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Country School Days: True Tales of a Wisconsin One-Room School (Narrated Presentation from the 2021 CSAA Virtual Conference) CSAA member Larry Scheckel attended the one-room Oak Grove District#15 School from 1948-1956. Oak Grove sat on a slight knoll in rural Seneca Township, Crawford County, in southwestern Wisconsin and educated farm kids from 1897 to 1962. Follow Larry as he trudges the one-mile gravel road with four siblings, the neighbor children, and a farm dog or two. He describes the interior: stove, library, drinking fountain, piano, hectograph machine, Ranger Mac corner, and radio. Larry will talk about the recitation period, visits by the County Nurse and the Supervising Teacher, softball games, playground and indoor games, Annie-Over, snowball fights, the outdoor privies, school discipline, the curriculum, the Basket Social, the Christmas program, and the end-of-the-year picnic. Larry delves into teacher training, contracts, teacher expectations, and how teachers managed 28 students grades one to eight. Larry also explores the bitter consolidation controversy and the closing of all 115 Crawford County one-room schools. This presentation was a prelude to his book, Country School Days: True Tales of a Wisconsin One-Room School, published in 2022. It is a comprehensive and delightful look at the 115 one-room schools in Crawford County, with emphasis on Oak Grove School.  Larry Scheckel grew up on a family farm in the hill country of southwestern Wisconsin, one of nine children. He attended eight years of a one room country school, four years of high school, off to the military for a spell, trained in electronics as a TV broadcast engineer, married, college, and started a teaching career. That career stretched over thirty-eight years teaching physics and aerospace science at Tomah, Wisconsin. Larry Scheckel has been named Tomah Teacher of the Year and Presidential Awardee. He is the recipient of numerous teaching awards. Larry and his wife, Ann, are both retired teachers and live in Tomah, Wisconsin. Larry and Ann have published eight books, including Seneca Seasons: A Farm Boy Remembers, Ask A Science Teacher, and countless educational articles. For more about Larry Scheckel and his other fascinating books visit: larryscheckel.com
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 ACCESS PDF HERE Classic Books with a Schoolhouse Theme Are you looking for children's books or series related to one-room country schools? Anyone who has attended all 20 CSAA annual conferences can attest that the resources we collect are exactly what we need to improve our programming or expand our resources on country schools. It escapes this writer which conference supplied the following reprint, but author Gwenyth Swain, penned an article called "Revisiting the One-Room School," suggesting a number of classics books on one-room schools well suited to young readers. It was printed in the ALA magazine called Book Links in 2005, but still very helpful today.  LITTLE RED SCHOOLHOUSE - CLICK ON THE PHOTO FOR MORE INFORMATION A Complex with MUCH to Offer! Sometimes you get more than you bargained for, in a GOOD WAY! Here I invoke the memory of CSAA's Bill Sherman, who until 2023, organized the Preservation Iowa Country School Conferences each fall in many of his beloved 99 counties. He gathered grateful schoolhouse enthusiasts from across the country to experience preserved one-room schools and treated us to other fascinating historic sites along the way. His many conferences are where I fell for the state of Iowa, second only to my devotion to New England. Bill always had a gift for centering us in places that revealed the very best of Iowa—places where we learned through visits to cultural centers, historic villages, and museums to honor the hardy pioneers who settled the state. One such place where we gathered with Bill was Cedar Falls, aptly situated along the Cedar River. Because The Report Card has featured other historic “villages” with schoolhouses, this is an ideal opportunity to highlight a Cedar Falls complex that includes an absolutely beautiful Little Red Schoolhouse. In addition to the Little Red Schoolhouse, Cedar Falls Historical Society curates the Behrens-Rapp Gasoline Station, the Ice House Museum, and Sturgis Park...all in one place. Call it a village if you wish. All are models of perfection in preservation and restoration! The schoolhouse transports visitors into the past of public education while the ice house is a monument to the days before refrigeration when Iowans relied on river ice harvesting. The gas station served motorists from 1925-1990!  CLICK ON THE PHOTO FOR MORE INFORMATION  ICE HOUSE MUSEUM - CLICK ON THE PHOTO FOR MORE INFORMATION  Class reunions serve as an endearing American tradition where old friends and classmates gather to review their shared school experiences and cherished (or forgettable) memories. In time, with age and dwindling attendance, these reunions sometimes disappear. Not so with a group of hardy public schoolers who still keep their school's legacy alive. The Iddles School: 98 Years Holding Reunions Submitted by Clare Adkin The Iddles was a rural one-room school founded in 1859. It was certified as District #3, Casco Township, Allegan County, MI. Iddles operated as an independent K-8 school until 1962 when it annexed to Fennville Public Schools. Fennville utilized the school for three more years for grades 2-3. During the summer of 1928, Mary Litts, the daughter of the school’s builder, Thomas Iddles, organized an all-school reunion. From the start past and present students, their families and teachers were invited. Nearly 100 attended the first reunion potluck and its popularity demanded the planning of a second for the following year. And so a tradition began that has never been broken, even during the height of the 2020 Pandemic. The youngest alum is over 65 years old. 32 alumni attended last summer’s 2025 reunion which included Thomas Iddles’ Great-Great-Grandson, Brian Iddles. Jane Ann Nally in 2018 was the last Iddles teacher to attend a reunion. Jane Ann began her teaching career in 1952 at Iddles but could not sign her contract until the start of school, having to wait until she turned 18! Question: Does Iddles have the longest running consecutive year all-school reunion for one-room schools in the United States? Iddles alumni think so! Additional Information: (from the web) Iddles School can trace its beginning back over 140 years. It began in 1859 as a log cabin and was known as Shamley School. It was located on the north side of 109th Street, across from the current location. Supposedly Iddles School took it name from Thomas Iddles who built the log cabin. In 1860-61 Charles Emerson and Jane Brown Woodruff were the teachers. Students included John Marshall, Dora Coppock, Lonson Overhiser, and Albert Overhiser. The log cabin was replaced in 1867 by a frame building. In 1901 the current brick building was constructed. Through many years it housed kindergarten through eighth grade. In 1962 Iddles School was annexed to Fennville Public Schools and was then sold. More information can be found on pages 46-48 of the book: Casco Township-Bounty by the Lake by Jeanne Hallgren.  Seated L-R Linda Stennett Wauchek, LeRoy Hogle, Kay Kuney Brush, Mary Ann Adkin Schlack, Chuck Stennett, Sharon Jerue Kuiper Middle Row L-R LuAnn Rainey Winfrey, April Adkin Wright, Larry Osman, Joanne Dailey McCauslin, Sally Stevens, Dora Lee Ransom Young, Sue Adkin Asher, Rose Ransom Merriweather, Dawn Osman Bronson, Dawn Clark Roose, Renee Kark Wilkinson, Dian Schlack Liepe, Judy Dailey Chatterson, Nora Dailey Drew Back Row L-R Martin Overhiser, Ted Stevens, Clare Adkin, Holly Adkin Wohlfert, Gary Flora (in hat), Robert Osman, Craig Osman, Tim Stennett, Russ Latchaw, Brian Iddles, Dorothy Stennett, Sharon Cope Parrett. Barb Latchaw Perrin attended but was not in the picture.  THE DISTRICT SCHOOL By William Ladd Taylor The Youngest Early Country School Learners A reprint from our former CSAA newsletter... By Michael Day, Barkhamsted, CT Here's a word you don't hear anymore: Abecedarian (/ā″bē-sē-dâr′ē-ən/). A teacher in the 19th century would have been very familiar with this word, for it denoted those young students whose immediate task was to learn the alphabet. The term was also occasionally used to denote the person who taught the simplest aspects of literacy. Outside of school, the word carried the connotation of learning by rote the basic elements of a subject in a pre-determined order. Warren Burton, when writing about attending school in 1800 (The District School As It Was) recalled that he was, "three and a half years old when I first entered the old school-house as an abecedarian." In his second year at school, he "looked down upon two or three fresh, slobbering abecedarians with a pride of superiority, greater perhaps than I ever felt again." The word can be traced back to the early 17th century and clearly is it derived from the first four letters of the alphabet. Some writers emphasized this connection in their spelling of the word. Samuel G. Goodrich (who would later achieve great fame in the world of children's literature as "Peter Parley") in his 1856 autobiography described the seating arrangement of the school he attended as a child: "The larger scholars were ranged on the outer sides at their desks; the smaller fry of a-b-c-darians were seated in the center." The term was in common use as late as 1880 when the New England Journal of Education in an article on schoolhouse scheduling recommended that, "abecedarians be called to recite four times a day". It's not clear just when the term went out of fashion, but it was probably when the district schools were consolidated, and kindergarten became a standard feature of modern education. While the term is no longer in everyday parlance, it may still be found in a certain research areas. Modern youngsters love big words, especially those that seem to just roll off the tongue. Next time a group of young visitors comes to your schoolhouse, introduce them the term that might well have described them a century ago: Abecedarian. Picture: The District School by William Ladd Taylor: Abecedarians slouch on steps and benches awaiting their turn at recitation, while older scholars toe the line. Michael Day of Barkhamsted, CT was a regular contributor to our e-newsletter of old, and we thank him again. He also sold print resources for one-room school museums called Clippership Publications, but we hope to hear from him and that he re-opens his business. Help us find Mike Day! I've reached out to the Barkhamsted Historical Society for information on how to contact Mike.  CLICK ON SANTA TO ACCESS THE MHS NEWSLETTER! Santa at the Schoolhouse December 6th-12:00-3:00
Thanks to member Ralph Buglass for keeping his eye open for our Report Card readers. He received the November digital newsletter from the Medford Historical Society in New Jersey and suggested that it is certainly worth sharing for its great ideas. We concur. CSAA member, Pat Alvino, is not only a Trustee and Director of Cross Keys Schoolhouse programs, but a recent recipient of our CSAA Service Award for her many years of dedicated work on behalf of their schoolhouse museum. She continues her work with other MHS activities and this holiday season at Cross Keys promises to be a good one. Just reading Medford's newsletter is inspiring to see a thriving membership actively engaged in all things historical...and fun! MHS President Bill Pflug's Page highlights the Apple Festival, Country Day, Quilt Show and Flea Market, wine tasting, blacksmithing, new Civil War and WWI exhibits, sprucing up the buildings, planning for our nation's Semiquincentennial, the Charlie Zahm Holiday Concert at the Quaker Meeting House, opening the Haines-Tomlinson House as a shuttle stop for the Dickens Festival...and drumroll....Santa at the Schoolhouse! Check out the flyer: apple cider, 19th century decorations on the tree, and a visit with Old St Nick! Free admission. If you're looking to improve your group's communication and participation you'll certainly find inspiration and some great ideas from the Medford Historical Society!  Corn Husk Dolls, photo by Michele Thomas A Re-cycle Drop Off Became Our Treasure! If you're involved with a preserved country school museum, you know well how we're always on the lookout for artifacts for our schoolhouses, and sometimes they just find us! Ebay, Facebook Market Place, antique shops and fairs...are always fun to browse. This time it was one of our own schoolmarms in New Hampshire, Michele Thomas, who hit pay dirt while just keeping an eye out. Michele lives in the picturesque suburban town of Mont Vernon boasting some 2,500 residents, with the name presumably derived from none other than George Washington's estate minus the "u." We do try hard to call it Mont, like "font." Following the practice of frugality, some friendly villages in New Hampshire like Mont Vernon have set up swap shops at their local dump or landfill where you buy nothing because the things people leave in the swap shop are free. Good stuff is preferable. Michele was doing her civic duty recycling when she spied a box of skillfully crafted corn husk dolls in her swap shop. Each doll was performing a farm chore typical of the 19th century. She knew instinctively that these well-preserved dolls would be useful for any number of activities and stories relative to our schoolhouse program, so she adopted the lot. Michele tried to find out who was so kind or desperate to give up these beautifully hand-made dolls to no avail. Consequently, she donated this treasure trove to our District #1 Schoolhouse in Nashua where she works with her "schoolmaster" husband, Ralph Sommese. Our knowledge of corn husk dolls was limited to our newly acquired treasure, so we took to the web for answers. This post could go on and on about corn husk dolls, but in the interest of brevity, links are provided if you wish to delve into their history and craft. "Google images" offers hundreds of pictures and Wikipedia posts information. We have even included the AI response when asked: "Can you tell me about corn husk dolls from the 19th century." To pique your interest...we can certainly thank our Native American cultures for their earliest contribution. Watch the video provided to see how Cherokee corn husk dolls are made and think of how you could construct them with students or feature the craft during heritage days. You can easily relate them to frontier farm life and schoolhouse history, so you may wish to incorporate the story with your class. Have fun! See links below to learn of: Native American Origins- Use by Pioneers- Their Appearance- Folk Art, etc.  Bill Sherman front and center... Dear CSAA Friends, It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of William "Bill" L. Sherman, a board member and friend of the Country School Association of America, on October 27, 2025. Bill dedicated his life to the service and promotion of country schools and preservation of early American schooling. During this time, Bill led the charge on several notable recognitions and country school conferences for his home state of Iowa and served as a founding charter member of our national organization, CSAA. Some of his work included: promoting the redesign of Iowa’s quarter with a schoolhouse, editing of two reference books on Iowa country schools, years of service to the Iowa Historic Preservation Alliance, Humanities Iowa Speakers Bureau, State Historical Society of Iowa Board of Trustees, and so many other contributions. His legacy will continue to inspire and benefit our CSAA community for years to come. We extend our heartfelt condolences to Bills family, his wife, Faith, and loved ones during this difficult time. Bill will be deeply missed by all who had the privilege of knowing him. A link to his obituary can be found below: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/obituaries/piow1316485 Faith Sherman’s address is 3928 Twana Drive, Des Moines, IA 50310. Donations in Bills memory can be made from the CSAA website using a credit card on the “give to CSAA” page: https://www.countryschoolassociation.org/give-to-csaa.html or by check to Country School Association of America, P O Box 152, Colts Neck, New Jersey 07722. Please indicate in memory of Bill Sherman. We stand together with Bill and all the members of his family at this difficult time. Please keep them in your prayers. "God of love and mercy, embrace all those whose hearts today overflow with grief, unanswered questions and a sense of loss. Grant them space to express their tears. Hold them close through the coming days." Yours, Dr. Veronica Ent CSAA President Note: We will all miss Bill, without whom, CSAA might not exist. He was "Mr. Country School," enthusiastic and dedicated to the end. We owe him much as he and Lucy Townsend spearheaded our organization and encouraged us at every turn to expand and carry on our preservation efforts. He was a character, known all over Iowa for his Preservation Iowa conferences which many of us attended in addition to CSAA. Every conference trip to Iowa was held in a different town and all were well attended and filled with activities. Bill's last conference was in 2023 in Clinton, Iowa. In the May 2025 edition of The Report Card we posted a classic narrated slide show on Noah Webster by Susan Webb, entitled "Webster in Your Classroom." Feel free to check it out again. In this edition, we offer even more information with easy to use PDF's loaded with fun facts for children about his Blue Back Speller and his "Webster's Dictionary" that became a staple in education for centuries. His dictionary grew from 40,600 definitions in 1806 to 70,000 in 1828, with over 225,000 today. Two PDF's in one file are available by clicking on the image below: Noah Webster's Dictionary Happy Birthday, Noah Webster! The activity sheets posted here would probably have Webster in a tizzy as HE was one of the major promoters of copyright laws to protect someone else's work. These were clipped from unknown newspapers, on an unknown date many years ago, but we promise that if there is an objection lodged here we will take down the post. Hopefully readers will value them for pedagogical use and the creators will be lenient on us.
Note: The "Noah Webster's Dictionary" page is from The Mini Page 2008 Universal Press Syndicate, which became Uclick (now defunct). Texas Schoolhouse Serves a Community When you meet members of the CSAA someday, you'll find that we are all involved in some manner with a schoolhouse: enjoying, owning, preserving, curating, researching, repairing, fundraising, programming, teaching in them, or writing about them. We talk about schoolhouses like others talk about their grandchildren or their pets. What we have in common is that we're trying to save these quaint little buildings and their history. One of our previous posts talks about how it takes a village to care for them, and luckily, many of them are part of a historic village. Two of our CSAA board members, Richard and Catharin Lewis (TX) know all too well what it takes to save a schoolhouse, moving it 45 miles to League City, Texas in 1992. The website tells us that, "West Bay Common School Children’s Museum is a League City Historical Society project. This One Room Schoolhouse sits on the site of League City’s original school built in 1894 on land donated by JC League. The school provides a hands-on-history program where over 100,000 school aged children have experienced what a day was like in a one room school in the late 1800’s." When we speak of LCHS's village, the site also includes a fabulous Barn Museum, an Ice House and a Barber Shop, an original Outhouse and a Water Pump. And with all that history to share, it appears members of LCHS never rest. The community events they organize are varied and fascinating often drawing hundreds of people of all ages. Check out their website for ideas for your own society including: White Linen Night, National Night Out at the Museum, Punkin' Parade, Murder and Mayhem in League City, Music in the Historic District, Victorian Christmas Tea....etc. Remember, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. When you meet Catharin and Richard at the annual conference in June 2026...they'll tell you about their decades of involvement with this wonderful village.  Finding the Long Sought For A-5 Speedball Pen Nib
If you've been reluctant to utilize an AI program thinking it might eliminate your NEED TO THINK, I can't predict the future or assuage your concerns. Believe me, I don't wish to dumb MYSELF down by over reliance on ChatGPT, but for sure, asking a question now and then has saved me a lot of time in my research on all things schoolhouse, health, history, etc. I must admit I haven't used any of the more creative applications of AI beyond generating a picture or getting an answer. I also haven't submitted this post to AI to correct grammatical errors or punctuation ...in case you noticed. Most recently I was searching the web high and low for A-5 Speedball Nibs for our writing lessons in our schoolhouse's living history program. They're pretty darn rugged, but our visitors often apply a bit too much enthusiasm in their cursive writing lesson. Hence replacement. My old vendors failed me and stopped selling them. They weren't easy to find until the lightbulb went on and I remembered AI! I asked a simple question: "Where can I purchase Speedball A-5 nibs in bulk, like 30...not in a set?" Wow! My search was over. AI provided me almost instantly with explanations and vendors I never knew existed beyond Amazon and Dick Blick! So, to save you time in your own pen nib search, I'm going to share the VENDORS suggested by my new best friend, ChatGPT. I'm not advertising for them and I'm not an influencer. Just trying to help. BTW, Amazon has very reasonably priced "Nib Pen Holders." Utrecht Art Supplies Paper and Ink Arts Wet Paint Art Blick Art Materials Speedball Art (Beautiful Digital Calligraphy Catalogue, but no online ordering)  One Dozen Good Reasons to Attend a CSAA Conference!
2026 at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Lake Seneca No big explanation here, just a list to jump start your plans to attend the 2026 Annual CSAA Country School Conference in Geneva, New York on beautiful Lake Seneca. Everyone nation-wide is invited. See drop down menus as information unfolds. 1. Meet like-minded people with experience in schoolhouse preservation. 2. Make new friends. 3. Hear about schoolhouse topics, historical and current. 4. Discover programming ideas for schoolhouses. 5. Travel to a different state and college campus each year. 6. Enjoy a tour of area schoolhouses and heritage sites. 7. Share information about a historic your schoolhouse. 8. Engage in the local culture, museums, nature, history, architecture, scenery, and cuisine. 9. Look forward to dining and discussion with schoolhouse enthusiasts. 10. Become a presenter and offer a topic of interest. 11. Support the preservation of a national icon. 12. Revive personal energy in preservation and restoration. Not only is it time to get those grant applications in order, but a nice time to report on our 2025 recipients. The attached PDF details the schoolhouses benefitting from Preservation and Disaster Relief grants. Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Oregon schools are represented. The attached report was submitted by Dale and Joan Prouty.  CLICK ON YELLOW BANNER TO READ ABOUT 2025 GRANTS! One School Rule Bound to be Broken
Charts listing schoolhouse rules are a classic "artifact" in many 0f our living history classrooms, but we know what happens in a room full of rambunctious scholars. Rules like "no whispering" were generally mere suggestions and compliance a teacher's dream. Whispering got the best children in trouble at some time or other. Was any teacher ever successful in eradicating this "pernicious habit?" It's enlightening to find annual town reports from the common school era and read what the school superintendents wrote about classroom management. The subject of whispering came up often in one of my town's reports in the 1850's. As you read below, let's assume the scholars knew the superintending committee was coming for examination day and the schoolmarm read them the riot act. No? Is the success below genuine? Did the teachers file reports candidly? Does it seem like a lot of effort was expended to catalogue the offense of whispering?
Frankly, it all seems like an exercise in futility since times haven't changed all that much.  ...and His Readers (FREE BOOKLET BELOW!) The Report Card has posted about our dear friend Susan Webb, The Traveling Schoolmarm, a number of times in the past, sharing her lessons and her videos. She was one of our most dedicated CSAA board members and a regular conference presenter who passed away in 2023. One of her legacies, among many, was to offer countless free country school lessons to schoolmarms/schoolmasters across the country for use in their living history programs. In our travels we've noticed many schoolhouse programs use William Holmes McGuffey's Eclectic Readers to bring the typical 19th century reading lesson into focus. We're all familiar with McGuffey as a schoolbook writer, but Susan provided us with a handy little manual that highlights McGuffey's approach and his appeal, along with numerous sample lessons. This free resource will give you a clear understanding of the historic shift in teaching 19th century reading by providing stories that appealed to children's actual interests! This was the secret of McGuffey's success. To quote the McGuffey Publishers..."The grand object of the authors has been to afford the pupil the very best facilities for easy attainment of the art of spelling and reading in its highest perfection. It has been considered of scarcely less importance, however, to furnish him with that kind of reading that best adapted to his interest and exercise his opening faculties, and educate the heart as well as the intellect." In short, like Peter Parley, McGuffey understood what would capture his young readers' attention. Please make use of Susan Webb's resources as you may. The PDF is printable. Susan Webb's husband, Bill, one of her biggest supporters, has given his permission to share her work.  CLICK ON THE COVER ART TO ACCESS SUSAN'S BOOKLET Need a Boost for Restoration or Repair? It's that time again... Submitted by Joan and Dale Prouty Funding for schoolhouse repairs and preservation is always a challenge for many of our tiny schoolhouse organizations. CSAA wants to help once again by offering grants to offset those costs and/or serve as seed money towards other grants and funding sources. Under CSAA's SCHOOLHOUSE BUILDING GRANTS PROGRAM: Consider applying for a PRESERVATION GRANT – This can be used in restoring or conserving a one or two-room school building. It is designated for repairing or restoring some part of the building ONLY. The grant is not intended for the purchase of artifacts or grounds work. Another is for DISASTER RELIEF – This is used to cover damage from an unforeseen occurrence such as a storm, accident, or structural failure. These funds are designated to help restore some part of the damaged building. It is not for regular maintenance or building improvement. The complete guidelines and applications for the BUILDING GRANTS can be found on the CSAA website. The application can be completed and submitted electronically and the deadline is January 31st of each calendar year.  Carpenter Ben Taylor worked on the Forest Grove Schoolhouse in Bettendorf, IA for six years! The following article begs the question(s)...Are we serving our modern day students adequately or did we EVER cover the fundamentals in this test? I'll wager we'd have to review some of the words, before we could even tackle the questions!...parse, modes of a verb, decline, indicative, subjunctive, minuend, subtrahend, Avoirdupois, farthings. On the other hand, imagine what our contemporary students know that would baffle the best students of the 1800's!
There is good chance the following tests were designed to check the quality of the one-room school education against urban schools. Getting Into High School In 1860 by Michael Day In the mid-19th century, a high school education was beyond the needs - and the finances - of the average person. Many smaller communities did not even have a high school and those students who wished to attend one often needed to apply for admission to the high school of a nearby community. To be sure that students coming in "from other areas" were sufficiently prepared, many high schools had entrance examinations. Here are the questions from one such test as reported in the 1860 edition of the Annual Town Report of Chicopee, Massachusetts. GEOGRAPHY 1. How much of the earth's surface is land? 2. In what direction from Chicopee to New Orleans? 3. Mention the principal mountains in North America. 4. Where is the Black Sea? Yellow Sea? Baffin’s Bay? 5. Where is the Caribbean Sea? Hudson’s Bay? 6. Mention the political divisions of South America. 7. What is the Capital of Arkansas? Of Ohio? Of Maine? 8. Name the Southern States; the Middle States. 9. What is the capital of Austria? Of Spain? Of Prussia? 10. Where are the Pyrenees Mountains? The Alps? 11. Where is Cape Horn? Cape Sable? Cape Cod? 12. Bound Brazil, France, and the State of New York. 13. How many Zones are there? Name them. 14. How many motions has the earth? 15. What is Latitude? What is Longitude? 16. In what Latitude is Europe? S. America? Australia? 17. Name the oceans. Which is the largest? 18. Name the principal manufacturing towns and cities in New England. 19. What is an Isthmus? What is a Peninsula? 20. Suppose you were to go all the way by water from Chicopee to St. Petersburg: through what waters would you sail GRAMMAR 1. How many parts of speech are there? 2. What is a Conjunction? Pronoun? Interjection? 3. What is an Adjective? Noun? Verb? 4. How many cases have nouns? Name them. 5. What are the different modes of a verb? 6. What is a regular verb? 7. Write the principal parts of the verb to write. 8. How many tenses has the imperative mood? 9. In the sentence, "John is a better boy than Samuel", parse, is, better, boy, and Samuel and give the rules. 10. Decline the pronoun I, also the pronoun, he. 11. In the sentence, "The bird flew swiftly over the house", parse, flew, swiftly, over, and house. Which is the subject and which is the predicate? 12. Correct this: "Mary and me called to see Aunt Nancy but she had went out before we reached her house". 13. In the sentence, "I will tell you what I saw at Paris", parse will, till, you, what and at. 14. Give the indicative mode, perfect tense of the verb to come; also the subjunctive mode, future tense of the same verb. ARITHMETIC 1. Write in words these numbers 87000039, 49701342641714. 2. What is Subtraction? What is the Minuend? The Subtrahend? 3. If a man’s income is 8467 dollars a year, and he spends 269 dollars for clothing, 467 for house rent, 879 for provision, and 146 for traveling: how much will he have left at the end of the year? 4. Multiply 105070 by 8145. Divide 79165238 by 288. 5. Mr. Nelson supplied his farm with 4 yoke of oxen at 98 dollars a yoke; 4 plows at 11 dollars apiece; 8 horses at 97 dollars each, and agrees to pay for them in wheat at 1 dollar and a half per bushel. How many bushels must be given? 6. How many mills in 8 dollars? 7. How many kinds of Reduction are there? 8. Write the table for Avoirdupois Weight. 9. If a vessel sails 5 L., 2 m., 6 fur., 36 rds. in one day, how far will it sail in 8 days? 10. In £15, 19s, 11d, 8 far., how many farthings? 11. Reduce 87 & 11/24 to an improper fraction. 12. Add 9, 2/3, 1/15, 5/6, and 2/9 together. 13. If a house is worth 320 dollars, what is 9/16th of it worth? 14. What will 15 & 2/3 cord of wood cost at 8 & 6/7 dollar a cord? 15. Divide 7 & 11/17 by 3 & 3/5 and reduce the answer to a simple fraction. 16. What is the amount of $125.75 for one year, 9 months and 27 days at 7 per cent? 17. A owes B, 600 dollars; one third is to be paid in 6 months, one fourth in 8 months, and the remainder in 12 months: What is the mean time of payment? 18. How many days have you lived? It would be interesting to see how many of today's high school students - or for that matter, their teacher - can pass this test ! Michael Day has been a regular contributor to our former CSAA Newsletter and was the owner of Clippership Publications providing reprints of country school educational materials from the 19th century. We thank him for his articles of particular interest to schoolhouse enthusiasts, published earlier. Historic Villages Practice Country School Preservation In future posts on The Report Card we'll recap some unique times we've shared in 20 years of CSAA annual conferences. Ask any attendee you know and they'll tell you the annual conference offers a lot more than an exchange of ideas! We traditionally add the best experiences a location can offer. Grand university campuses, local museums, regional music, historic sites, trolley rides, train trips...we've sampled them all at some point in the past 20 years. While our focus on country schools is not "grand" in any sense, the more simple pleasures found in them are most rewarding. Appreciating an antique hanging globe, discovering schoolhouse advertising curtains, photographing manufactured ironside desks, hearing a song from a restored pump organ, envying a perfectly preserved set of Holbrook's apparatus...are all experiences we've been afforded. The pleasure of a visit is multiplied when our schoolhouse tour is part of a historic village. There we get to step into a period home, a country store, a meeting house or chapel, a firehouse, a barn, a barber shop, a dentist office, or possibly a bank, well preserved and outfitted with furniture and proper artifacts. We always make a beeline to the schoolhouse though. New London Historical Society In 2017 the CSAA annual conference was held at Colby-Sawyer College in New London, New Hampshire. After a full day of presentations, we paid a visit to the New London Historical Society a half a mile away. This perfect, small New England town boasts of a historic village of 15 buildings representative of the 1800's in New Hampshire. The 2-MINUTE video below (GET ACQUAINTED WITH THE VILLAGE) gives a brief overview of what we saw there, but the two buildings we want to call attention to are schoolhouses, one of them being REPURPOSED into the Colby, Greenwood & Seaman's Country Store. A slide show follows... Note: Next month we'll visit West Bay Common School Children's Museum in League City, Texas!   Piece by Piece, a Beautiful Renewal Amazing, the valuable information you find when you're not looking. After visiting countless schoolhouses over the years, I find the most eye-catching artifacts in the classroom surely include the pot bellied stove and the well-worn manufactured desks with the cast iron legs. The designs are numerous and beautiful. Original matching desks are a treasure if your museum owns and displays them. Many of us covet them. That's why it's not unusual to find CSAA members bending and twisting to get the perfect photograph of these genuine works of art. If a schoolhouse museum has undertaken a restoration of their desks, they have undoubtably faced a labor of love and a lot of elbow grease. If you are thinking of repairing, restoring, or just freshening up your desks, I stumbled upon a gentleman on YouTube who has provided us with a three-part video series that runs viewers through the process. The initial deconstruction of the desk is an amazing thing to watch and gives us an idea of just how much work is involved in a single set, desk and seat. Country school enthusiasts have always been impressed by the quality and workmanship in this type of desk, but wait until you witness the ingenious method of connecting the wood to the iron and why everything operates so smoothly. Even if you aren't looking for this information, the videos are helpful in learning how to repair and restore 19th century manufactured desks, and a big help to those who are considering it. Thank you to Underwood Industries! Restoring an Antique Desk from the Early 1900's "Underwood Industries" on YouTube |
