A classroom filled with future teachers took a walk back in time last week at Allen County-Scottsville High School. The students heard from David Strode, a retired local resident who attended grade school in a one-room school. After his presentation, Strode led the class in a visit to the Devasher one-room school---a one-room school which was restored and relocated to its present location next door to the James E. Bazzell Middle School in the mid 1990s.
Strode talked about his first through sixth grade experiences attending Washington School in northeast Allen County in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Strode learned under Lorene Harston, an educator in the Allen County School district for decades until her retirement in the early 1980s. His recollections presented the future educators with a glimpse of how education was a half-a-century ago---a sharp contrast to today’s schools.
“About 70 percent of us walked to school,” Strode pointed out. “We did have two school busses but not many kids rode the busses. They would pick up people that lived away off but if you lived within a mile of the school, you would walk. That was a long mile. We did have one girl that rode an old white mule to school every day.”
Strode and his classmates would make the journey to the school Monday through Friday for nine months with summer’s reserved for work on the farm or in neighboring communities.
“It was no such thing as missing (school),” Strode noted. “It was school every day. We started the first day of August and we got out the first day of May. They did that so all the kids could be home (in the summer) because 90 percent of the people back then were farmers. They let you be home so you could help your daddy or mother set out tobacco. If you were big enough, you could also go to Portland Tennessee and pick strawberries to make extra money in the summer.”
Strode also pointed out that missing school for snow in the winter months was very rare—and at the parent’s discretion most of the time.
“There was no such thing as a snow day,” Strode said. “You went to school. I was out about a week because of an ice storm that was so bad that it shut the county down. When you started school, you went. You didn’t play hooky.”
Students in the Fundamentals of Education class taught by Samantha Pedigo asked many questions including a question about what would happen if the teacher did not make it to school because of sickness or an emergency.
“If the teacher didn’t show up, you had one or two older students who were 17 or 18 but still going to grade school who would teach,” Strode said. “Teachers hardly ever missed but if the teacher missed, the students in sixth grade would be our teacher for the day. We took advantage of it.”
Another question centered on the discipline policy of the day. Strode pointed out that the policy was simple but effective.
“If you done something bad, there was no such thing as a paddle at our school,” Strode explained. “You went out the front steps, went across the road, and cut a switch. You didn’t break a dead switch because Mrs. Harston would send you back to get another. You would bring your switch back and she would whip you on the legs three or four times and it hurt. That would be child abuse now. But, I appreciate what they done because it l learned I couldn’t get away with anything.”
Standing in the corner was another means of discipline. The teacher would have a student go to the corner, stand on the tips of their toes and put their nose into a ring hung from the wall. Some teachers in some schools had students stand for a short time, others longer---a punishment to deter future discipline problems.
The school day---8 a.m. until 3 p.m.---was filled with learning reading, writing, and arithmetic, lunch brought from home, and recess.
“We got out 15 minutes for recess and 30 minutes for dinner,” Strode added. “For recess, we played anty-over. You would divide up with half of the class on one side of the school house, the other half on the other. You would then toss a little round rubber ball over the school house roof. You did not know who caught it. They would run around the school and if they threw and hit you, you would be on their side. When recess was over, 90 percent would be on one team.”
With the one-room school void of today’s luxuries---such as indoor bathrooms, water fountains, and central heat and air---Strode explained how students would set around the pot-belly wood stove in the center of the building to keep warm on cold winter days, drink water from a metal bucket, and go outside to the bathrooms.
“They had an outside bathroom for the boys and an outside bath room for the boys,” Strode said, a comment that prompted a student to remark, “I feel so sorry for the janitors” which led to Strode to remind the student of the reality of school 60 years ago.
“There weren’t any janitors,” Strode said. “But the bathrooms stayed clean because the kids cleaned it. You knew better than to make a mess. If you made a mess, you would be going for a switch.”
Like today, learning was the focus. Mrs. Harston and other one-room teachers of the day would help students learn the basics regardless of the grade level. Older students helped younger students during the year. Still, the school year did include some special days and special times.
“The best day I liked was soup day,” Strode explained. “Once a month, the teacher brought a big iron kettle. Everybody would bring what they had. Back then, 90 percent of what you had was canned food. So, some kids would bring canned tomatoes or canned beef. She would dump it all in the kittle, stir it up, and cook it. Then we would get out at dinner and eat soup and play the rest of the day. If you wonted crackers for your soup or corn bread, you brought it.”
Another special time was when the school day included trips to church revival services---a common occurrence in one-room schools across the county in the days prior to separation of church and state guidelines.
“One week a year, Corinth church had revival at the last of August,” Strode added. “We went to school and about nine o’clock we would all gather up. Mrs. Harston would be in the front, younger kids in the middle, and the older kids in the back, and we walked to the church. We would go for a solid week to the church. They took us to revival five days for a solid week. We went back to a school for a week and then we walked from Washington School to Bethlehem Church to another revival. We had teachers that believed in taking you to revival.”
Strode noted that each year, the teacher would walk the students to the county fair. The walk from Washington School to the old fairgrounds sight near the present day Dollar General Distribution Center would be followed by children earning ribbons as part of the day’s activities.
“The fair was in the last of August,” Strode explained. “Mrs. Harston took crate paper and made caps for the boys and some of the girls made paper skirts to go over their dresses. We walked from Washington School to the VFW in Scottsville for the fair. Other schools would come in. Then we would march around the circle, and get ribbons. It was just something to do.”
Strode also answered a question about what students wore to school.
“Back then you wore what you had,” Strode said. “And a lot of us went bare-footed. Your feet were tough enough to walk on gravel so that what we done until it got cold. Then we were shoes.”
The learning environment itself was unique in that the students in the first through sixth grades all learned together---something that students became used too and accepted as the norm.
“Everybody was used to it,” Strode said. “It was difficult to learn. In first grade, they just taught you how to read a little and write. Then, it got harder as you went along.”
The Fundamentals of Education class at AC-SH is geared to help students interested in teaching gain a greater understanding of the profession. Strode pointed out that less than a century ago, some young people were already teaching by the time they were in their upper teens.
“Back when my mother went to school, you graduated in sixth grade,” Strode explained. “If you had a sixth grade education, you could teach school. When I was going we stayed in grade school for six years and then moved on.”
Strode moved to Allen County High School for seventh to 12th grade, graduating in 1958. Strode pointed out that he went from a school with one teacher to grades with two teachers to more teachers as he moved toward graduation.
“When you got to seventh and eight grades, you had two teachers,” Strode noted. “I had Pearl Sikes who taught history and math and Mrs. Harston who taught English and Language. In high school we had good teachers. They didn’t cut corners.”
Strode also shared with the students about the a fight between a teacher and a student and what happened if you were caught with chewing gum.
“In seventh grade, a student and a teacher got in to it out in the barracks behind Allen County High School,” Strode said. “Me and the other kids were going out the windows to get away. They tore the place all to pieces. Also, in seventh and eighth grade, if you had chewing gum in your month, the teacher would get you by the ear and you marched up the hall to see Mr. Simmons. If you had chewing gum you got two licks with the paddle.”
Across the county, the one-room schools for grade students closed in the 1950s as students started to be bussed to elementary schools in town. Both White Plains Elementary and Allen County Elementary schools opened in the 1950s to replace the dozens of one-room schools which dotted the Allen County landscape at the time.
Following last week’s classroom talk, the education students walked across campus to walk inside the Devasher School—a school restored before being donated to the Allen County School District. Inside, the students were able to set at old student desks, look at textbooks from the bygone era, and see many of the things Strode discussed---items such as a drinking bucket and wood stove.