A Bit of Learning

"The average farmer and rural teacher think of the rural school as a little house, on a little ground, with a little equipment, where a little teacher, at a little salary, for a little while, teaches little children little things."  This was a cynical quote from the early days of frontier education and although there is a lot of truth to it, many did not agree.

Planning the schooling of their children was one of the first tasks some settlers tackled after their own shelters.  In Buffalo County, Nebraska, settlers organized a school district, and even levied a tax upon themselves to pay for a schoolhouse to be built.  In some places, however, there were suspicions about formal education's necessity, but if there was New England influence, the naysayers were quickly overruled.

Frontier schools were financed by the local districts eventually, but in the early days the individuals paid for their families' education.  For each child attending school for five months a year, the family paid $1-$1.50 per child for a total for the school year of $5-$7.50 per child. For families with many children, not all could attend school at the same time. Lucky teachers earned a $1 a day or $150 a school year.

Along with the teacher's salary and the cost of school, parents were expected to provide room and board for specified periods.  The more children attending school in a family, the longer the teacher lived with the family.  And the more children, the less privacy, comfort and food was available to the teacher.  For many large families, education became a real burden.

Low wages, rugged living, poor working conditions, and scarce teaching supplies - who would want to teach on the frontier?  Turnover was constant and not surprising.  In a single one-room schoolhouse, there might be three different teachers within a full school year - divided into three terms of 1 and 1/2 months each.  When a teacher left at the end of a term, it was virtually impossible to replace them immediately, so school was closed until a replacement could be found. 

Next time...Male vs. Female Frontier Teachers
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Today in Pioneer History: "On September 20, 1565, Spanish forces under Pedro Menéndez de Avilés capture the French Huguenot settlement of Fort Caroline, near present-day Jacksonville, Florida. The French, commanded by Rene Goulaine de Laudonniere, lost 135 men in the first instance of colonial warfare between European powers in America.