Back to School in a Different Era
Fayette County School Days in Earlier Times
As parents get ready to get their kids back to school this fall, we thought this was a great time to reprint this story, which first ran as a Footprints of Fayette installment back in 2013.
School days in Fayette County in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were far different than those of today. There were many small one-room schools scattered around the countryside, usually within less than 10 miles of one another, so that the farm childen would have an accessible school to attend. If two teachers were needed
If two teachers were needed due to the enrollment, the one room was divided, sometimes with a curtain or sometimes with nothing at all. The teachers placed their desks at either end of the room, and each class faced their respective teacher. Children were expected to be quiet, so generally it was a feasible undertaking. Plus, a teacher had the authority to punish a child when he or she misbehaved. The disobedient child either got a good spanking with a paddle, had to sit in a corner on a dunce stool, or had to stay in the classroom during recess or the lunch break and study or write sentences several hundred times, such as “I will not talk in class.”
Children had to walk to school, some as far as four or five miles, rain or shine, hot or cold. Some had roads to follow, but others had to walk along cow paths, through multiple gates, creeks and pastures, often having to go through tall weeds that were wet with dew. If it had been raining, they also had to trek through mud, so by the time they got to school, they were wet, muddy and often very cold, especially in the winter. The school room was heated with a wood heater, so the first children to arrive in the cold mornings built the fire in the heater, which they then huddled around until they warmed up from their morning walk. At the end of the school day, approximately four children were expected to stay to sweep and clean up the school room.
In the early days, there were no grades. Instead, once a student knew one subject well, he or she would get the next book. A student could be advanced in arithmetic and still be in the first reader. There were four readers to complete; then came more advanced subjects like geography and Texas history.
In addition, writing and spelling were also required. Penmanship was an art form that most students had to master. Children first used slates for writing and mathematic computations. Then tablets were added, but pages were not wasted, because only two tablets were provided during a school year, which was shorter than those of today. School materials were paid for with funds acquired in some type of fundraising activity, like box suppers or school plays.
The length of the school terms were based on the various seasonal farm chores. For example, school did not begin until after cotton picking was over. Initially, school attendance was not compulsory, so children might miss weeks of school, and many only completed three or four years of education. The need for their assistance on the farm surpassed the need for an education. School was definitely not always considered a necessity for girls. It was a general consensus that girls just needed to know how to cook, keep house, sew and work in the fields.
There were no hot meals served at school, so each child carried a lunch bucket to school. Usually, the lunch consisted of homemade white bread smeared with lard, or cornbread and butter, and maybe some jelly, molasses or honey. Occasionally, a special treat would be a baked sweet potato, a small piece of dried sausage, or a piece of cake.
After Christmas, an apple or orange might be included. Students would sit outside under the trees to eat their lunches if the weather was nice. Of course, they had to contend with the flies and ants that also wanted to share their lunch.
Recess was a time of free unstructured play, generally without adult supervision. Various ball and tag games were popular, as well marbles, jump rope, hopscotch, mumbly peg and games like Red Rover, Flying Dutchman and Andy Over. In the earlier days, playground equipment was non-existent. Later, seesaws, merry-go-rounds and swings, built by the men in the community, were added to the school yards.
Sometimes there was not even an outhouse available for the students. The boys would head to the woods on one side of the school, and the girls to the other. Having a decent outhouse was considered a nice addition to a schoolhouse.
There were school trustees who hired teachers, determined their salaries and collected whatever fees were deemed necessary from the parents to help pay the teachers. The parents more than likely had little “say-so”, insofar as the disciplinary actions, rules and curriculum set forth by the trustees. There were no parentteacher conferences or organizations and probably very little communication between the teacher and parents, other than a report card. Children were sent to school with the expectation that they would behave themselves, respect their teachers and get a basic “no frills” education. It truly was the era of “School days, school days, good ‘ole’ Golden Rule days.”
Footprints Of Fayette
Fayette County is one of the most historic counties in Texas. In this weekly feature from the County Historical Commission, a rotating group of writers looks back at local history.