One-Room School Houses: A Living History Unit
By: Joe Brooks
Tags: History, Teaching, Learning, Education, Service Learning

by DALE MORSE and KATHY LAPAN

Kathy and Dale are members of the primary teaching team at The Guilford School. Kathy teaches grades 2/3, and Dale teaches 2nd grade. Dale began planning a study of Guilford’s one-room schoolhouses at Guilford’s Summer Institute. Kathy worked during the summer with a group planning garden projects at the school. Near the beginning of the school year they made the decision to work together with their students on the one-room school unit. Their one room unit continues in alternating years.

The Beginnings

of our study of One Room Schools went back to 1995’s Guilford’s Summer Institute. During the summer we had worked at the Institute with a team of community members and school staff to develop projects that would bring together the twin strategies of service learning and community inquiry. (We created a planning document.) We were also seeking to use our local resources to bring the school and community closer together. We saw the study of one-room schools as a way to do this, while honoring our senior population, most of whom attended one-room schools. For those who did, it was a formative experience, significantly different from today’s more centralized school system. [above, ]The Little Red Brick School in Guilford Center

a drawing by Bud Henry

About Our Curriculum: Field Research

On the first day of a series of field trips, we visited the Little Brick School House, built around 1790 and remaining in use until the 1920’s. We were led by Mr. Fred Humphrey, the president of our local Historical Society, and a former one-room school student, himself. My students interviewed Mrs. Helen Dix and Mrs. Eva Harris (the grandmother of one of our students), two sisters who attended a local one room school during the 1930’s. These women shared many memories with the children, answered questions, and compared their school experiences with those of today’s youth. Artifacts were loaned to the classes, including two slates used by the 90-some-year-old great-grandmother of one student.

Mrs. Harris’s and Mrs. Dix’s family relationships with several of the children in the group provided another wonderful connection for us all. They were able to arrange for our classes to actually “attend school” at the old West Guilford schoolhouse. Eva Harris opened the school for us. She had attended this school for grades 1–8. The first and second graders found that it was still set up as a school. It was used until 1957, when the Guilford Central School was opened. We pretended that we were attending school long ago, when students only spoke up when called upon and discipline was much stricter. Green River School in early 1900’s [photo above] courtesy of Addie Minott

The 3 R’s

We teachers dressed as school marms. We were able to use the (still remaining!) original furnishings and textbooks. Later in the day our real life principal Michael Friel appeared dressed as the visiting superintendent of long ago. He came along as the visiting superintendent would have, regularly dropping in to check on students’ progress and behavior. Our young “scholars” were drilled on their reading and arithmetic skills, with the demand that they answer in a prescribed manner. He called on students to check their progress in spelling and arithmetic. He also inquired about any possible discipline problems. The students read aloud from the original books left in the schoolhouse. They wrote math problems on their chalkboards. We recited the alphabet, counted and sang songs together.

Old Hymns and Memories

At recess the children all played on the old teeter totter. We also toured the West Guilford Baptist Church next door, and Eva Harris taught us the history of the building. She opened these buildings to us and shared her memories of school holiday performances, which took place in the church before family audiences. Mrs. Harris attended this church as a child and could remember her experiences of Sunday services and Sunday school. She led us in singing “Amazing Grace.” Seated in the pews we sang from the hymnals before moving outside to sketch the church and cemetary.



one room schoolOur school cook, Shirley Squires,met us later and told us about her years attending the North school. She showed us a picture of her class from her old one-room schoolhouse. We used a number of methods to document our research. The interviews with Mrs. Harris and Mrs. Dix were taped by our Librarian/Media Specialist, with assistance from a middle-school student. The children used drawing paper and clipboards on field trips to record first-hand visual impressions of the schools and church we visited. Drawings were also made of some of the ideas the children gleaned from interviews.

Senior Partners

My students created drawings that were accompanied by written descriptions of the subject matter. Stories were composed by each child around the one room schoolhouse theme. Some children pictured themselves in that setting; some related more factual data to their own experiences today; and others fantasized about how things might have been long ago. Children learned how to fold paper into a cup for drinking water. This activity was based on an excerpted story in children’s magazine Cobblestone.

As we came to the close of this study, we prepared a final dramatic event that would allow the children to dress in period clothing and be taught in the manner of a one-room school class as well as to learn traditional American children’s games. We invited our senior partners to this performance, and they seemed to enjoy it immensely. We were a success!! The children, so happy and pleased with themselves, danced and sang holiday songs as our guests were served refreshments. The one-room school study has been presented at a number of school functions, and many people seem genuinely interested in this fast vanishing living history.

For our seniors lent to their experience by placing a focus on one room schools. For ourselves as teachers and for our students, this study has been an exciting way to learn about the past from relatives, our staff and community members, and a wonderful teaching experience. One room schools have continued to provide a theme and subject for Guilford students in a number of ways and at a number of grades levels. 7/8 students working with The Guilford Gazette have interviewed our neighbor 95 year old Evelyn Clark on the Higley School which once was situated in what is now her front yard. We continue to discuss organizing a one room school reunion for local seniors.

©copyright 1996–2019 Dale Hunter Morse and Kathy Lapan for The Guilford Gazette, a student published and run community newspaper.

© copyright 1995–2019, Community Works Institute (CWI)

All rights reserved. CWI is a non-profit educational organization dedicated

to engaging students and teachers with their local communities through integrated learning projects. We work with educators and schools across the U.S. and internationally. email us to bring a CWI event to your school or organization.

CONTENT USE POLICY All materials contained in this web site remain the sole and exclusive property of CWI, or the author as designated by arrangement. We strongly encourage re-publication, but we do ask that you properly credit, and then share your re-publication link with us directly. contact us