There\u2019s been a lot in the news lately about schools \u2014 how they\u2019re going to handle things when school resumes in the fall. Obviously, it\u2019ll be very different. All the changes will make it hard on both the students and teachers \u2014 and parents. For now, the kids are in the midst of summer vacation, although even \u201csummer vacation\u201d ain\u2019t what it used to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I got to thinking about what school was like when I went to school \u2014 or at least what I remember it being like. Maysville had two schools \u2014 Maysville Grade School \u2014 and, yep, you guessed it \u2014 Maysville High School. When you got to be six years old, you started school in the first grade \u2014 no kindergarten, pre-school or any organized activities to teach kids to \u201csocialize\u201d prior to going to school. I\u2019m pretty sure that no one back then had ever even heard of \u201cday-care.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Everyone went to Maysville Grade School until they finished sixth grade. There weren\u2019t 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 \u201cteachers meeting\u201d in Oklahoma City. There were not spring or fall breaks, and there was no time off between \u201csemesters.\u201d Actually, I\u2019m not sure they even had semesters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After finishing sixth grade, everyone went to Maysville High School. Even though the building housed seventh and eighth graders, they weren\u2019t in high school \u2014 and they weren\u2019t in junior high. When we finished the eighth grade, we graduated from \u201cthe Eighth Grade\u201d or \u201cGrade School.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
High school consisted of the 9th, 10th, 11th and 12 grades. It was the first time we weren\u2019t called 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. \u201cgraders\u201d \u2014 the classes had names \u2014 Freshman, Sophomore, Junior and Senior. It was also the first time we didn\u2019t have the same teacher for every subject \u2014 there were math teachers, english teachers, etc., and we didn\u2019t stay in the same room all day. The teachers stayed in their rooms and the various classes went to them. Some of this isn\u2019t probably that much different than schools (until now) operated recently.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 \u201cfarm kids\u201d were bussed into Maysville. However those living a little further outside of town went to community schools like Story.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Going to school in Story was different than attending Maysville schools \u2014 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 \u2014 mostly to pick cotton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was only in the Story schoolhouse a couple of times, but it wasn\u2019t much bigger that a large living room. The teacher\u2019s desk was at the front on a slightly raised platform, and there was a \u201cpotbelly\u201d stove. I\u2019m not sure if they burned wood or coal. The bathroom was outside \u2014 an \u201couthouse.\u201d ( I probably should have noted that the Maysville Grade School I attended didn\u2019t have indoor bathrooms either \u2014 there were \u201cgirls\u201d and \u201cboys\u201d facilities located \u2018way\u2019 out back.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the students finished the eighth grade at Story, they had to go Maysville for high school \u2014 or some other nearby town that had grades nine through twelve. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since we\u2019re on the subject of schools and you\u2019ve read this far, here\u2019s an added bonus\u2026.
Originally (I\u2019m 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.\u00a0
This is an interesting subject, maybe we\u2019ll visit it again in the fall\u2026.
\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There\u2019s been a lot in the news lately about schools \u2014 how they\u2019re going to handle things when school resumes in the fall. Obviously, it\u2019ll be very different. All the changes will make it hard on both the students and … Continue reading