FLASHBACK HARBORS NO NOSTALGIA for the ONE-ROOM SCHOOL. It was often too crowded–this school had a teacher-student ratio of 1 to 42–and for better or worse, you might have the same teacher for eight years. It’s hard to imagine this as a better learning environment than a modern building with central heat, indoor plumbing and INTERNET ACCESS. Then again, these kids learned how to wait their turn and how to help one another–not to mention how to race to the OUTHOUSE and back quickly on a cold day, and how to build and maintain a wood fire.
Year the first Illinois compulsory school-attendance law was enacted: 1883. Months per year it required children to attend school: 3.
Percentage of 4th graders in rural schools who had proficient scores in science in 2005: 32. Percentage in urban schools: 19.
Number of one-room schools in the U.S. in 1919: 190,000. In 2005: LESS THAN 400.
– – –
“Still sits the school-house by the road, a ragged beggar sleeping;
“Around it still the sumachs grow, and blackberry-vines are creeping.”
–JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER
———–
Sources: Tribune archives, National Center for Education Statistics, “America’s One Room Schools” (NPR report, 2005).
nwatkins@tribune.com
