The characteristics of one-room rural schools in Barbour County, West Virginia, are representative of one-room rural school characteristics in general. These include building design and problems; teacher' lives and duties, certification, salaries, and training; scheduling and curriculum; games; punishments; and hot lunch programs. Since one-room schools no longer operate in Barbour County, data included personal communications with people who had taught in or attended the schools. A historical background discusses state school laws from 1642 to 1936. A literature review details general characteristics of rural one-room schools: design, construction, and facilities; restrictions on teachers' private lives; teachers' instructional and extracurricular duties; use of the school as an agency for community change; teacher certification requirements and salaries; establishment of normal schools in West Virginia for teacher training; inservice education; daily scheduling and curriculum in the schoolhouse; games played; undesirable and appropriate punishments; early hot lunch programs; and facility lighting, heating, and ventilation problems. Drawing on personal anecdotes, characteristics of Barbour County's one-room schools are discussed in relation to prevailing characteristics nationwide. Identified benefits of small-scale schooling include: (1) feasibility of democratic practices; (2) accountability of faculty performance; (3) individualized attention to student needs; (4) safe and orderly learning environments; (5) parental access to school leadership, and (6) development of a high-quality curriculum. Contains 35 references. (SAS)