Rural Schools (One Room and more)
Rural schools played an important roll in the education of children in the rural communities around the country. Today students have no idea what the term means. This is a collection of images, interviews, and articles about those institutions.
From the Teacher's Desk...
Mrs. Mary Jacobs on teaching at Pebble Creek School
By John Baker Class of '17 and Mrs. Schafer
Mrs. Mary Jacobs taught at Dist. 24 It was also known as Pebble Creek School. Located about 4 miles west and south of Scribner but through the years students came to the school from northeast of town as well as other district’s closed down. She reminiscenced about how it always felt like they were a family, how the students and parents all worked together to get things done. Families at the school during her time teaching there included students from the Fischer, Riemers, Roemer, Gallant, Hoge and Baumert families. It wasn’t unusual for her to have to drop a student off at home when she left school when parents were busy with farm work. She even remembered times that she picked up one student while the mom was laid up after surgery and dropped the student off in Hooper on the way home. When they went on field trips the families would just pick her up in Fremont so she didn’t have to drive out then back again. She stated that the hardest thing about teaching in the rural school was the amount of subjects you had to teach in day. You didn’t have just one class of students to teach like you do in the town school. You had 5 or 6 grades of each subject. One of the big benefits of a rural school was the older kids always helped the younger students. On days when the students were allowed to bring hot lunches the older students would heat up the hot lunches. Another thing all of the students did was classroom chores. The picked up the trash, took it to the burn barrel and lit it up. She talked about how Christmas programs were a big deal for the not just the students but the whole neighborhood. The students created the invitations, delivered them, practiced for the program and made anything else that went along with that, programs were a huge deal and everyone from the neighborhood would be invited and come to watch. |
Doris Wobken
|
Student Perspectives
District 12
Lindsay Peters – Class of 2017
District 12 was a rural school that was located south of Scribner, on the corner of County Road 12 and County Road K. The school was a one story, one room school house that housed kindergarten through eighth grade. Eventually, the school was turned into a two room school house in the late 1950’s. The school had about three to four students per grade (about forty-five students total).
District 12 had quite a few utilities for its visitors to use. This school had indoor plumbing and two outhouses. Outside was also a barn that contained five double stalls. The barn was built to house horses that the older generations would ride to school.
There were also notable aspects of the building’s interior. The school house had a nice entry way where a coat room and the bathrooms were located. The students each had coat hangers where they could place their bags and coats on. The school also had a library on the side of the building where students could read books in their free time.
In the classroom, students’ artwork on the walls and the bulletin boards were hung above the chalk board. The bulletin boards were so large so they could hang up all of the decorations for the classroom. The chalk board itself was also very large, measuring about fifteen feet long. This was excellent for the teacher, who would then have enough room to write and teach each class on the board without erasing it.
Before the day started, the students played outside on the playground. They played on swing sets, the merry-go-round and played games. Games they played included kickball, softball, tetherball and ball tag. On the rainy days, the students would go to the basement of the school to play with toys or square dance.
Lowell Peters, the son of Aaron and Darlene Peters attended District 12 when he was in elementary school. Peters lived about a quarter of a mile away from the school and walked or rode his bike to get to school.
Peters recalled that lunch usually consisted of peanut butter sandwiches on homemade bread or, every once in a while, a jelly or roast beef sandwich. If there was extra dessert leftover from supper the night before, he would eat that for lunch as well. Peters also brought soup in a thermos to keep it warm for another lunch choice. Most of the time, Peters would drink milk at lunch time.
District 12, like all of the other schools, took part in different activities with all of the other rural schools. One example was when all the eighth graders of the Scribner Area would participate in a graduation ceremony at the Scribner High School. The students wore dress clothes that consisted of suits with ties and dresses. The students also wore corsages and boutonnieres. Another activity that the rural schools participated in was the “Music Festival”. This was a day when all the students practiced songs during the day. They would perform that night for the parents and grandparents to watch and enjoy.
It was not uncommon for rural schools to take their students on different trips to the local businesses. For some students, these trips were one of their favorite part of the school year. “One of my favorite school memories was touring Hormel in Fremont” Peters said, “We got to tour the slaughter area and learned about the different equipment and processes used.”
District 12 closed in around 1986 when there was just not enough students to keep the school up and running. The numbers kept declining, therefore the school was suffering due to the lack of students. Despite this, the school lives on in the cherished memories of its former students.
District 12 was a rural school that was located south of Scribner, on the corner of County Road 12 and County Road K. The school was a one story, one room school house that housed kindergarten through eighth grade. Eventually, the school was turned into a two room school house in the late 1950’s. The school had about three to four students per grade (about forty-five students total).
District 12 had quite a few utilities for its visitors to use. This school had indoor plumbing and two outhouses. Outside was also a barn that contained five double stalls. The barn was built to house horses that the older generations would ride to school.
There were also notable aspects of the building’s interior. The school house had a nice entry way where a coat room and the bathrooms were located. The students each had coat hangers where they could place their bags and coats on. The school also had a library on the side of the building where students could read books in their free time.
In the classroom, students’ artwork on the walls and the bulletin boards were hung above the chalk board. The bulletin boards were so large so they could hang up all of the decorations for the classroom. The chalk board itself was also very large, measuring about fifteen feet long. This was excellent for the teacher, who would then have enough room to write and teach each class on the board without erasing it.
Before the day started, the students played outside on the playground. They played on swing sets, the merry-go-round and played games. Games they played included kickball, softball, tetherball and ball tag. On the rainy days, the students would go to the basement of the school to play with toys or square dance.
Lowell Peters, the son of Aaron and Darlene Peters attended District 12 when he was in elementary school. Peters lived about a quarter of a mile away from the school and walked or rode his bike to get to school.
Peters recalled that lunch usually consisted of peanut butter sandwiches on homemade bread or, every once in a while, a jelly or roast beef sandwich. If there was extra dessert leftover from supper the night before, he would eat that for lunch as well. Peters also brought soup in a thermos to keep it warm for another lunch choice. Most of the time, Peters would drink milk at lunch time.
District 12, like all of the other schools, took part in different activities with all of the other rural schools. One example was when all the eighth graders of the Scribner Area would participate in a graduation ceremony at the Scribner High School. The students wore dress clothes that consisted of suits with ties and dresses. The students also wore corsages and boutonnieres. Another activity that the rural schools participated in was the “Music Festival”. This was a day when all the students practiced songs during the day. They would perform that night for the parents and grandparents to watch and enjoy.
It was not uncommon for rural schools to take their students on different trips to the local businesses. For some students, these trips were one of their favorite part of the school year. “One of my favorite school memories was touring Hormel in Fremont” Peters said, “We got to tour the slaughter area and learned about the different equipment and processes used.”
District 12 closed in around 1986 when there was just not enough students to keep the school up and running. The numbers kept declining, therefore the school was suffering due to the lack of students. Despite this, the school lives on in the cherished memories of its former students.
District 25
District 25 School
Lindsay Peters class of 2017
District 25, nickname “Mud Creek”, was a two room wooden school house that had a basement and indoor plumbing. After the school closed, it was moved to Scribner by the trailer park.
The beginning of the school day at District 25 started with the teacher ringing the bell. The students then would walk into the building and walk to the basement, where they hung their book bags and coats. They proceeded to hang the United States Flag every morning then said the pledge. After classes at the end of the day, the students lowered it and folded up the flag.
In addition to their schoolwork, the students also got to work with art. The artwork that the students made was hung on the bulletin boards.
The District 25 building was filled with amenities for its students to use. One favorite the school had was a small library for the students to check out and read books.
The students sang often during school. Traditionally the teacher would play the piano for the students to sing to. However, the school also had recorded music if the teacher was unable to play piano.
Generally, the teachers would not get to help each and every student. Due to this, the teachers relied on older students to help younger students with their homework.
Patty (Wollberg) Peters was a former student of District 25. Living about a half mile away from school, Peters and her siblings walked or rode their bikes to and from school. Peters recalled the different schools hosting various events with each other.
“I remember when my school went to District 12 for a track meet where we would compete in different races, relays, sack races, softball throws, and long jump. The track meet took place sometime in April or the first parts of May,” said Peters.
District 25, like all the other schools that it coexisted with, might not be running today. However, the memory of the school lives fondly in the minds of its former students.
District 25, nickname “Mud Creek”, was a two room wooden school house that had a basement and indoor plumbing. After the school closed, it was moved to Scribner by the trailer park.
The beginning of the school day at District 25 started with the teacher ringing the bell. The students then would walk into the building and walk to the basement, where they hung their book bags and coats. They proceeded to hang the United States Flag every morning then said the pledge. After classes at the end of the day, the students lowered it and folded up the flag.
In addition to their schoolwork, the students also got to work with art. The artwork that the students made was hung on the bulletin boards.
The District 25 building was filled with amenities for its students to use. One favorite the school had was a small library for the students to check out and read books.
The students sang often during school. Traditionally the teacher would play the piano for the students to sing to. However, the school also had recorded music if the teacher was unable to play piano.
Generally, the teachers would not get to help each and every student. Due to this, the teachers relied on older students to help younger students with their homework.
Patty (Wollberg) Peters was a former student of District 25. Living about a half mile away from school, Peters and her siblings walked or rode their bikes to and from school. Peters recalled the different schools hosting various events with each other.
“I remember when my school went to District 12 for a track meet where we would compete in different races, relays, sack races, softball throws, and long jump. The track meet took place sometime in April or the first parts of May,” said Peters.
District 25, like all the other schools that it coexisted with, might not be running today. However, the memory of the school lives fondly in the minds of its former students.
District 90
Thinking back on what life was like in the past compared to how we live it today has changed drastically. Can you imagine going to school and having anywhere from one to five students in your class? There were many rural schools around the Scribner area that were about five miles apart.
District 90 was located on County Road 14 between County Road J and K south of Scribner. This school was a two-room schoolhouse with only about three students per class. The school offered grades from Kindergarten to Sixth Grade.
With only two rooms, the school was split, having the younger half of the school in one room and the older students in another. Unique learning techniques were taught because there were not enough rooms for each individual grade. While one grade was learning, the other grades were quiet and sat down or worked on other homework until it was their time for instruction. There were only two teachers; one in the first room and the other in the second.
As students learned about the basic core classes such as mathematics, science, reading, English, spelling, handwriting, and music. The teachers always had a specific schedule that they followed to accomplish everything for the day. Transportation for students was quite simple because the students only lived about one or two miles away from the school, while the teachers usually lived in town. The students mostly walked, rode bikes, or their parents drove them to get to school, the teachers mainly drove their vehicles to get to school.
The typical day of a student attending District 90 consisted of playing until the bell rang for school to start. The students then reported to class and said the Pledge of Allegiance and started to learn about their subjects. Sometime during the morning the students had recess along with after lunch and sometime in the afternoon. Recess was much simpler than what is today. As the children played on the swing sets or merry-go-rounds, the teacher supervised them. There were times when the teacher had to go inside to finish up some errands, but the children were well-behaved and did not cause trouble most of the time. Games were also played at recess, such as softball and kick ball to keep the kids busy. Although, on rainy days, the students played in the basement.
Lunch was also much different than public schools today. At District 90 lunch on of Monday, Wednesday, Friday, the children heated up TV dinners, pot pies, leftovers, etc. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the students brought sandwiches to eat during lunch. Today to enforce the rules, detentions and suspensions are given out, but in District 90, the teachers mainly yelled at misbehaving students. Discipline was not common due to students being respectful and well behaved. Homework was mainly done at school because the students had down-time when the other class was taught, so homework was rare and not extremely hard.
During the holidays, the students performed at a Christmas Concert where they performed a skit. After the first skit, they sang some Christmas songs and then performed another skit. District 90 closed down because of the lack of students and did not have the funds to continue the schooling. Most schools started to close down around the 1980’s and most students finished their education at Scribner Public School. “I liked rural schools because I liked being around younger and older kids,” Kay Rathjen (Meyer) said.
District 90 was located on County Road 14 between County Road J and K south of Scribner. This school was a two-room schoolhouse with only about three students per class. The school offered grades from Kindergarten to Sixth Grade.
With only two rooms, the school was split, having the younger half of the school in one room and the older students in another. Unique learning techniques were taught because there were not enough rooms for each individual grade. While one grade was learning, the other grades were quiet and sat down or worked on other homework until it was their time for instruction. There were only two teachers; one in the first room and the other in the second.
As students learned about the basic core classes such as mathematics, science, reading, English, spelling, handwriting, and music. The teachers always had a specific schedule that they followed to accomplish everything for the day. Transportation for students was quite simple because the students only lived about one or two miles away from the school, while the teachers usually lived in town. The students mostly walked, rode bikes, or their parents drove them to get to school, the teachers mainly drove their vehicles to get to school.
The typical day of a student attending District 90 consisted of playing until the bell rang for school to start. The students then reported to class and said the Pledge of Allegiance and started to learn about their subjects. Sometime during the morning the students had recess along with after lunch and sometime in the afternoon. Recess was much simpler than what is today. As the children played on the swing sets or merry-go-rounds, the teacher supervised them. There were times when the teacher had to go inside to finish up some errands, but the children were well-behaved and did not cause trouble most of the time. Games were also played at recess, such as softball and kick ball to keep the kids busy. Although, on rainy days, the students played in the basement.
Lunch was also much different than public schools today. At District 90 lunch on of Monday, Wednesday, Friday, the children heated up TV dinners, pot pies, leftovers, etc. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the students brought sandwiches to eat during lunch. Today to enforce the rules, detentions and suspensions are given out, but in District 90, the teachers mainly yelled at misbehaving students. Discipline was not common due to students being respectful and well behaved. Homework was mainly done at school because the students had down-time when the other class was taught, so homework was rare and not extremely hard.
During the holidays, the students performed at a Christmas Concert where they performed a skit. After the first skit, they sang some Christmas songs and then performed another skit. District 90 closed down because of the lack of students and did not have the funds to continue the schooling. Most schools started to close down around the 1980’s and most students finished their education at Scribner Public School. “I liked rural schools because I liked being around younger and older kids,” Kay Rathjen (Meyer) said.
District 83
Denise Grunke's story
By Amy Keltch Class of 2018
Denise Grunke was a former student of District 83 also known as Shady Dell. District 83 was located 6 miles north and east of Scribner. Denise lived 1 and a half miles away from her home school. Each day when she went to school, she either walked, rode together with family, or even met up with other students from the neighborhood to go to school together. She described the school as fairly new. The school also had a full basement. There was only one big room with round tables in it with seven chairs and a chalk board. The classes were fairly small. In Denise’s class, she had five other fellow students, but most classes had between two and three students. Some of the families at her school were the VonSeggrens, Hasemanns, Pfiefers, and of course the Grunkes. During recess, Denise had a variety of options to play different games. Some of those varieties are softball, volleyball net, and 23 Skiddo. Softball was her favorite though. They had recess two times a day, in the morning and the afternoon. The school lunches haven’t change much. When Denise at lunch she remembered eating sandwiches, cookies, and fruit. To warm up food she would wrap it in tin foil then heat it up in the oven. Denise’s daily routine at school was doing the pledge the first thing in the morning. Hanging up the flag was done by different classes so that everyone had a turn. District 83 only had one teacher at a time. One of her teachers was Mrs. Stockfeth another she recalled was Mrs. Killingsworth. There were no teacher aides either. Denise’s favorite classes were math and reading. Miss Grunke remembered one day where Mrs. Janet Killinsworth, who was the teacher at the time let her out of art class to work on a model that required more math. District 83 also had school plays but it was only during Christmas. At the end of the school year the school would go to dead Timber to have a picnic. The students climbed the trees, and walked on the hills. They even roasted hotdogs too. Denise’s favorite memory was learning other math related subjects by just listening in on other classes. She learned to stay focused while she wasn’t in class. There was a down fall for the science program because there was no science labs and bands. Today that school building continues to be of use. When the district closed down the building was bought and moved to its current location. That building is now known as the Hooper’s golf course clubhouse. |
Dean VonSeggern Interview
Dean Von Seggern shared the photo
Classmates listed for the above photo
Images shared by Dean VonSeggern
|
Tim Wobken's story
John Baker Class of 2017
Ever think about country schools well here’s Tim Wobken’s story about being a student at District 83. District 83 is a school house in the middle of Dodge County. It was located east and north of Scribner. He attended Kindergarten to third grade which is when DIstrict 83 was shut down. The school closed in the years 1976 or 1977.
While in his years in District 83 he had a teacher named Mrs. Hanson. The building consistent of one room, many small desks for the kids, and a long table for the teacher teach the different grades at different times through the day.
How many students were in District 83? There were about ten kids in total for k-6. With so little classmates they would go on field trips in one vehicle to many places. Like to Lincoln at city hall or at Dead Timber for a field trips. In a school where there is one teacher and 10 students could do many things. Some of those things included finishing homework while the teacher is teaching another grade, another thing is that you can have a pot luck with all the families, and with being so close to all the families you get to know everyone. They didn’t have P.E. or big programs but they would play games after lunch. For their programs they would have a tiny stage in the basement to set up for their Christmas program.
These are the things and activities that Tim Wobken did in his years in a country school.
Ever think about country schools well here’s Tim Wobken’s story about being a student at District 83. District 83 is a school house in the middle of Dodge County. It was located east and north of Scribner. He attended Kindergarten to third grade which is when DIstrict 83 was shut down. The school closed in the years 1976 or 1977.
While in his years in District 83 he had a teacher named Mrs. Hanson. The building consistent of one room, many small desks for the kids, and a long table for the teacher teach the different grades at different times through the day.
How many students were in District 83? There were about ten kids in total for k-6. With so little classmates they would go on field trips in one vehicle to many places. Like to Lincoln at city hall or at Dead Timber for a field trips. In a school where there is one teacher and 10 students could do many things. Some of those things included finishing homework while the teacher is teaching another grade, another thing is that you can have a pot luck with all the families, and with being so close to all the families you get to know everyone. They didn’t have P.E. or big programs but they would play games after lunch. For their programs they would have a tiny stage in the basement to set up for their Christmas program.
These are the things and activities that Tim Wobken did in his years in a country school.