This book describes the teaching experiences of Stella Gipson Polk, who taught in one-room schools in rural Texas. She was 16 at the time she took her first teaching job in 1918. After high school graduation, she had intended to enter a 4-year college or university. However, World War I left numerous schools without teachers as many were called…

A historical case study is presented of the creation of elementary schools for the nomadic tribes of Fars Province in southern Iran (Persia). A brief historical review of the educational opportunities and socioeconomic background of the Fars tribes is given. Additionally, the gradual expansion of the impact of bringing education to the previously…

This book is a memoir of one-room school life in 1929. In his day, Cratis D. Williams (1911-85) was America's foremost scholar on the Appalachian experience. This book is the story of his first teaching assignment at age 18 in a one-room K-8 school on Caines Creek in Lawrence County, Kentucky. Williams details his classroom practices and…

A final-year student teacher from the University of Southern Queensland (Australia) describes her student teaching experiences in a one-room school in the isolated town of Birdsville, focusing on the harsh natural environment, the demands of a multiage classroom, and positive attributes of the small school and community involvement. (SV)

Questionnaires returned by 402 of a total of 672 teachers in one-teacher schools surveyed in spring 1984 provided data on these teachers and the students, schools, and communities they served. Findings indicated an estimated 800 one-teacher schools operating in 28 states, with the largest number 385, in Nebraska. Average enrollment was 11…

This book describes the experience of a young and inexperienced teacher during 1926 in rural Marengo County, Alabama. Susie Powers Tompkins accepted her first teaching assignment to earn money to continue college after her freshman year at Alabama College. However, for Tompkins the rewards of teaching went far beyond just earning money. She found…

Statistical data on the 158 rural schools of Wyoming are presented, based on information collected in 1967. Data are categorized into 2 types: schools under county superintendents, and schools not under county superintendents. Teacher-pupil ratios are presented for each school. The data indicate that 127 schools were under direct supervision of…

A comparative study is presented from the results of a questionnaire on rural education submitted to 71 countries. Information is given on administrative organization, criteria used to determine rurality, rural-urban differences, special courses for rural areas, curricula for rural education, staff distribution and preparation, and centralization…

In this interview (funded via a Title III Elementary Secondary Education Act grant) the roots of progressive education are revealed as Marian Brooks recounts the beginnings of her teaching career in 1924 at the age of 15 in a one room rural New Hampshire school. The interviewer's questions encompass the: (1) nature of the early teacher preparatory…

During the mid-1930s, the main line of the Newfoundland (Canada) Railway stretched 547 miles from St. John's to Port aux Basques, and railway workers and their families lived along the line in small isolated settlements. The provincial department of education, the Newfoundland Railway, and the Anglo-Newfoundland Development Company devised an…

A 5-year study of one-teacher schools was conducted by a single researcher in the remote North West Region of New South Wales, Australia. A personal narrative discusses problems of longitudinal research, peculiarities of gathering data in the chosen region, the close relationship of these isolated schools and their communities, and problems and…

Maintains that rural school reform in California between 1900 and 1940 was motivated by many of the same concerns that underlay the national movement to reform rural education. Describes the growth of state control over classroom teachers. (CFR)

This book examines Gallia County (Ohio) one-room schools through the oral life histories of 14 retired female teachers. Interviews with the teachers focused on conditions and practices in one-room schoolhouses in the early to mid-20th century in rural southeastern Ohio, and on the common characteristics of one-room school teachers who became rural…

This book presents the oral histories of one male and seven female retired teachers who began their careers during the 1920s and 1930s in one-room schools in the Texas hill country. These teachers continued to teach until after the desegregation of public schools in the 1960s. The married black couple included began teaching in rural Texas in 1931…

Country schools were important in the growth and development of North Dakota. While most of the early schools were constructed of wood, some were constructed of stone, sod, or logs. Standardization was established by 1915, and the white framed one-room school was duplicated in every township of the state until the end of World War II. A former…