Most of the one-room schools in our area had grades one through six or seven, but this also varied from school to school. One school might have only grades one through four, while another would go all the way to the seventh grade. Students were either promoted or retained at the end of the school year. Sometimes you might have a sutdent in the second grade who was three or four years older than the other students. This was not uncommon in the one-room school. The older students usually helped the younger students with their lessons.
Each school usually had one teacher who taught all the grade levels. The number of students ranged from about twenty to fifty. Because the schools were very small, they were usually overcrowded. The students were divided into rows according to grade level at most one-room schools. There were usually three to four students to each grade level, and they sat in wooden desks with a top that lifted up so that you could place your books inside. In some of the one-room schools, the teacher would call each grade level to the front of the room where they would sit on a long bench and receive their lessons.
Almost everyone walked to the one-room school. Sometimes the students would ride their horse to school if there was a snow on the ground. Students didn't miss for bad weather. Of course, attendance was better for the girls than for the boys because the boys had to work on the farm most of the time.
The school year usually ran from the first of September through May. This also varied from school to school. Many of the students went to school for one hundred and eighty days, just like we do today. In other cases the students stated that they went to school for nine months out of the year. The students had to work on the farm during the summer time.
Most of the students went to school from about nine o'clock in the morning to about three o'clock in the afternoon with a lunch break and a recess. The teacher was at the school early, and she would usually ring a bell or just tell the students that class was ready to begin. During the winter the teacher would have to come in early and build a fire in the schoolhouse to keep it warm for the children.
The basic subjects that were taught were reading, writing, and arithmetic. In some cases the students received instruction in Virginia history and sometimes geography. Spelling was also a subject taught in the one-room school that the students seemed to enjoy. Beyond that, there was very little instruction in other areas. Science was rarely taught, but some of the students did receive instruction in hygiene. Many of the students that we interviewed remember having spelling bees or "races" in which students would compete against each other. Sometimes the students would receive "head marks" when they won a spelling bee. The student with the most "head marks" at the end of the school year would get a prize from the teacher.
When class began, the teacher usually began with the first grade while she gave the other students their assignments. The teacher would teach one subject at a time to each grade level, then move on to the next grade level with the same subject. Students usually had plenty of time to do their work while the teacher was going over the lesson with the other grades. Like Larry Shortt explained, "I essentially spent six years in the first grade, six in the second, and so forth." After the teacher got through with one subject, she went on to the next and repeated the process again. Students got a lot of reinforcement by listening to the teacher teach the other grade levels. The teachers usually had very little equipment with which to work. Any extra materials had to be pruchased by the teacher. The students usually did assignments with pencil and paper and worked problems on the blackboard in the front of the room.
If they were lucky, students had textbooks with which to work, but that was not always the case. Some students were even taught reading and writing using the Bible and a Sears and Roebuck catalog. Teachers would often bring in books from home if they had any. The textbooks were essentially the same for each grade, but were printed for different grade levels. Most of the students remember reading the old "Dick and Jane" readers. The older students would help teach the younger students after they finished their assignments. Most of the textbooks were "handed down" year after year.
The teacher usually taught using lecture in small groups and having the students recite the lessons back to the teacher. In many of the one-room schools, there was a recitation bench in the front of the room from which the students would recite their lessons. Many times the teacher would have spelling bees for the students which they seemed to enjoy. There weren't any physical education classes. The students usually played "ball and base" at recess, according to Anna Peters. There usually wasn't much homework, because the students usually had time to complete the work in class.
Students attending the one-room schools were not classified as slow learners. If a child could not do the work they were retained in a lower grade until they could do the work. Sometimes students were promoted during the middle of the school year to the next grade level.
Students seemed to learn the basics in the one-room school, reading, writing, and arithmetic. There was little time to teach anything else to the students because the schools had only one teacher for seven or eight grade levels.