If you were a student in the 1930s attending a one-room schoolhouse, you’d want to behave well. Teachers had freer rein when it came to discipline, unlike teachers today. Various forms of discipline ranged from minor to major actions. For example, a teacher might pull or twist an ear, give you a pinch, slap your open palms with a ruler or give you a “whooping” with a wooden paddle or razor strap on your backside.
Teachers also made home visits. If a parent heard a bad report directly from the teacher, the parent more than likely would take his own disciplinary action on their child, which could also mean a whooping or added chores.
Another common disciplinary action in the classroom was the “dreaded dunce hat.” Made with heavy paper or cardboard, the dunce hat looked like a long cone with the widest part fitting over the student’s head. A capital “D” was often placed on the front of the hat. If the teacher told a student to come to the front of the class and take a seat on the stool there was a good chance the dunce hat would be planted on the student’s head while the rest of the students had a good chuckle.
So, if you had lived in that time period and had set your mind on creating a ruckus, you would have needed to be prepared for some type of punishment.
Would you rather get a whooping or wear the dunce hat if you were a student stirring up trouble?
Sunday, March 25, 2018
Thursday, March 8, 2018
TEACHING IN A ONE-ROOM SCHOOLHOUSE
Teachers reached their one-room schoolhouses by foot, on horseback, by horse and carriage or bicycle and later by car. The schoolhouse typically held anywhere from 10 to 20 kids in grades one through eight. The students seldom went to school beyond eighth grade. Instead, they worked on their parents’ farm where in central Pennsylvania agriculture was prominent. The school building was heated with a coal or wood stove and outhouses meant students had to trek out in the cold in the winter.
Students sat in desks according to their grade. While the teacher was responsible for teaching all levels often times the other grades were given work to do or were asked to sit and listen to whatever lesson was being taught. This was a good way for the younger children to learn lessons they would be taught later as they moved up to the next grade.
By the 1930s women made up the majority if school teachers, often younger woman who lived with a family where room and board became part of their salaries. Monthly stipends for teachers were relatively small. Aside from teaching, the teacher often tended to the stove and asked students to help carry firewood and a bucket of drinking water. Older students may have also helped to empty ashes from the wood stove, sweep the floors or help a younger child struggling with a lesson.
How do you think you would have liked being a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse?
Students sat in desks according to their grade. While the teacher was responsible for teaching all levels often times the other grades were given work to do or were asked to sit and listen to whatever lesson was being taught. This was a good way for the younger children to learn lessons they would be taught later as they moved up to the next grade.
By the 1930s women made up the majority if school teachers, often younger woman who lived with a family where room and board became part of their salaries. Monthly stipends for teachers were relatively small. Aside from teaching, the teacher often tended to the stove and asked students to help carry firewood and a bucket of drinking water. Older students may have also helped to empty ashes from the wood stove, sweep the floors or help a younger child struggling with a lesson.
How do you think you would have liked being a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse?
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