Back to School: A Room With A Few

By Bennett Owen

A room with a few:

- Pupils

- A few desks

Fruita Schoolhouse, Capital Reef, Utah. Credit: Bills Travel Journal

- A few books

Credit: My-West.com

- A few grades – as in one through eight

Oldest schoolhouse in Montana, it served duty in Twin Bridges, Montana, but now resides in Nevada City, Montana. Credit: oldmantravels

- A few outdoor privies – one for boys, one for girls

And lots and lots of borderline juvenile delinquency. A basic fixture of our western heritage, the one room school is truly a trip down memory lane ... though to hear my Uncles tell it, it was more like a five- mile slog through heavy snow, muddy spring roads and untold, often cunningly creative diversions.  As the old saying goes, “in my day we had to walk 20 miles to school, uphill both ways.” And getting there was half, if not all the fun.

Fruita Schoolhouse, Capital Reef, Utah Credit: Billstraveljournal

The accounts of rural school life are surprisingly uniform. Teachers were often little older than the students they were instructing, the older kids tutored the youngsters, who benefited from listening in on the drills they would be subjected to a year or two down the road. There was also the added workload of fetching firewood, toting drinking water and myriad other daily chores.

Adobetown Schoolhouse, Virginia City, Montana. Credit: Sunni J.

It’s what the kids were up to when the teacher wasn’t looking that really makes for interesting reading, including some rambunctious boys who cornered a packrat and thought it would be funny to put it in the teacher’s desk drawer. Here’s my Uncle Jules with ‘the rest of the story …’

“After about an hour as the schoolroom became quiet, Miss Kelley could hear a noise in her desk drawer. Upon opening it out jumped the packrat. The teacher shrieked and literally had a heart attack! Aunt Wilda was summoned for first aid and Dr. Lee was called. Miss Kelley did survive but I don’t know the fate of those two boys.”

It’s strange how my uncle Robert’s eyes twinkle when hearing this story.

Polaris schoolhouse, Montana Credit: Montanaheritageproject

One-room schools were often a ‘Room With a Pew’ as well, doing double duty as a Sunday go to meetin‘ place of worship.

One-room schoolhouse and church is now a Daughter’s of the Pioneers Museum Torrey, Utah. Credit: My-West.com

In 1919 there were 190-thousand one-room schools operating across America. That has dwindled to about 400 as this school year gets underway. In our neck of the sagebrush, the Polaris School still opens sporadically … whenever a dozen school-age kids or more are living in the valley.

Sulu schoolhouse, Sulu, Montana Credit: Patrick_h

Do your homework because tomorrow’s post includes an eighth grade graduation test from 1895. The results WILL shock you. Hell, I could barely understand the questions!  In the meantime, here’s how one western teacher handled her unruly students: