Some children who grew up in the 1800s attended one-room schools. Students, regardless of age, were taught by one teacher in a room very much like this one. Usually there was one school building in each township. (The Northwest Ordinance specified that one section of land in each township was to be set aside for a school.)

     Children often walked to school, and the teacher came early to perform janitorial duties such as sweeping the floor, dusting, starting a fire in the stove or fireplace in cold weather (parents kept the school supplied with wood/coal), and carrying in a pail of water from the well outside for the children to drink. All this was done before the children arrived.

The Logan County Museum's Flatwoods Schoolhouse in West Mansfield

     During the school day, the teacher listened to each student read and recite poems and speeches, as well as watched each student do arithmetic on slates. The students would spend long hours practicing penmanship, as great emphasis was placed on this art. Older students helped the younger ones when the teacher was busy.
     Lunches were carried in small metal pails and in warm weather eaten outside under the trees. Students were summoned to the classroom by the ringing of a hand bell.

     The preferred readers were those written by Professor William McGuffey from Miami University in Ohio. These readers not only helped children learn to read, they also taught moral lessons as well.
     The teachers often lived with the families of their students, thus having “room and board” included as part of their salary. The school year was approximately six months long, as children were needed at home to help with the planting and harvesting in this primarily agrarian society.

Other items of interest:
—our schoolroom portrays a one room school between 1870 and the early 1900s.
—exhibit on one room schools along the wall.
—slates/slate pencils.
—school bell.
—desks (bolted to the floor).
—quill pens.
—lunch pails.
—portraits of presidents on the wall.
—reading chart.