TIP #176 - GRANDMA AND GRANDPA WERE SCHOOL TEACHERS Many of you have written with suggestions on occupations and I will be running just a few more. Hopefully, later, I can add to the list. One of the most requested was on the old-time school teacher. My source is from the writing of Cyrus Edwards, Cecil Goode and Daniel Tolle primarily of south central Kentucky. In the beginning - Kentucky didn't have schools. Like Virginia, schools were considered necessary only for the elite; taken from the English traditions that education was a private thing and not for the "common folks." Especially, schooling was not meant for girls! When Kentucky became a state in 1792, this same tradition continued on for many years. Children were needed to work the crops and help in the house. It was not until about 1838 that Kentucky took steps of organizing education. Academies had been granted back in the 1790's, but nothing really was done with it. In 1838 the schools were set up in districts which were restricted to no less than 30 students, no more than 100. Five commissioners were appointed by the State Board of Education for each district, it was a public vote. Each district was to build a school and levy a tax. Students were very lax in attending and the parents didn't enforce their attendance many times. In 1840, it is recorded that there were 1300 teachers with 1100 of them men. The school trustees were supposed to visit each district at least once a week to see that the teacher had sufficient supplies and no problems. By 1851, the state school superintendent organized an association called "Friends of Education in Kentucky" and appointed the Honorable J. R. Underwood of Bowling Green (formerly Glasgow) to spearhead the organization. Its main purpose was to improve education in Kentucky and mandated 6-7 hour school days, 5-day a week sessions, with courses in spelling, reading, writing, geography, grammar, arithmetic, U. S. history, general history, composition. A 6-month school term was also mandated. In 1856, the legislature authorized each county court to appoint a commissioner of education for a 2-year term for the pay of $2.00 a day for 50 days. For all of our younger readers, school and its teachers were nothing like we are used to today! School normally lasted only 3-6 months out of the year at first so the youngsters who were old enough could help their parents with the crops. But, the school teacher deserved every penny they might be paid! They were teacher, principal, janitor and everything in between. For several years I held a like position out in Arizona; and there's nothing like it in the whole wide world! Let's look at the teacher. They were hard to come by in the early days. There were no normal schools for the teacher's training; usually it was the smartest guy in the neighborhood who got elected to serve as the teacher. They were judged mainly on their ability to read and write - and sad to say, some could barely do that! Their salary? Schools were called subscription schools with each family paying a certain amount for the enrollment of their children. BUT … many couldn't afford to pay. So they were paid in moonshine, vegetables, fruits, meat or anything the settler could barter with. The teacher had to be at the school before the students arrived and get the stove stocked in winter; scrub the floor, anything that might be done - he did. Most of the earlier teachers were men; women entered this profession a little later. The school building was normally a one-room affair at the edge of the woods. The pupils sat two by two in double seats with the girls on the left as you looked into the classroom and the boys on the right. Much to the embarrassment of the younger boys, sometimes, since there were more boys than girls, they had to sit with the girls - oh, shame! The seats were about two by 16 inches with a little box underneath (boy, our little school had those in the 1940's!) The teacher didn't always have a desk, but a stand much like a pulpit in shape. It was located midway between the two ends of the schoolhouse. In many parts of Kentucky, both houses and schools had two front doors - the boys entering in one door, the girls the other. Along the front, in direct view of the teacher, was a long bench. This was used by the students when called upon by the teacher to recite. It is often said, and I thoroughly believe it, that the younger students, or one with learning problems, benefited greatly by listening to the recitation of the students up front. There were few, if any books. A small slate board was used by the students, there were no maps, charts. Lunch time was a time to run outside, each student brought something to eat - apples, a little sandwich, and a water cup. They relished this break just as much as the children do today. There was an old well nearby where the cooling fresh water was gulped down by the children. Most children came to school barefoot in warm weather - and probably, some of them were barefoot all year. Most of the students had to walk many miles to school, no buses or "Mom's carpool." Some schools were so popular that students from out of the area came to them and boarded for a nominal fee with a neighbor close to the school. There were wondrous spelling bees and ciphering matches, and yes, there were disciplinary problems too as the child grew fidgety in his hard seat! There was very little ventilation in many of the schools and the younger students often grew restless and invented things to amuse themselves. We have all heard of the boys who loved to stick the braids of the girls into the ink well (coming later when the boys and girls were seated together), and the teacher frowned greatly upon passing notes and a'courtin'! When a student was called on to recite, he came into the open space in front of the teacher's stand. This way the teacher could watch both the recitor and the rest of the class. There were no grades of course, a student had to show mastery in his course before passing on to the next level. It was not unusual to find 18 year old boys or girls taking the same class and those of 5 or 6 years old. If there was enough money for textbooks, most grade levels used the same ones. In the more affluent schools, more difficult subjects were taught: Botany, Rhetoric, Geography, Algebra, Geometry, and Astronomy were favorites. One of the ways of teaching geography was by the use of "Singing Geography" which helped the students remember the names of states, capitals, oceans, seas, mountains and rivers. The reader can be very proud of an ancestor who was a teacher in the early settlement days and beyond. © Copyright 25 August 1998, Sandra K. 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