth Tabler and Marybeth Nemire (grade 8)
Days in a One Room Schoolhouse
~Kids who attended school were normally farmers since their parents owned a farm. ~When first building the schoolhouse, they tried to place it in the center of the town so children did not have to walk no more than two miles. ~The school building was a simple structure that was rectangular with three windows on each side and a door in the front. The flooring was either made of dirt or wooden planks so the children had to wear shoes. The schoolhouse also had no insolation so in the winter the children had to dress warm. ~During the day in the morning, the class would start the school day at about 9:00 A.M. and the teacher would ring a large bell outside to let the children know class was about to start. The children would go inside and stand to say the Pledge of Allegiance and then they would sing a song or listen to a story from the bible. Once these activities were done, they would begin the morning classes. ~There first class would be a reading session. During this time, each grade would come up to the front of the classroom and recite a poem or passage from a book to the teacher. ~After the reading lesson, there would be writing or spelling lesson. During writing, the children would learn good penmanship. After that lesson, there would normally be a short break. Sometimes during these short breaks, one person would grab a wooden bucket and head to a nearby creek to fill the bucket up full of water for the other children. Then each child in the class would get a drink when the person with the bucket came back. If it was snowing, they would fill the bucket up with snow and brought it back in to melt until it became water. ~Also on short breaks, they would be able to use the outhouse. ~Once the break was over, the children would do an arithmetic lesson. Then they would have one hour for lunch and fifteen minutes of recess. The afternoon lessons would be history, geography, civics, language and sometimes nature on nice days. ~ The day would then end around 4:00 P.M. They would walk single file out of the school and walk one mile or two to home. If someone got in trouble during the day they would stay after school and help prepare for the next day.
District 67 Schoolhouse This is a tour of the one room schoolhouse. Let’s begin. We will tell
you the items inside from the left to the right. The first thing is the pot bellied stove, which is located at the top left corner. It was used to heat the school. In the bottom left corner there are desks that open up under the writing surface to store books. On their desks there are slates. The slates were used to write on with chalk. They also have ink on their desks because they wrote with feathers and ink. In the top right corner there is a cloakroom, which is where there are hooks for coats and for storage of overshoes. At the head of the classroom there is a teacher’s desk. On the desk there is a pointer stick, an apple, and a globe. In the bottom right corner is a dunce stool and cap. A person would wear the cap and sit in front of the classroom when they got in trouble. Behind the teacher’s desk is a blackboard. Outside there is an outhouse that the children could use for emergencies. There is also a teeter-totter or a seesaw that the kids used to play with. Thank you for visiting our one room schoolhouse. By: Caleb Langhals, Bryce King, Garrett Nemire, and Lauren Diehl (Grade 5) One Room Schoolhouse I have learned in this project how one-room schoolhouses were built and what was inside the room. Some facts include, one teacher usually a woman, instructed all the students in the school from the grades one to the eight. There were only one or two windows on each side of the schoolhouse. The schoolhouses were usually painted red because it was the cheapest paint. There were no inside bathrooms until 1775 when Thomas Crapper started using indoor plumbing, until that date the children had to go outside the schoolhouse to use the outhouse. Boys were sitting on one side of the room girls on the other, grade one were in the front and grade eight was in the back. They had to either sit in small wooden desks or on benches. A stove heated the school until 1883
when Thomas Edison invented the first electric heater. The teacher had to get to school very early on winter days to start the fire on the stove. Then, the students were in charge of the keeping the fire going all day. Some schoolhouses had two entrances one for boys, one for girls to enter the schoolhouse through. Other schoolhouses only had one entrance for both boys and girls. The children in the school had to write on a board called a slate until schools started using chalkboards in 1801 when James Pillans invented them. By: Anna Selhorst and Alicia Burgei (Grade 7)
One-Room Schoolhouse This is an example of a one-room schoolhouse. Most schoolhouses
were made of brick but we chose to do a schoolhouse that is less common. A one-room schoolhouse usually had a big chalkboard in the front of the room with a couple of windows on each side of the classroom. There was a boy’s entrance and a girl’s entrance. We also learned that not only did they have separate entrances, but also boys and girls always stayed on the same side of the classroom. Boys stayed on the boy’s entrance side and girls stayed on the girl’s entrance side. By: Emily Blankemeyer and Leah Tabler (Grade 6) Schools of the Past There were a lot of events that affected school during the past generations. Segregation was one of those events. During Segregation black and white students could not go to school together. Black schools had a lot of disadvantages compared to the white schools. One example of a disadvantage had to do with the lack of desks. Students had to sit on benches instead of at desks. The Little Rock Nine were the first black students to attend an all white school. When they came to school, many of the parents of the white students made their kids stay home and not go to school. The black students had to eat alone but the white students all ate together. Segregation led to all school buildings being equal no matter what kids were in it.
By: Kara Schmidt (Grade 4) One Room SchoolhouseBy: Brock Verhoff, Logan Mershman, Conner Douglas (K), and Andrew Morman (Grade 1)
What did a little one-room schoolhouse look like? What did they have at school? Facts: The school had an outhouse for kids to go to the bathroom. Many of the kids had to walk to school or ride a horse. They had to pack their lunch in tin cans. We looked at pictures in books and on the computer to see what schools looked like. We also saw a movie about the Little House on the Prairie. Summary: This is how we made the school. The teacher helped us cut out boxes to form the school. We used big tape to put the pieces together. Then we went into the hall and painted it red and gray. We made windows from black and white paper and popsicle sticks for the doors. We used a milk carton for the bell tower. We made bushes and a fence for the school too. Popsicle Stick SchoolhouseBy: Andrew Pohl (K) and Trent Koch (Grade 1)
What were the one room schoolhouses made of in the olden days? Facts: In the schoolhouse, they had potbelly stoves. The teacher had to start the fire before the kids came to school each day. Many of the schools were made of logs. We looked at pictures in books and on the computer to make our schoolhouse. Summary: This is how we made our project. First, we took a box and taped it closed. Then we glued popsicle sticks to the box. The teacher helped us tape the sticks to form the roof. We found some window pictures on the computer and we had them copied. We then pasted them on our school. We wrote boys and girls by the doors to the school because they each had their own door to use. PosterBy: Evan Sautter (K)
How much did items cost in the olden days? Facts: In the olden days they used an outhouse to go to the bathroom. When school would begin, the teacher rang the bell. To find out how much things cost in the past, the teacher and I looked up information on the computer. I also looked at pictures in books to see how to draw my things. Summary: This is how I made my project. I practiced drawing my pictures on old paper. Then I drew the pictures on the poster. I used crayons to color the pictures. When I wanted to put the price on the poster, the teacher helped me think of the prices. One Room Schoolhouse By: Nate Kamphaus (K)
What does a little schoolhouse look like? Facts: In the olden days, they used an outhouse for their bathroom. They used old desks instead of tables. I looked at pictures in books and movies to see how the schools looked. I went on the computer to find more pictures too. Summary: This is how I made my project. First, I got a box and my teacher cut it in pieces for me. Then I glued and taped them all together. Next, I got brown and red paint to paint the outside of the house. I used a milk carton for my bell tower and paper for my windows. I cut out a door and covered it with popsicle sticks. The door handles were made from stick pins. On the inside I am putting desks made out of popsicle sticks. I used the multiple intelligences of visual and kinesthetic. |