The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1912-10-28
A UNIQUE SCHOOL,
1t Is on a Little Islet and Students
Go Back and Forth in Boats.

4 w DdCk anu rOtIn IN boats.
Some seven or eight years ago there
was established in Michigan school.
house upon ground not much larger than
the schoolhouse itself--in Lake st. Clair.
| This is a school TO which the pupils go
In rowboats, canoes and punts. Its play.
ground is only forty feet wide by
sixty feet in length Stretching for miles
on each side of the little wind-swept
buildings ar the waters of lake st. Clair
dotted with the island homes of many
children, who, until the establishment of
this unique place of learning, had never
seen the inside of a schoolhouse.
For more than fifty years this dis
trict presented perplexing problem TO
the educational authorities. Ii covers
| thirty square miles of the lake and in
| this area are scores of islets, some of
which have been inhabited for many
years. In many of the families the chill
dren had been reared with no educational
advantages. Indeed, they grew up like
wild Indians, taught only in the ways
OF nature, and with as little knowledge
Of the outside world as real sayages
might have. Many of these children had
never seen great city, and, unless their
parents possessed sufficient reading and
writing" to tutor them in way, the
youngsters had no education at ALL
With the establishment of the lake
schoolhouse, however, the situation was
change. The sehoohouse, two-story
cottage of plain, unpainted lumber, was
built by an old duck hunter. Its location
is SO peculiar that not single pupil or
even the young woman teacher can get
to it without the use of boat or canoe.
A few of the pupils come only short
distance, but Others are obliged to row
or paddle four or five miles each day in
order to attend school.
No bell calls the children TO their |
studies in the morning, but before the |
first glimmer of the suns rays upon |
the lakes the girls and boys are getting
ready for their days work. In little |
homes scattered all over the landdotted
marshes lights begin to show earlier
than the sun, and even before there is
sufficient dawn to see dozen rods ahead
the children of the hunters and trappers
who live furthest away are on their way
to school.
As the boats, canoes and punts shove
off in the early hours of the morning, |
there are hammers and nails, stakes,
shingles, knives and traps in the bottoms
Of most of them, and the boy who pad
lies or rows, if he is alone, usually has
a gun between his knees ready TO take
a shot at passing wild fowl or a musk
rat streaking the water ahead.
From dozen different directions the
raft slowly make their way toward the
school. Every body who traps and hunts
has regular ''route," and along this
quite are scattered his traps. 1t may
De that in one of the canoes Is one of
he little girls, with Indian black hair
md rowing eyes, who paddles for her
,rother, while he kneels in the bow of
he canoe, his gun ready in his hands, for
{ is in these early hours OF the day that
light of wildfowl brings the best shoot
ng. Here and there the two pause to
ook at trap. The bow Of the canoes
boot up in bunch of reeds, and, with '
hammer or piece of iron in his hand, {
he boy bends over and inspects his
lay" If there is "rat' or a mink
n the trap, couple of blows from the
ammer or iron bar kills the animal, and
he trap is reset and baited again with t
piece of potato, carrot or apple. S
From the schoolhouse the teacher can
asly mark the progress of some OF g
err pupils. For miles nothing obstructs :
he view over the marshes. Many OF :
he boats and canoes pull up at the
before o'clock. which is q
On time" The craft are tied TO stakes
r pulled out on the playground" and Y
anne, guns and traps are cared for in Il
arious ways, some of the more sus- A
cious youngsters taking their treas :,
res with them. Some Of the little u
arsh children may straggle in late. but
smile greets them all.-New York II
ress. c.
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