One Community, One School: One-Room Schools in Fond du Lac County
by Tracey Haegler and Sue Fellerer

Federal and state statutes enabled schools in Wisconsin to operate, but the sociological norms and values of the individual agricultural communities determined the day-to-day operation of the rural schools in Fond du Lac County. Rural communities held great power and influence over education. They determined what was to be taught and who would be hired to teach the children. Thus the rural schools became a reflection of the community’s values, experiences, and expectations.

Formal education began in Wisconsin with the establishment of French fur trading settlements in Green Bay in the eighteenth century. As the territory flourished, towns grew and developed into ordered communities that regarded education as necessary for their further development. The Land Act of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinances of 1787 included the first laws concerning educational foundations in Wisconsin. These ordinances drew upon the ideas of Thomas Jefferson, who was one of the first to suggest that the revenue from the sale of public lands be used to finance public schooling. Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress enacted the Land Act of 1785 that divided the Northwest Territories (Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin) into townships of six square miles, each of which was further divided into 36 sections. ¹ When new states and territories were formed, the federal government dedicated one section in each township for support of common schools (a term used until 1875 to describe one-room country schools). ² The Ordinance of 1787 asserted that “religion, morality, and knowledge were necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.” ³ The Ordinances set the precedent in Wisconsin for education to be supported by public land grants.

The first organized school in Wisconsin was established in 1791, when Pierre Grignon, a French fur trader, hired Jacques Porlier (the first recorded teacher in Wisconsin) to teach his children. By 1817, schools were open in Green Bay and in Prairie du Chien. These schools received support from religious organizations and from the community. ⁴ Legislation creating the Michigan Territory provided for tax-supported schools. Wisconsin, a part of the Michigan Terri-tory from 1818 to 1836, crafted territorial legislation regarding schools that stated:

1) The township should have the responsibility for examining teachers and visiting schools.
2) The cost of school construction was to be defrayed from district taxes on property; however, the tax could be paid in labor or in kind, instead of money.
3) If funds were insufficient, a rate-bill tax could be levied on the parents in proportion to the number of children the family had in school.
4) Parents were required to contribute wood for fuel based upon the number of children the family sent to school.
5) The cost of teaching impoverished children was to be paid from the general property tax. ⁵

Early schools in Wisconsin were called subscription schools, because they were sup-ported by funds raised through subscriptions, tuition, and land rental fees. Teachers usually were paid poorly, and at times they were paid only in commodities. It was not until 1845 that the first free school in Wisconsin was established in Southport, now Kenosha. This was due to the support of Colonel Michael Frank, a member of the territorial legislature, who introduced a bill that pro-vided tax support for public schools. The impact of Frank’s efforts can be seen in the immediate increase in the number of public school teachers in Wisconsin. In 1846, there were approx-imately 387 public school teachers; by 1847, the number of teachers increased to 502. ⁶ Frank’s law, with some minor modifications, was incorporated into the Wisconsin State Consti-tution in 1849. By 1936, there were 138,344 children enrolled in 6,600 one-room schools, whose yearly operational cost was approximately $8,570,000. ⁷

Although common schools were regarded as a means to serve the agricultural com-munity, they were not uniquely a Wisconsin development. The establishment of one-room schools began with Joseph Lancaster (1778-1838), who established a large, factory-like “moni-torial” school in London as early as 1797. ⁸ Monitorial schools had a master teacher who trained advanced students to act as monitors, and who, in turn, taught basic skills to beginning students. Lessons in monitorial schools were reduced to specific elements, with each element being assigned to a particular monitor; each monitor was then placed with children who were grouped according to their ability. To keep costs down, inexpensive materials and large wall charts (instead of books) were used, and students traced letters with their fingers on sand tables instead of using pen, ink, and paper. ⁹ Gradually, these monitorial schools were replaced by common schools.

One of the founders of the common school movement was Horace Mann (1796-1859). An advocate for public education, Mann wanted schools to teach democratic values, because he believed that “the democratic process required literate voters who would be better equipped to elect public officials.” ¹⁰ Common schools had many similar features to the monitorial schools: peer monitoring, ability grouping, mass education, supervision by one teacher, and limited financial resources. The goal of the monitorial school was to provide the cheapest education possible to the most people in the shortest amount of time. Common schools also were pro-viding “mass” education, but they had to do it cheaply because the entire community lacked the financial resources needed to provide a more elaborate educational system In addition, com-munity values often limited the resources that would be dedicated to education.

A primary goal of the common school in Wisconsin was to create citizens who would respect the community’s interests. Wisconsin’s educational system, as influenced by Horace Mann’s philosophy, advocated schools that were characterized by smaller classes in smaller buildings and with a central focus on the rural community’s democratic values, experiences, and expectations. As a result, rural schools in Wisconsin were “community originated, community supervised, and community financed” to insure that the community’s interests would be met. ¹¹

Wisconsin embraced free public education as a priority during the first Wisconsin Con-stitutional Convention in Madison in 1846. In 1848, the Constitution was ratified, and Wisconsin became a leader in the free public education movement. Central to Wisconsin’s leadership was Article X of the Constitution. This Article included provisions establishing Wisconsin’s edu-cational system. The School Law of 1848 was built upon this constitutional authorization to provide for:

1) Free elementary education to everyone between the ages of four and twenty. Financing the schools would come from proceeds from the sale of every sixteenth section of land, dedicated to school use, and from interest from proceeds gained by the sale of federal land grants that were originally designated for such purposes, as provided by the Northwest Ordinance of 1785. Other funding was to come from state, township, and district taxes.
2) The election of a State Superintendent of schools.
3) The authority of township boards of supervisors to organize school districts within their respective townships.
4) For township school superintendents who would examine and certify teachers, and who had the power to consolidate township school districts, but did not have the power to create districts.
5) For districts to vote a tax of not more than twenty dollars for globes and similar instructional equipment, and for a tax of thirty dollars for building a library.
6) A mandate that schools must be open for at least three months during the year, either winter or summer term, or both.
7) A prescribed curriculum that contained the following subjects: reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, English grammar, orthography (spelling), and other subjects as the board wished to add.
8) The State Superintendent to have general supervisory authority over all state schools. ¹²

Wisconsin continued its quest to insure the education of its citizens by creating the State’s first compulsory education law in 1879. ¹³ The law mandated parents to send their children to school regularly: full-time between seven and sixteen years of age, if in proper physical and mental health; full-time between sixteen and eighteen years of age, if unemployed and not yet graduated from high school; but part-time (six and one-half hours per week), if employed; half-time between sixteen and eighteen years of age, if employed at home. ¹⁴ In some rural Wisconsin communities, this meant that students who previously stayed home from school to work in the fields would attend school at least half-time. In the rural community, the com-pulsory education law either was interpreted liberally or was laxly enforced, because the agri-cultural community’s interests often placed productive labor above education.

Resistance to schooling gradually declined as changes in farming technology reduced the amount of labor required in the fields, as a growing population reduced the amount of land dedi-cated to farming, and as the community developed a stronger sense of the value of education. By 1920, rural attitudes on the importance of education had changed, the law on compulsory school attendance was strictly enforced, and children in Wisconsin’s rural communities were no longer allowed to stay at home to work in the fields.

The goal of educating the growing youth population of Wisconsin could be more easily met as State authorities were able to access monies that were accumulating in the school fund for the development of the educational system. School funds, created by the sale of the sixteenth section of every township in Wisconsin (as dictated by Congress), were not available to the Wisconsin Territory until it became a state. ¹⁵ Previously, Wisconsin, as a territory, could only raise money through leasing public lands, but leasing provided only a fraction of the funds that could be realized from the sale of public lands. ¹⁶ Statehood better enabled Wisconsin to equip its schools, train its teachers, and educate its children. Common schools utilized school funds to meet a growing population that was still further swelled by the eventual enforcement of the compulsory education law.

In 1869, the State Legislature established a “township system of school governance." ¹⁷ Under this system, each town became one school district, and the existing school districts became sub-districts. Each sub-district elected a clerk, a group of officials who collectively were known as the “Board of Directors.” ¹⁸ A typical school board was composed of elected, white, wealthy males of the community. Duties of the Board included holding an annual district meet-ing in July, determining finances for the next school year, selecting a school site, if one was not already established, voting on how to spend tax money on necessities, choosing or approving the textbooks to be used, maintaining the schoolhouse, hiring the teacher, expelling students, and insuring that all items that were recommended for the schools by the State Superintendent were acquired. ¹⁹ Primary control over a school resided at the district level, with the State government having only a limited role. As a result, the school board was the major locus of authority over the educational system of both urban and rural communities in Wisconsin. ²⁰

The authority that the school board held in Fond du Lac County can be seen in the annual records from the annual July board meetings that decided the future of the school. Issues that were discussed included the length of the school year, free textbooks for the school, school repairs, and the monthly salary and contracts of the teachers. For example, according to the District Clerk’s General Record Book of the Town Line School, motions were made to raise $3,000 from a levy on all taxable property for the coming year, to purchase a piano for not more than $75, to purchase new desks not to exceed a total of six, and to provide a higher salary in order to recruit “a better than average teacher.” ²¹ Most of the district’s power came from its ability to set the budget deemed necessary to support the school. For Town Line School, the Board allotted $3,000 annually for the operation of the school during the years 1953-1957. Only in 1958 did the Board increase the budget by $1,000, and this increase was made because the school needed costly repairs such as the installation of fluorescent lights, a ventilation check to improve efficiency, a study of the heating system, and a new wire for a “school curtain for entertainment.” ²²

Another way in which community leaders in the school district exercised power over local education was through direct involvement of the community. The upkeep of the school-house depended directly upon the community, and some communities demonstrated more parental involvement for the school’s upkeep than others. For instance, at Hayes school in Eldorado, the wood-burning furnace had deposited soot on the inside of the school. When Darlene Ries arrived in the morning, she discovered that the school was dirty and damaged to the extent that school would have to be canceled until the school was cleaned and the furnace repaired. It took only one day for community members to clean and paint the inside of the school and to make the needed repairs so that school could be held the next day. ²³ The support of those parents provided an example of the measures some communities took to insure the operation and maintenance of their school.

In contrast, Forest Grove School, located between Armstrong and Dotyville, fell into disrepair during the Great Depression and World War II. The School Board did not appropriate funds needed to maintain the school, and there was a lack of parental involvement. The dis-repair was remedied when Darlene Ries began to teach at Forest Grove School, for Ries immediately organized a Parent Teacher Association (PTA) that undertook to repair the school.

One-Room School at Ries Cemetery, 1912

The PTA purchased a flagpole, fixed the windows, painted the school, and purchased a new stove. ²⁴

In addition to parental and community support, the character of the local economy also influenced the maintenance of schools. Those communities with more resources could afford better care for their schoolhouses, while poorer communities might not be able to afford to maintain their schoolhouses adequately.

In Wisconsin, the school board often selected the school site, and this sometimes created problems among rural neighbors and between school board members. Disagreements over the site might occur because it was impossible to please everyone within the community with one particular site. One acre of dry, elevated land in the geographical center of the district often was deeded or leased to the district by a farmer. Ideally, this land was close to the residences of families whose children would be attending the school. ²⁵ If these families moved, the school-house might be relocated closer to the remaining pupils in the school district, and the original site then reverted to the original donor or donor’s family. Fond du Lac County School District Number 7, which included the towns of Rosendale and Springvale, was only able to lease a one-half acre plot (for $1.00) from Armina E. Brill for the school district to use as a school site in 1850. This contravened the one-acre regulation, but the rural communities in Fond du Lac County often used whatever land was available, and at times it was impossible to get one full acre. There might be other special requirements. The aforementioned lease, for example, stipulated that the district construct a fence around three sides of the property, and it also requested that the timber on the land be left standing unless the school district deemed it neces-sary that the trees be removed at some future time. The lease also stipulated that the land was to be considered school property until the school ceased to operate. ²⁶

Most schoolhouses were designed by architects whose plans were made available through architectural handbooks. Henry Barnard, an influential schoolhouse architect and also a leader in the common school movement, became Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin (1858-1860) and later the United States Commissioner of Education (1867-1870). ²⁷ Barnard presented plans in the latest architectural style, addressing exteriors, interiors, yards, mechanical equipment, and furniture. Barnard’s influence on Wisconsin’s common schools can be seen in features such as rectangular stone or brick foundations, built two feet above the ground, a V-shaped arched roof, oblong windows, poorly insulated walls, hardwood floors, dual entryways, a bell tower, and a wood-burning stove. ²⁸ Apart from the architect’s plan, the land surrounding the school was characterized by uncut grass, outhouses, play equipment, and, in most cases, a flagpole.

Architectural styles in rural Wisconsin communities reflected the frugality of the com-munity in both structure and building materials used. The weaker economies found in the agri-cultural communities generated only limited financial resources to construct the schools.

Rural Wisconsin schoolhouses were important to their communities in many ways that were not specifically related to education. Groups such as the 4-H club, homemakers’ club, sewing club, quilting club, and the PTA (Parent Teacher Association) held their meetings there. County agents demonstrated new farm products or techniques. Town meetings, wedding receptions, and community social activities such as baseball games, spelling bees, town picnics, and town dances all took place in the schoolhouse or on the grounds. Children often provided entertainment for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and Mother’s Day programs, with an emphasis on the annual Christmas pageant. Some districts went so far as to ask prospec-tive teachers during their interviews if they would be willing to put on a Christmas program. ²⁹ Social events, like town dances, often caused damage to the schoolhouse that had to be repaired before the next school session. ³⁰ For many years, agricultural communities continued to use their one-room schools for social, political, and other entertainment purposes that served to unite com-munities and to educate their children.

In addition to exercising control over finances and social functions of the rural school, district leaders also governed the teacher. The rural community in Wisconsin exercised power through regulations incorporated in teaching certificates and contracts. Before 1841, teacher certification was virtually nonexistent. The certification process began with passage of Wisconsin’s 1854 licensing statute, which required teachers to pass examinations given by the town superintendent. The town superintendent had the power to demand reexamination of a teacher whenever he deemed it necessary, and he could revoke the certificate for whatever reason he deemed appropriate. ³¹ Examples of the questions on the teacher examinations included:

“Explain the telegraph instrument.”
“Were there ever glaciers in this country? State evidence that justifies your answer.”
“A farmer bought a number of sheep for $80; if he had bought 4 more for the same money, he would have paid $1 less for each. How many did he buy?” ³²

A teacher who failed a non-standardized test in one district might move to another district and attempt to pass its test. Once the test was passed, a certificate was issued that was only valid in that district. ³³ Due to variability in the local regulations of teaching examinations and certi-ficates, uniformity in the hiring process and in the quality of teachers was impossible.

Without uniformity among districts, discrimination easily occurred in hiring practices. School boards often stipulated the characteristics they desired in a teacher before any applicants were interviewed. Many boards went so far as to specify their preference for a male teacher. Other characteristics that were considered desirable by the rural community, besides knowledge of content, were punctuality (considered to be the most important trait), neatness (not only in dress but also in the classroom), quietness (i.e. dignity in handling children), order (class-room management), and cheerfulness. ³⁴ These “exemplary demeanors” were discussed in a lecture at the Oshkosh State Normal School, and they were expected to be demonstrated by the rural schoolteacher who, after all, served as a role model for the community’s children. These charac-teristics were to reinforce the behavior that the community sought to develop in their children.

Teaching certificates were not standardized by the State until 1862. Standardization of the teacher examinations followed later. ³⁵ Individual districts eventually lost their authority to certify teachers as they were replaced in this function by county and state superintendents. Even though the authority passed out of the control of the district, the community still retained control of whom it hired to teach its children through the powers vested in the district school board. The school board sought to maintain control over its schools, because it claimed to know what was best for its children and could thereby promote the community’s values, expectations, and goals. They feared the State would disregard the community’s concerns and might encourage values that conflicted with those of the community.

The 1862 standardization of certification led to the development of a graded certificate system that divided teachers into three different categories, based on required testing by the county or city superintendent in different content areas. The third grade certificate required teachers to pass examinations in orthoepy, orthography, reading, penmanship, arithmetic, pri-mary grammar, and geography. The second grade certificate required the teacher to pass the subjects of the third grade certificate, in addition to grammatical analysis, physiology, physical geography, elementary algebra, United States history, and the theory and practice of teaching. The first grade certificate required teachers to pass the second and third grade examinations in addition to higher algebra, natural philosophy, and geometry. The first grade certificate, the most difficult to receive, was valid for five years; the second grade certificate was valid for three years; and the third grade certificate for just one year. The Platteville Normal School (October 1866) provides an example of the curriculum of these schools intended to prepare teachers for these examinations. Subjects included penmanship, English grammar, arithmetic, spelling, reading, physical geography, algebra, Latin, German, trigonometry, surveying, United States history, drawing, geometry, rhetoric, criticism, physiology, philosophy of natural history, vocal music, and theory and practice of teaching. ³⁶

By 1878, the first steps towards state certification occurred when the State Super-intendent was given the authority to issue an unlimited certificate or a limited certificate that required renewal every five years. By 1917, the State Superintendent had obtained the authority to approve the standards of attainment for teaching applicants set by each county superin-tendent. ³⁷ Beginning with the 1939-1940 school year, the State took over all powers of certi-fication. Consequently, the graded certification system was gradually replaced by State admini-stration. The State Superintendent of Public Instruction could grant exemptions from the requirement that all teachers complete two years of schooling beyond high school devoted to “pedagogical instruction and training.” Any teacher who had taught in a common school prior to 1937 was allowed to continue to teach without complying with the new State certification regulations. ³⁸

Training for teachers in Wisconsin began in institutions that usually held classes during the summer months. The classes, offered by the state school superintendents, provided a way for one-room schoolteachers to interact and exchange information and practical advice on teaching. ³⁹ To support teacher training, Wisconsin passed the Act of 1857, establishing the Swamp Land Fund from sales of land under a Federal law of 1850. The Act authorized use of 25 per cent of the income from these sales to fund teacher training in the various colleges and academies that supported a “Normal Department.” ⁴⁰ In 1865, the Wisconsin State Legislature created a state system of teacher training schools called “normal schools.” Henry Barnard originally recom-mended this concept during the Constitutional Convention in 1846. Barnard’s idea was pat-terned after the educational system he had organized in Rhode Island and Connecticut. ⁴¹

The State normal schools were initially unable to meet the demand for trained teachers in Wisconsin. As a result, in 1899 the State Legislature passed a law that allowed any county without a State normal school to establish and fund a county normal school. The first county normal school opened in Wausau that same year. By 1924, thirty-two such schools were operating in Wisconsin. ⁴²

The county and state normal schools’ curriculum focused on subject content. “Edu-cation” courses emphasized administration and other skills that one-room schoolteachers would need in their day-to-day teaching experiences. One of the benefits of attending the county normal schools was that first-year students were placed in nearby schools to help them become familiar with the routine and to assist the regular teacher with supervision of recess, spelling, and other duties. Second-year students also were placed in a rural school, but they spent more time teaching. In contrast, students at a State normal school were placed in a model school or a demonstration room, in essence a practice classroom located within the State normal school. ⁴³ The county normal schools actually provided hands-on experience in a one-room school, a practical advantage for the teacher in training, whereas the State normal schools did not. The state and county normal schools generally offered similar courses of instruction, although the state schools typically provided a broader range. In the county normal schools, the faculty were more approachable, the atmosphere was more informal, and there was more practical experience. ⁴⁴ The State normal school courses also might not be structured in a way that could be used in the classroom, and there were fewer opportunities for practical experiences. ⁴⁵

Teachers were expected to follow the rules established by school boards and rooted in the expectations and values of the community. Many rules were influenced by the community’s attitudes toward the roles that women were to play within society at that time. Typically, women were not supposed to be seen drinking or smoking. They also were not to work once they began a family. In some states, such as Wyoming, Nevada, and Kansas, female rural teachers were expected to resign once they were married. This was not the case in Wisconsin, however, if only because of the shortage in numbers of teachers relative to the number of positions available. Teachers were allowed to marry, but it was implied that they should resign once they became pregnant. Communities that imposed rigid regulations on the social life of the teacher risked losing that teacher.

Rules often varied according to the gender of the teacher. In some rural communities, female teachers were not allowed to go out with a man unless accompanied by a family member. Male teachers did not have comparable restrictions. Rules sometimes dictated where the teacher lived. Wyoming, Nevada, and Kansas required teachers to live at the schoolhouse, because schools were more isolated, and bad weather might damage the schoolhouse if no one were present to watch the building. Wisconsin regulations were more lenient. Teachers were required to live in the district, but the teacher was expected to domicile with her own family or to board with another resident. Female teachers were not permitted to live independently, for any reason, and the requirement to take care of the school also was in force. ⁴⁶

One-room schoolteachers in Wisconsin in the late nineteenth century primarily were women. They were expected intuitively to know the community’s rules. In some communities, the rules were not written, and teachers would only know if they had violated a rule through community reactions, which might range from sharp criticism to dismissal. In general, the rural community allowed male teachers more freedom then females, and the men were subject to less criticism concerning their social lives.

Community values influenced the school as well as the teacher. Children were expected to be educated according to the same system under which their parents and grandparents had been taught. The prevailing attitude was, “If it was good enough for me, then it is good enough for my children.” ⁴⁷ This is exemplified by the case of Eva Schrauth. In her classroom, Schrauth had a stove that did not have a grate. The teacher, like the community, generally “made do” with what was available. Thus, it did not occur to Schrauth to ask for a new stove or that a grate be installed in the stove, because that was how it had been for a long time. She simply used a piece of wood in the ash pan to hold up the kindling. ⁴⁸ Often, the one-room schoolteacher would teach out of the same textbook that the teacher herself had used when she was a student at the school. Missing stove grates and old textbooks characterized both the conservatism and the lack of resources of the community.

Nineteenth century Fond du Lac County rural schools held two terms, winter and summer terms. Women teachers were favored for the summer term, when older male students stayed home to work in the fields. Male teachers were preferred for winter session. Summer terms lasted from May until August or September and the winter terms from November until April. It was not until after 1900 that the school year was standardized into a single nine-month term beginning in September and ending in May. ⁴⁹ Once the single nine-month term was established, almost all of the teachers in the one-room schools were women.

As the chart indicates, there were many more female teachers than male teachers in the one-room schools. The disparity stemmed from two main sources. For male teachers, the salary of a one-room schoolteacher was not sufficient to support a family, and this fact deterred men from teaching in the one-room schools. It was widely presumed that women were better inclined to work with children, and they were therefore encouraged to enter the teaching profession. ⁵¹ Most women were encouraged to become either nurses or teachers. The salary was small, responsibilities were onerous, and they were expected to leave the profession once they were married. Evidence of high turnover in the profession can be seen in the Fond du Lac County Superintendent Annual Reports for 1921 and 1932. In 1921, only four of 197 teachers had more than eight years of experience. In 1932, only six of 206 teachers could make that claim. ⁵²

Although the salary was not sufficient for male teachers to support a family, they were generally paid more than female teachers. As the above chart indicates, by 1933, female teachers were overwhelmingly at the bottom of the pay scale, while the scarcer male teachers were scattered throughout the scale, with many of them in the higher pay range.

It was common for teachers to negotiate individual contracts with school boards. ⁵⁴ In some cases, teachers were paid more for their experience and level of education. A few schools sought the least expensive teachers they could find, thereby restricting their pool of candidates. ⁵⁵ There usually was not much competition for rural teaching jobs. When a school board offered a higher salary, then there normally were more applicants for the position. ⁵⁶

The pay that teachers received seldom reflected the amount or variety of work that they did. The teacher often acted as school nurse, in charge of the children’s welfare. Teachers were instructed to watch for signs of illness in children in an attempt to stop its spread. If a child had a severe cut, a sliver, or a broken bone, the teacher was responsible for providing first aid for these injuries or helping students procure medical attention from a doctor. The community not only gave the teacher the responsibility of educating its children, but also the responsibility of main-taining their general well-being.

Teachers also had many custodial responsibilities such as carrying in wood and lighting the fire, cleaning the schoolhouse, erasing and washing the chalkboards, and filling the water-cooler. Other duties might include organizing and presenting a Christmas program, collecting books from the county library, and sometimes taking children to obtain their vaccinations. During World War II, teachers handed out sugar ration books, clothing, and food stamps, and even collected milkweed pods for the fibers.

Time spent on individual subjects and grades was often merely fifteen minutes. A typical day of school, as set by the county superintendent, would look similar to the following schedule:

This schedule left little time to help students with problems or to take disciplinary measures. There also was very little time in the one-room school for disruptions such as when an unruly student created a disturbance within the classroom or when older boys directed cruel games and practical jokes towards their teacher to see if they could “run her out of the school.”

Corporal punishment was used very rarely. ⁵⁸ Although teachers were not restricted legally from using corporal punishment, there was always the threat that the parents of the unruly child might consider it unjust and cruel chastisement. To avoid such situations, teachers often devised alternative means to maintain discipline. ⁵⁹ Often a misbehaving student would be held after school for fifteen minutes. To children attending a one-room rural school, this was a very effective punishment, because the children of the school would walk home together. To be held after school meant that they walked home alone. Keeping a student after school stigmatized and isolated the student from classmates. Another method of discipline was to deprive children of recess. Specific offenses required specific actions. Children heard swearing had their mouths washed out with Ivory soap.

As a last resort, the teacher might schedule a conference with the parents and might send the child home until the conference took place. Expulsion powers were reserved for the school board. ⁶⁰ Often, the teacher simply talked to the student and explained right and wrong behavior, and the student subsequently behaved. In some instances, the teacher might not need to intervene at all, because siblings told their parents what had occurred at school and the parents’ punishment often was more severe than anything the teacher might inflict. Fear of their parents’ wrath was a major deterrent. ⁶¹ This “sharing” of information also served as a link of communication between parents and the teacher and between the teacher and the community, reinforcing the community’s expectations of the teacher.

Parents almost always trusted a teacher’s decisions. Consequently, there appear to have been very few disputes between the community and the teacher. Although the teachers enjoyed great respect and assumed supreme authority in the classroom, there was always a check and balance system in place.

County and State supervisory teachers made rounds throughout their jurisdictions, inspecting the activities at rural schools. These supervising teachers, appointed by the county superintendent, were required to be former teachers who were familiar with the one-room school system. ⁶² Some supervisors had higher education, such as a master's degree, and they usually were willing to provide help to a beginning teacher and act as a liaison, sharing methods and ideas with teachers. ⁶³ Supervising teachers arrived at the school unannounced to observe the teacher interacting with the class. Sometimes these unexpected visits caused considerable commotion, as occurred in Rita Green’s classroom. Green had a rule that the students were to put their boots and coats behind the piano, out of the way. On the day of the supervising teacher’s visit, a pair of boots was left out in front of the piano. When Green asked to whom the boots belonged, none of the students responded. Because the supervising teacher was present, Rita was more forceful than usual in demanding to identify the owner of the boots, knowing that the supervisor was there to “check up” on her and that poor classroom management would look bad in the supervisor’s report. Unfortunately, the owner of the boots happened to be the supervising teacher herself, and Rita Green was extremely embarrassed.

But Rita Green’s concern was not entirely misplaced. In addition to the assistance that supervising teachers provided, they reviewed job performance by the rural schoolteacher, including discipline exhibited by the class. Whispering, chewing gum, and disorder within the classroom were evidence that the rural schoolteacher was not doing a satisfactory job. Emphasis was also placed upon the teacher’s lesson plans. Teachers were to make up their own plan books and adhere to them. A premium was placed upon coverage of a specified amount of material within the school year. To accomplish this, less imaginative teachers simply divided the number of pages in the textbook by the number of days in the school term. ⁶⁴

The era of the one-room schools gradually came to the end as school consolidation was introduced. In 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt established the National Commission of Country Life in an attempt to find solutions for rural problems. One of the Commission’s recommendations was that one-room schools should be consolidated into larger districts. ⁶⁵ The pace of school consolidation increased after World War II and continued through the early 1960s.

Changes in society played an important role in this consolidation of rural schools. As population grew and industrialization increased, one-room schools became obsolete. They were no longer needed because rural communities had better access to bigger schools in the cities, especially as busing and other transportation networks developed. As professional educators and school administrators pushed for consolidation, country schools were gradually abandoned, closed, or incorporated into consolidated schools.

Apart from increases in costs, consolidation was resisted because of the challenge con-solidation presented to local community control and values. By consolidating schools, reformers not only sent children out of their familiar communities to more remote schools, but those schools also instituted a set of values that might be alien to those of rural students. ⁶⁶

Rural schools often fought consolidation for as long as they could. In 1958, Town Line School in Fond du Lac County received a letter stating that they should consolidate Joint District Number 7 with Rosendale and Springvale. The School Board called an emergency meeting to discuss the issue of consolidation and voted to “postpone consolidating for as long as possible.” In 1960, the School Board received another letter, this time demanding that they consolidate, and the school board voted to close the Town Line School. ⁶⁷

One-room schools are an important part of Wisconsin’s rural heritage due to the role they played in educating, socializing, and democratizing its citizens. The one-room schools also played a role in the shaping of modern education. Modern educational concepts such as “open concept classroom,” “peer teaching,” and “individual learning center” all had their origins in the one-room schools. ⁶⁸ Students attending a one-room school were given individual assignments to work on while the teacher spent more time with students who needed additional help. Older students helped the younger, reinforcing the content that they themselves had learned. Criticisms of rural schools focused on inadequate preparation of teachers, poor design and maintenance of the school buildings, and inefficient curriculum. Some county schools also did not provide much challenge because at times there might be only a single student in a grade.

In Wisconsin, these criticisms were not necessarily always valid. Many of the teachers had at least a two-year degree from either a university or a normal school. School buildings were generally the responsibility of the surrounding community, and most communities took pride in their schools and tried to keep them well maintained.

The one-room school is at the foundation of Wisconsin’s current education system. Schools as institutions tend to mirror their society. As that society changes, institutions are altered in order to meet changing needs. Fond du Lac County’s one-room schools reflected and served the demands of their rural community. As the community grew and became more urbanized, the one-room schools no longer met the needs and expectations of the community, and they gradually disappeared.

1 - Gerald Gutek, Education and Schooling in America (1991), 73. return

2 - Throughout this essay, the term “rural schools” refers to one-room schools, or common schools. return

3 - Wyman D. Walker, “A Breathtaking Development,” in History of the Wisconsin State Universities (River Falls, Wisconsin: State University Press, 1968), 7. return

4 - Jerry Apps, One Room Country Schools: History and Recollections from Wisconsin (Amherst, Wisc., 1996), 22. return

5 - Apps, 11-12. return

6 - Alice E. Smith, The History of Wisconsin: From Exploration to Statehood, v. 1 (Stevens Point, Wisconsin: Worzalla Publishing Co., 1973), 583. return

7 - Clay J. Daggett, ed., Education in Wisconsin (Whitewater, Wisconsin: Whitewater Press, 1936), 25. return

8 - Gutek, 64. return

9 - Ibid., 77. return

10 - Ibid., 78. return

11 - Daggett, 25. return

12 - Apps, 16-17. return

13 - Ibid., 23. return

14 - Elementary School Handbook for Teachers and Principals (Fond du Lac Public Schools: August, 1957), 23. return

15 - Edward Searing, “Educational History,” in History of Wisconsin, (State Superintendent of Public Instruction), 146-147. return

16 - Smith, 586. return

17 - Searing, 141. return

18 - Ibid., 146-147. return

19 - Ibid., 146. return

20 - Clay Daggett, 25. return

21 - Town Line Board Minutes, July 1953- July 1959. return

22 - Town Line Board Minutes, July 1953-July 1959. return

23 - Darlene Ries Interview (Pseudonym, See Appendix), October 29, 1996. return

24 - Ibid. return

25 - Oliver E. Wells, Architecture, Ventilation, and Furnishing of Schoolhouses (Madison, Wisconsin: Democrat Printing Company, 1892), 9. return

26 - Town Line Board Minutes, July 1953-July 1959. (Lease contract is attached within the record book). return

27 - Andrew Gulliford, America’s Country Schools (Washington D.C.: Preservation Press, 1984), 167. return

28 - Wells, 9. return

29 - Bonnie Dunn Interview, January 1, 1997. return

30 - Gulliford, Country Schools, 79. return

31 - Research Bulletin 74-7, “History of Certification Procedure, Part I” Certification and Licensing of School Personnel, Wisconsin Legislative Council Staff (Madison: July 3, 1974), 3. return

32 - Peter Burke, Special Committee on Teacher Preparation, Licensure and Regulation, (Madison: October 22, 1996), 2. return

33 - Conrad E. Patzer, Public Education in Wisconsin (Madison, Wisconsin: 1924), 124-127. return

34 - Oshkosh State Normal School notebooks of Charles E. Searls (1883) and Lucy Micklesan (1886), University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Polk Library Archives. return

35 - Research Bulletin 74-7, “History of Certification Procedure, Part I” Certification and Licensing of School Personnel, Wisconsin Legislative Council Staff (Madison: July 3, 1974), 3. return

36 - Gulliford, Country Schools, 71. return

37 - Research Bulletin 74-7, “History of Certification Procedure, Part I” Certification and Licensing of School Personnel, Wisconsin Legislative Council Staff (Madison: July 3, 1974), 4. return

38 - John Callahan, “The Certification of Teachers in Wisconsin,” Department of Public Instruction (Wisconsin: July 1939) Wisconsin Statutes, Section 39.05. return

39 - Apps, 42. return

40 - Wyman, 8. return

41 - Patzer, 131, 140. return

42 - Wyman, 42-43. return

43 - Wyman, 45. return

44 - Mary Crandel Interview, February 3, 1997. return

45 - Dotty Grange Interview, December 1997. return

46 - Gulliford, “The One-room School Lives,” Principal, (September 1985), 6. return

47 - Eva Schrauth Interview, December 17, 1996. return

48 - Ibid. return

49 - Paul Theobald, “Country School Curriculum and Governance: the One-room School Experience in the 19th Century Midwest,” American Journal of Education, v. 101 (February 1993), 121. return

50 - County Superintendent Annual Reports from 1920 to 1940. return

51- Teacher Interviews, common theme, see Appendix. return

52 - Fond du Lac County Superintendent Annual Reports for the years of 1921 and 1932. return

53 - Salaries from County Superintendent Annual Reports. return

54 - Cindy Johnson Interview, October 29, 1996. return

55 - Teacher Interviews, common theme, see Appendix. return

56 - Bonnie Dunn Interview, January 1, 1997. return

57 - Ibid. return

58 - Almost all of the teachers interviewed said that they had never used corporal punishment. return

59 - Darlene Ries Interview, October 29, 1996. This was a common theme in teacher interviews. return

60 - Larry Smith Interview, February 3, 1997. return

61 - Rita Green Interview, November 5, 1996. return

62 - Mary Crandel Interview, February 3, 1997. return

63 - Cindy Johnson Interview, October 29, 1996. return

64 - Rita Green Interview, November 5, 1996. return

65 - Gulliford, Country Schools, 41. return

66 - Gulliford, Country Schools, 45 return

67 - Town Line Board Minutes, July 1953-July 1959 (Letters contained within the record book). return

68 - Andrew Gulliford, “The One-Room School Lives,” Principal, September 1985, 9-10. return

69 - All teachers interviewed were assigned pseudonyms in order to maintain confidentiality. Transcripts of the interviews are on deposit at the Adams House, Fond du Lac County Historical Society. return

Copyright 2002 by Clarence B. Davis. All Rights Reserved. Printed by Action Printing, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.
Electronic publication by Fond du Lac Public Library has been approved by Clarence B. Davis.

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