The Writing Code - One-Room Schoolhouse

One-Room Schoolhouse

With the revolutionary idea of universal literacy taking hold in the early days of the United States, one of the problems that had to be overcome was how and where to educate everybody.

One-room schoolhouses sprang up all over the country and filled two needs. One was having an organized, predictable, and reliable way of educating the children. Another, more prosaic function, was to keep the children safe and accounted for while the parents tended to the daunting and time-consuming task of carving a life for themselves in the wilderness. Because the population in rural areas was so sparse, all children between 6 and 18 were generally schooled in the same room at the same time, with the older students helping the younger ones master their education.

Because the parents generally needed everybody in the family to help during the busy growing and harvesting times, school was suspended for the summer months so the children could help with the farm work. This schedule continues to this day, although the one-room schoolhouse has virtually disappeared from the American landscape.