There’s been a lot in the news lately about schools — how they’re going to handle things when school resumes in the fall. Obviously, it’ll be very different. All the changes will make it hard on both the students and teachers — and parents. For now, the kids are in the midst of summer vacation, although even “summer vacation” ain’t what it used to be.
I got to thinking about what school was like when I went to school — or at least what I remember it being like. Maysville had two schools — Maysville Grade School — and, yep, you guessed it — Maysville High School. When you got to be six years old, you started school in the first grade — no kindergarten, pre-school or any organized activities to teach kids to “socialize” prior to going to school. I’m pretty sure that no one back then had ever even heard of “day-care.”
Everyone went to Maysville Grade School until they finished sixth grade. There weren’t two or three, or more, first grades, fourth grades, or any other grade. When you went to first grade, you went to the first grade classroom and were taught by the first grade teacher. The only time you left your classroom was for recess, lunch and to go home after school. School started at 9:00 in the morning and ended at 4:00 in the afternoon. We got vacation from school at Thanksgiving and Christmas and I think there was one Friday during the year that the teachers all attended a “teachers meeting” in Oklahoma City. There were not spring or fall breaks, and there was no time off between “semesters.” Actually, I’m not sure they even had semesters.
After finishing sixth grade, everyone went to Maysville High School. Even though the building housed seventh and eighth graders, they weren’t in high school — and they weren’t in junior high. When we finished the eighth grade, we graduated from “the Eighth Grade” or “Grade School.”
High school consisted of the 9th, 10th, 11th and 12 grades. It was the first time we weren’t called 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. “graders” — the classes had names — Freshman, Sophomore, Junior and Senior. It was also the first time we didn’t have the same teacher for every subject — there were math teachers, english teachers, etc., and we didn’t stay in the same room all day. The teachers stayed in their rooms and the various classes went to them. Some of this isn’t probably that much different than schools (until now) operated recently.
But a couple of miles down the road from Maysville, was a community called Story. Maysville schools educated those living within Maysville and a lot of the surrounding “farm kids” were bussed into Maysville. However those living a little further outside of town went to community schools like Story.
Going to school in Story was different than attending Maysville schools — Story was a one-room schoolhouse. Everyone in the school shared only one teacher and one classroom. That single teacher taught students in the first through the eighth grades. The youngest students sat in the front , while the oldest students sat in the back. The curriculum probably only included reading, writing, arithmetic, history and geography. The Story school year started in August, at least a couple of weeks before schools in Maysville started. Then for about two weeks in September, the school was closed. This was because the children were needed on the farms — mostly to pick cotton.
I was only in the Story schoolhouse a couple of times, but it wasn’t much bigger that a large living room. The teacher’s desk was at the front on a slightly raised platform, and there was a “potbelly” stove. I’m not sure if they burned wood or coal. The bathroom was outside — an “outhouse.” ( I probably should have noted that the Maysville Grade School I attended didn’t have indoor bathrooms either — there were “girls” and “boys” facilities located ‘way’ out back.)
After the students finished the eighth grade at Story, they had to go Maysville for high school — or some other nearby town that had grades nine through twelve.
Since we’re on the subject of schools and you’ve read this far, here’s an added bonus….
Originally (I’m not sure when, but a long time ago) schools and schoolhouses were established by the local church. They divided the town into school districts, built the schools and hired the teachers. The whole point of education was to teach reading so students could read the Bible. When the country was under English rule, there was only one official religion. But when that changed, a new system was needed to run the schools. Initially, groups of parents, called School Societies, took over, but those were soon dissolved and schools were run by the state governments. School districts were established and the parents paid tuition. In the early 1900s, the states had the towns take over schools and establish Boards of Education.
This is an interesting subject, maybe we’ll visit it again in the fall….
— 30 —