Country School: One Room - One Nation

100 Year-Old One-Room School Graduate Knitted Caps for Sioux Children

Photo by Ed Suba, Jr. - Akron Beacon Journal

Woman 100 and Still Crafty

Ruth Mahoney of Fairlawn crochets robes for veterans, roots for Indians, Browns

By Jewell Cardwell
Beacon Journal staff writer

Published on Friday, Jan 30, 2009

If it's true that idle hands are the devil's workshop, Ruth Mahoney has never had anything to worry about.

Not then. And certainly not now.

The Fairlawn woman, who turns 100 today and will be feted with a party Sunday, has always been immersed in all manner of crafts to benefit the community — locally and at large.

''For many years she knitted mittens and caps for Indian children on Sioux reservations,'' said her daughter Carol Mahoney, also of Fairlawn. ''She did that until her eyesight began to fail.''

Even so, she didn't exactly cut those threads of wanting to help others.

The former Ruth Gottfried was born Jan. 30, 1909, in Upper Sandusky and grew up on a farm about two miles west of town. Her school, located on a corner of the farm, was a one-room schoolhouse.

READ MORE here:

http://www.ohio.com/news/38683894.html

Syracuse Private School Returns to One-Room School Techniques

Fourth Wall Films Photo (not the school in the article)

Eagle Wings Academy of Syracuse brings back one-room schoolhouse approach

Syracuse academy revisits one-room schoolhouse concept

 

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

By Sapna Kollali

Staff writer (The Post-Standard, Syracuse)

Syracuse's newest private school is taking a somewhat old approach to education.

Eagle Wings Academy, on the South Side, is using the one-room schoolhouse model to educate the 18 students currently enrolled, Principal Anna Shipe said. Students, in first to ninth grade, are divided into an elementary class and a secondary class, and they have intensive interactions with their teachers, she said.

Shipe and her husband, David, launched the school in September using donated space from Grace Baptist Church, on Valley Drive. They have eight paid staff - one is a certified teacher - and several volunteers help teach and keep the school running.

"We read reports about the academic plight of city kids and . . . wanted a way to address that," she said. "This is one answer to the situation in the city. It's not the only answer."

READ MORE here:

http://www.syracuse.com/poststandard/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1233137989124530.xml&coll=1

Red Brick One-Room School in Michigan Collects Memories for Sesquicentennial

 

Do you have memories of attending a one-room school? The Red Brick School is collecting such memories (pleasant or unpleasant) in preparation for the township's 150th anniversary.

Please include your name, age, and the one-room school's name and location. Stories can be e-mailed to [email protected] or mailed to:

East China Township Hall
c/o Linda Baker
5111 N. River Road
East China, MI 48054.

Child-sized mannequins/dress forms also would be appreciated.

(From the Port Huron Times Herald)

Economic Woes Threaten One-Room Schools Nationwide

A restored one-room school near West Bend, Wisconsin. (Fourth Wall Films Photo)

Weak economy threatens rural schools

Cash-strapped districts are considering closing small, far-flung outposts. But parents and other residents say that would hurt their children's education and their communities.

By Ashley Powers (Los Angeles Times)
January 22, 2009

Reporting from Mount Charleston, Nev. -- Ron and Paula Marino decided to move from Las Vegas to this village of thick pines and ski-lodge-style homes so their two boys can attend Earl B. Lundy Elementary School.

With its one teacher for a total of nine students, the school seemed like Shangri-La within the underfunded and overcrowded Clark County School District, which encompasses Las Vegas and outlying rural areas.

But by the time the Marinos' 4- and 5-year-old boys are ready to start school, Lundy may be closed.

The one-room school is a potential victim of the nation's economic crisis, which has endangered the survival of far-flung schoolhouses -- an icon of rural America, immortalized in the "Little House on the Prairie" book and TV series, and often a community hub in no-stoplight towns.

 

READ MORE here:

 

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-rural-school-closures22-2009jan22,3,2024700.story

 

Related article:

 

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/dec/17/rural-elementaries-face-closure/

District Insurer Says Pennsylvania One-Room School is Fire Hazard

Fourth Wall Films Photo (not the school in the article) 

District in Talks to Save School

Officials work with township to preserve one-room structure

By Ed Mahon- [email protected]

SPRING MILLS — Penns Valley Area School District and Miles Township are negotiating an agreement to preserve the last public one-room schoolhouse in Penns Valley.

The vacant wooden structure, built in 1838, is owned by the district and located on Town Lane Road. The district’s insurer considers the building a fire hazard to Miles Township Elementary School, which stands several feet away. The district hasn’t used the one-room schoolhouse for instruction for about five years.

The school board was scheduled to vote on a memorandum of understanding between the district and the township Wednesday night, but removed it from its meeting agenda because members had to discuss a change proposed by Miles Township supervisors.

Superintendent Brian Griffith declined to discuss specifics of the proposed change, citing the ongoing negotiations. But he said it shouldn’t derail an agreement.

“We’ll get there,” Griffith said after Wednesday night’s meeting. Griffith said the board could be able to vote on the memorandum of understanding at its Feb. 18 meeting.

Under the latest draft agreement, the district would sell the building to the township for $1 and the township would be responsible for moving the building to a location elsewhere on the district’s property. Griffith said the structure would likely be moved within 100 yards of its current position. Community members plan to seek grants and private donations to cover the cost of moving the structure. The district would be responsible for completing the necessary surveys and plans to secure the subdivision and sewage plan approvals.

READ MORE here:

http://www.centredaily.com/news/local/story/1074344.html

Marin County One-Room Schoolhouse Wins Grant

 
Photo by Kent Porter / The Press Democrat

By KERRY BENEFIELD
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Union Elementary School fourth-grader Trevor Naugle squeezed himself behind a heavily laden wooden door and stood among a pile of backpacks.

"See? It's hard because everyone is all squished in," he said.

Naugle is one of the 13 students at the one-room Marin County schoolhouse on Point Reyes-Petaluma Road just south of the Sonoma County line.

For 113 years, from 10 to 25 students have marched daily up the steps and through the front door, past the wooden cubby boxes and into the room where generations of kindergartners through sixth graders have learned their lessons.

While charming, the entry area is a tad cozy, students say.

"It's kind of not spacey," said second-grader Derrick Pomi. "Especially when (kindergartners) Kate and Logan's backpacks are in the back."

Help is on the way.

On Wednesday, Union's teacher/principal Cynthia Haydon received a $2,000 check from Great American Financial Resources through the Ohio-based company's newly launched $50,000 Great American Classroom Makeover program.

READ MORE

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20090121/ARTICLES/901210158