One Room Schools

Have you ever won­dered what it was like to attend a one-room school, to be in the same class­room as your old­er broth­er or younger sis­ter, or to have your teacher live with your fam­i­ly for part of the school year?

In One Room Schools, Susan Apps-Bod­il­ly chron­i­cles life in Wisconsin’s ear­ly coun­try schools, detail­ing the expe­ri­ences of the stu­dents, the role of the teacher, and exam­ples of the cur­ricu­lum, includ­ing the impor­tance of Wis­con­sin School of the Air radio pro­grams. She describes the duties chil­dren had at school besides their school­work, from clean­ing the erasers and sweep­ing cob­webs out of the out­house to car­ry­ing in wood for the stove. She also tells what led to the clos­ing of the one room schools, which were more than just cen­ters of learn­ing: they also served as the gath­er­ing place for the community.

Susan Apps-Bod­il­ly drew from the research com­piled by her father Jer­ry Apps for his book, One-Room Coun­try Schools: His­to­ry and Rec­ol­lec­tions. Apps-Bod­il­ly has geared her book toward young read­ers who will learn what stu­dents and their teacher did on cold morn­ings before the wood stove warmed them up. They also will find out how to play recess games like Fox and Geese and Anti-I-Over and will learn the loca­tions of 10 for­mer one room schools that can be toured. Apps-Bod­il­ly also encour­ages read­ers to ask them­selves what lessons can be learned from these ear­ly schools that have appli­ca­tion for today’s schools?

One Room Schools will trans­port young read­ers back in time and make their grand­par­ents and oth­ers of that gen­er­a­tion nostalgic—perhaps even prompt­ing them to share mem­o­ries of their school days.