The shortage of teachers in America's classrooms is reaching epidemic proportions. The National Education Association (2003) predicted that nearly one million veteran teachers will retire within the next decade, and reported that the number of classrooms without qualified teachers increases each year. In this article, the authors contend that a…

This book describes the experiences of 26 retired rural school teachers from western Wisconsin. The book was inspired by the community solidarity of the Cloverdale Community Club (Wisconsin) in maintaining the old Cloverdale School building. Cloverdale School was a typical one-room rural school, built in 1857 and closed by the consolidation…