On NPR this morning: The old one room school house

[Crazy Dave]

It's a great story if any of you get a chance to hear it. There are still some of them open in the last of the dying farm communities, one with only three students. The older kids read and help the younger kids, the teachers and the books are the same ones as their parents and grandparents had, etc.
Naturally, due to cost per student versus a larger school in the city the government wants to shut all these small but necessary and historic schools down and make the kids ride a bus, one as long as an hour and a half to the next closest school.

Have a great day everyone!:)

[liberal N proud]

1. Well the government know what is best for these kids - Right?

:sarcasm:

[Crazy Dave]

2. Of course they do heh, heh.

Seriously though, I do know several individuals who grew up on farms, went to the same type of schools, maybe not as small, but they told me how they had to get up at 4:30am every morning to do chores, feed and water the livestock, etc. before going to the towns school.
Now add a hour and a half bus ride to that....hmmmm....start waking up around 3:00am?

[liberal N proud]

4. Sleep - it is highly over rated

Specially whey you are growing and learning.

My mother went to a one room school. I would send my youngest daughter to one as I think that environment would really help her even with the high IQ she possesses. The public schools do nothing but inhibit her abilities.

[Cooley Hurd]

3. My mother attended school in such a facility...

...in Sherwood, NY. It was founded and administered by the abolitionist and women's suffrage activist Emily Howland. In fact, my grandmother was a housekeeper for "Miss Emily" (as my mother and grandmother referred to her out of respect) and picked up the cost of my grandmother's medical care when she gave birth to my mother.

Sorry for going a bit OT, but I've always loved that story! :)

[Crazy Dave]

5. >>Sorry for going a bit OT, but I've always loved that story!

Not at all. We / I loved it.

Thanks for sharing :)

[NJCher]

6. link to listen to story

Here it is, right on their main page:

http://www.npr.org/

Scroll down and in the middle you will see a pic of a red schoolhouse. Headline is "One Room Schools Survive."

I know I will enjoy this story; thanks DaveTheWave.




Cher

[SujiwanKenobee]

7. I see lots of these old buildings around

In upstate NY, in a dairy farming community, my mother and all her sibs attended a 1 room schoolhouse until she went to HS. SHe has very fond memories of it and the close knit community. SHe was able to accelerate her progress and graduated a year early, attending college at 16.
As I drive through Maryland and S central PA, there are lots of roads named for school houses and many that have been converted to other uses along my driving routes--go by at least 10.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

8. yeah, Kansas is full of them . . .

. . . I know an older lady who went to one. She still keeps up with all her old friends. They were a real community, and stay that way despite the fact that they are scattered all over.