Back in the 1920s, when I was a schoolboy, there was usually a degree of excitement mingled with wonderment among boys of school age this time of year. That was because rural schools in Breathitt County opened the first Monday after July 4th.

The excitement was prompted because we would be back in school. We would again have fun playing "round-town" ball, bullpen ball, and stink base, during the hourlong lunch break or in the mornings, before the teacher arrived. Then there was always the Friday afternoon spelldowns and the arithmetic matches we could look forward to.

The wonderment was when there would be a new teacher coming to our little one-room school. In most one-teacher isolated rural schools, there would be a new teacher every year or two. We seldom ever knew who our teacher would be from year to year.

Sometimes the teachers would be awfully rough and used switches very freely. Some teachers made us line up and march in and out of the schoolroom with military discipline. Others permitted us to run in and out of the schoolroom, like stampeding wild horses. We never knew what to expect of new teachers.

School discipline was enforced with switches used on all the older pupils. Most first and second graders were paddled on the hand with a ruler, which the teacher had for that purpose. The bigger boys, sometimes the larger girls, were "switched" across the back.

The number of pupils attending such rural one-teacher schools ranged from 30 to 40, often representing all eight grades. The lower grade classes were usually larger, because many pupils (as all children in rural schools were called in those days, never referred to as "students," no matter what grade they were in) dropped out as they grew older. Most eighth grade classes ranged from one to three, but seldom ever more.

Ages of pupils ranged from six to 17 or 18 years. Usually, when fall fodder-cutting and corn-gathering time came, all the older ones dropped out to help with the work at home. The compulsory age to attend school was also 16 at that time, but was hardly ever enforced.

The teacher's domain was a desk on a stage at the front of the schoolroom. In front of the stage was a long bench. When the teacher called a class, all pupils in that class marched up front and sat on that bench.

Reading was done orally. Each pupil in the class stood and read a passage from the textbook. The objective was to read or pronounce every word correctly in the reading assignment.

In spelling, the requirement was the same, spell every word.

Most arithmetic classes worked the problems on the blackboard. Such exercises were done by rote or memory, with little understanding of why it was done that way.

English or grammar consisted of memorizing the parts of speech and rules of usage. Very few teachers ever explained the rules.

History and geography were also taught in the upper grades, mostly by reading, memorizing historical dates and events; and there were the continents, states, and countries in geography. Also, we were required to know the capitals of states in the seventh or eighth grades.

Most Friday afternoons were spent in spelling or arithmetic matches. The arithmetic matches were done at the blackboard. Two pupils were sent to the board, then an exercise in adding, multiplication or division was given out by the teacher. The pupil who got the correct answer first won the match, and the other sat down. The process was continued, until everyone was eliminated to determine the winner.
The spelldown was operated the same way.

In retrospect, the one-room and one-teacher rural schools don't seem as bad as they were pictured years later. They produced quite a few lawyers, teachers, and successful businesspersons; and according to history, even a few presidents. I don't know of any "functional illiterates" being turned out by one-room schools, except those persons who attended school only a few days or weeks a year.

To me, one-room and one-teacher schools hold fond memories.