Schools
Overview
Schools were important to educate settler children. There were not enough children in each community to make large schools. Many children from different grade levels would learn in one-room schoolhouses. Children would often travel to school by themselves and face challenges getting there.
Children from many different grade levels would learn in one-room schoolhouses.
Children traveled on their own to attend one-room schoolhouses where many grade-levels were taught by one teacher.
One-room Schoolhouse
The school was one of the first services in a community. The people of the community got together to build the school. The first schoolhouses consisted of one room. Grades one to eight were taught by one teacher.
PHOTO CREDIT: WESTERN DEVELOPMENT MUSEUM
Children from many different grade levels would learn in one-room schoolhouses.
Schools did not have good lighting and would be cold and drafty in the winter. Equipment included a blackboard, chalk and brushes, teacher’s desk and chair, desks or benches, slates, and a few textbooks.
Schoolhouses had the basic equipment for teachers to teach students.
The school was not only a place for education. Religious services were often held at the school before a church could be built. The schoolhouse was a gathering place for meetings, dances, concerts, and plays.
Children were able to play together outside at school.
Getting to School
Most of the students walked to school. Some students rode horseback. Others came with a horse and buggy. The schoolhouse in a rural (country) community was often built at a crossroads so it would be easier for people to get to the school.
Children walked to school. Some took shortcuts across fields and pastures. Some children got a ride with their father or with neighbours. A group of children could fit in a wagon. After heavy rains, a dirt road was often too muddy to walk on or to drive on.
PHOTO CREDIT: WESTERN DEVELOPMENT MUSEUM
These children are travelling from their farm to school near Speers, SK.
In the winter, children came in a sleigh or cutter. They kept their hands and feet warm with blankets and warm rocks or bricks wrapped in cloth. A hot baked potato also helped to keep their hands warm. Then the potato was eaten for lunch.
In the winter, some children came to school being pulled in a sleigh.
This photo from 1932 shows a seven-year old girl that would ride 4 kilometers each way to school in the fall and the spring.
Those who brought horses to school tied the horses up in the schoolyard or put the horses in a barn or stable. The students were responsible for providing food and water for their horses.
PHOTO CREDIT: SASKATCHEWAN HISTORY ALBUM
These siblings are travelling to school in Strasbourg, SK in a buggy pulled by two horses in 1928.
A Day at School
One teacher taught many grades in a rural one-room school. The main subjects were normally reading, writing, and arithmetic. Older students helped with the younger students. Textbooks and supplies were lacking. Some students could not speak English. Arithmetic involved counting, number facts, and story problems. Mental arithmetic (or doing math in your head) was encouraged.
Teachers had a difficult job teaching many grade levels at once.
Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division tables were practiced aloud so students could learn through drill and memory work. Poems were memorized and recited aloud. For reading, the students stood and read aloud. Students copied spelling words from the blackboard on to their slates and practiced writing the words over and over. Geography was taught if the school had maps or a globe. Sometimes they would sing songs or have a Spelling Bee.
A class posing outside their school in 1927.
This photo shows a class from Grand Central School in 1916.
A teacher in the days of early settlers was expected to do many things besides teaching. The school was to be kept clean. There were extra duties for the teacher such as filling the oil lamps, cleaning the chimney, bringing in water for drinking and for washing hands, bringing in firewood, keeping the classroom warm, and sharpening the pencils.
PHOTO CREDIT: WESTERN DEVELOPMENT MUSEUM
This one-room schoolhouse photo was taken on August 24, 1947 at the Floral, SK school.
