Bring Back the One-room Schoolhouses

When I was a senior in college, we took a field trip to a one-room schoolhouse. I had always been fascinated with these symbols of American education, so I was excited to see one in person. What a let-down. It wasn't even a "real" one-room schoolhouse, it was a replica that the husband of an elderly, retired teacher had built for her (not the one in the photo). It looked adequately authentic inside, and we squeezed into the little wooden desks while this stern-faced school marm sat behind her desk and described what a "typical" day in a one-room schoolhouse would have been like. (She was probably speaking from personal memory.) Still, I felt I had been scammed, ripped off somehow. I wanted to see an actual one-room schoolhouse -- preferably a functioning one-room schoolhouse. I was told there were probably none in existence anymore. I have since learned otherwise. There are 380 functioning one-room schoolhouses across the country. They are dwindling, but not due to poor test scores or lack of effectiveness. They are dying because rural areas are dying. When the big school consolidation movement swept the country, small schools were "merged" to form newer, larger schools in bigger cities. Eventually, the residents moved to the bigger cities, too.

Why do we always feel that "bigger is better"? Why are we so ready to completely abandon what has served us well for so many years for something new, shiny, and/or trendy? During my 5+ years of college, and during my continuing education since then, I have been continually bombarded with the latest educational "buzz-words." Every time some PhD candidate writes a new textbook about some "breakthrough" method, we are expected to implement it. Even more annoying is knowing that these "experts" are simply putting new names on educational methods that have been around for 200 years -- and which had their roots in the one-room schoolhouses of America. Such "modern" concepts as peer tutoring, multi-age grouping, cooperative learning, core curriculum, mastery learning, individualized instruction, differentiated instruction, parental involvement, spiraling, looping -- these are all solid educational methods that the one-room schoolhouses used and mastered.

So would I really like to go back to those days? Well, I could do without the wood-burning stove, the desks bolted to the floor (although I did attend classrooms like that), and the outhouse in the back. But in theory and practice, yes, I would. I wish that our boards of education would build many small, neighborhood one-room schools instead of huge multi-million-dollar structures that look about as warm and personal as a hospital. Of course, that won't happen, but I do believe it would be better for the students. I would love to start one in my own home -- NOT affiliated with the public school system of course -- but, I'm not as young and energetic as I used to be. Maybe someday. Until then, I'll dream about it. And maybe one of my kids will pick up where I leave off.