Date: Fri 03-Oct-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: MICHEL

Quick Words:

schools-Middle-Gate-

Full Text:

A Little Schoolhouse Becomes A History Lesson

(with photos)

BY MICHELE HOGAN

It started as a thank you to the Newtown Historical Society, which has just

completed $6,000 worth of work on the old schoolhouse at Middle Gate School,

including a new roof and structural repair to one of the corner posts. It

turned into a close look at education 100 years ago for the students in Dot

Wenblad's second grade class at Middle Gate School.

With the assistance of Sallie Meffert of the Newtown Historical Society,

children explored how education has changed in the last century.

Upon entering the tiny one-room schoolhouse, Mrs Wenblad had the boys on one

side of the room and the girls on the other, as they would have been seated

100 years ago.

She told them to recite their numbers. Their little voices echoed off the

curved ceiling of the building, magnifying the sounds until the teacher needed

to use the hushed-but-stern voice of a schoolmistress to quiet them down.

"Why," asked Mrs Wenblad, "was there a little schoolhouse, and not a big one?"

One student answered, "Well, with everyone reciting, it would be too loud!"

Other students questioned if it was "against the law," or if there were "not

enough materials." Finally, the answered dawned on them. "There were no cars

or buses, so the school was just for kids who lived close by."

Most kids walked to this school, but some rode horses, or maybe even rode in a

horse-drawn sleigh in winter. Mrs Wenblad described how she had heard of some

kids who were lucky enough to sit on the still-warm-from-the-cow milk in old

metal milk cans in the back of a sleigh. The father dropped the kids at school

and then took the milk for market to the railroad station.

Other kids kept hot potatoes in their pockets to keep their hands warm. Then

they ate their potatoes for lunch.

The only source of heat in the building was a wood-burning stove, and most of

the children had to sit far away from it. The younger children, the ABCers,

might be on the benches close to the wood-burning stove, but children who

could read and write worked on a shared writing table connected to the outer

walls around the room. The uninsulated walls and curtainless windows did

little to help them stay warm.

Mrs Wenblad's students were quick to realize that curtains would not be a good

idea back then. They would block out the light, and as one child pointed out,

"in the olden days they had to use fire for light, and the sun, so they

couldn't use curtains."

Second grader Melanie Torres was interested in how teachers controlled pupils

a century ago. She said, "When kids are bad, there is a little hole and they

have to stick their noses in it for a long time." Mrs Meffert confirmed that

this was indeed a form a discipline used in this schoolhouse long ago, along

with the dunce cap, and labels for "the talkative boy" or the "not-listening

girl" and an occasional spanking.

Parents accepted this discipline and had a close connection with the school

teacher. The schoolteacher, said Mrs Meffert, "as part of her payment, took

turns living with each of her pupils' families!"

One student commented that "One day, Middle Gate School will be the old days,

and there will be something new."

Zach Richter extended this thought by suggesting what school might be like in

another 100 years. "I'm using a little imagination here. Schools might be

floating in the air in the future. You might need a jet pack to go to school!"