I grew up in Davison, Michigan – just east of Flint in
Genesee County. Like most of this region the state was divided into mostly
rectangular counties with nine townships, and each township had nine sections,
and each section had a one-room schoolhouse. Thus on my first day of
kindergarten at Goodenough Elementary I was in a room with K-8 grades and one
outstanding teacher. [How the teachers handled this is beyond me. Of course how
any teacher handles kids is a complete mystery.]
But in first grade they doubled the size of the schoolhouse
and put K-3 in one room and 4-6 in the other. This multi-grade classroom
provided a huge learning advantage. One received a preview of the next year and
review of the previous year. So I was reading with the 3rd grader
when I was in 1st; and doing math with the 6th graders
when I was in 4th. As one of my college professors said, “Repetition
is the basis of knowledge.” This statement played out well in the one-room
schoolhouses of the 1950’s.
Although we had recess and played and exercised a lot one
disadvantage was the lack of organized sports because we had no gymnasium, thus
no dodge ball. But our 5th grade teacher, who had been a basketball
coach, decided we should learn that esteemed sport. So he padded down some dirt
around a pole and hung a net. [There was not a square foot of concrete on the
playground.] We practiced until he thought we were prepared and then he took us
to the city school for a real game. Needless to say, the city team wiped the
floor with us – we really weren’t ready. In fact many of us had never even been
inside a gym before. This was the end of my basketball endeavors.
Additionally my sister and I live about a quarter mile north
of the school, and in the winter we walked both ways uphill in deep snow. We
were too close for the bus to pick us up.
Thankfully the academic enhancements of a one-room
schoolhouse served me well throughout the rest of my education!
Copyright 2018 by Carl E Gustafson
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