ThayerRags

Our local museum has the old 1-room Horse Creek School included in the Pioneer Townsite Museum complex. It is completely furnished as a 1920s working school house. My wife and I took my Mother (82 y/o) to it for the Christmas program just a few nights ago, and took in the program of how and what Christmas was like back in the 20s. The program was an enactment of what the school children would normally be doing in the school in preparation for Christmas time.

Anyone that wanted to could help make paper chains using old catalog pages cut into strips for the links and held together with home-made glue composed of flour and water, make popcorn strings with needle and thread, make hanging cone-shaped gift holders out of rolled catalog pages and a pipe cleaner bail to hang on the tree, or make tree decorations by tying thread onto a walnut leaving a loop coming off of it for a hanger and wrapping the nut with used tin foil.

The tree was in a bucket with rocks holding it up straight and providing weight to steady the tree.

We all had fun remembering.

CD in Oklahoma

Honeynga

I grew up in the City of Atlanta, in a little area that was extremely friendly and SAFE....in the summer we wouldn't even close the front door, just latch the screen ! For kindergarten I had to walk several blocks to go to a building on the local Baptist church grounds.....they loaned the bldg to the city school system because they didnt have room in the regular school house for us; then 1st and 2nd grades I walked about two blocks away on my same street, to attend school in the Salvation Army church classrooms, because the "big" school still didn't have room for us !

I always wanted to ride a school bus, but in the city if you lived within a 1 mile radius you weren't eligible to ride the bus.....oh, all I ever wanted to do was ride the school bus ! I never did !

I guess the classes were about average size and I know that we had more than one class for each grade...just don't remember

nativetexan

I remember going to classes in temporary buildings in Elementary school. and Junior High too (middle school). funny, those temporary buildings sure lasted a good number of years for being temporary! i remember love bugs flying in the windows and all over the class rooms. It was hard to concentrate with Nature right in front of me.

quiltsRfun

Not one room but out school was so small that we had two grades in each classroom.

Sheila_H

Ours wasn't a one room school house but I grew up in a very small village where the school went from primary (kindergarden now) up to 12. We walked to and from school every day no matter what the weather was, on my walk home I always would stop and visit with this wonderful German lady who gave me cookies & tea and I'd tell her all about my day, he mother was one of my teachers. So mom thought it was great because I was always looked after and it didn't cost her anything lol
We basically had 6 school rooms and 7 teachers that taught all those different grades, including the school principal, and on Wed afternoon we had catechism classes with the local priest. You always went out for lunch and recess unless the weather was too bad. We'd always get excited when the book mobile would come by so we could borrow books - we didn't have a library in town to borrow from. Sitting here thinking back I had a lot of fond memories, we all wished we had a big town back then but now that I think about it I liked how things were back then.

GingerK

I spent my first grade in a one room school house. There were 3 children in Grade 1, 2 in Grade 2, 2 in Grade 3, no Grade 4's, a whopping 4 in Grade 5, a pair a twins in Grade 6, 2 in Grade 7, one in Grade 8 and 1 taking Grade 9 by correspondence. And most of them were my relatives! There was one family that still drove their horse and buggy to School in Autumn and Spring. Yes, I remember playing the games, and swings with a cement pad underneath.

The next year, we were bussed to 'town school'. Two grades in each room until Grade 6, when the new school was built. Mine was the largest graduating class up to that time for our school--31 in Grade 12.

marjean36

My school was not one room but a building with 6 rooms. One was a lunch room. It was heated with what I thought was a huge pot belly wood stove. As I got older I realized it wasn't so big after all. We had to go to an outhouse, did not have a library, but did we ever play basketball!! It was a farming community and there were not a lot of people in the county around there. My oldest brother was the only student that started 1st grade and graduated at the school before we were all sent to a bigger school. There were 4 students in his graduating class. We played all those wonderful outside games to. It was 12 miles from the closest town, Baird, TX and 30 from Abilene, TX. Some of the teachers lived in those towns. We had three small houses where the teachers stayed during the week and went home for the weekend. As time passed some of the plaster on the walls began to crumble. One of the older boys, not my brother this time, put an alarm clock in the wall set to go off during his "favorite" class. Another time the boys brought in a chicken from one of the yards of the houses. When the teacher told him to take it outside he threw it to another student and the fun began. We rode a bus the two miles to school. We did have a few weather days that we "got" to walk to school in the snow. Or perhaps the bus got stuck on a muddy road and we would walk. There is surely nothing like "the good old days". I am so fortunate to have grown up at that time.

Bluequilter

I went to a two room school ... the "Little Room" had grades 1 -4 and the "Big Room" had grades 5-8. Our school was East Twin River and I was in class with the same 8 kids for 8 years. We had outdoor bathrooms and no running water. I remember playing red rover, hunting rabbit, and tag in the school yard. At that time, there were numerous rural schools throughout our area. It was an easy, worry-free time and was a great place to be young.

catrancher

I grew up in a military family and attended seven schools by the time I reached the 6th grade--three schools in 2nd grade alone. No regrets. I've been all over the country, and I loved our many moves.

NDQuilts

My graduating class from public high school was 130ish. Husbands private school was 13. We are planning to homeschool our kids so I guess we will cover the educational spectrum as a family. Why homeschool? Because I can ensure mastery of the material, move at the students pace (our oldest appears to be really bright), teach subjects like Bible and Latin, go year round taking breaks when it fits family life, etc. I'm excited to be able to offer the kids more than what was available when we were in a classroom. My nephew might join us, so in a way, I anticipate a one room school again.