The Schoolmarm and the Schoolroom

By the time the West was opening for settlement, the schoolmarm was already an icon in American education, moving from east to west as the American frontier grew.  For almost a century, the schoolmarm ruled the one room schoolhouse like education dictators. 

Whether their name was Grace, Prudence or Hortense, they had a style, a look that was passed down in journals and diaries.  They were usually thought of as "plain, bony, hardened, with angular features".  Their eyes were gray, "like the sky on a bleak morning."  They were "brisk in manner, prim and even fidgety".  Schoolmarms were careful about their clothes, their money and their reputation.  The men who courted them needed to do so in a sober, serious and regulated spirit.  Of, course if the schoolmarm married, her career was over.

In that one room, all ages were taught.  The schoolmarm was also responsible for building fires, and cleaning the school. There were no janitors.  Many families close to the school would board students (along with the teacher) during the school term so that no child had to walk more than three miles to school (a bit less than the stories we heard!).

So what did the schoolmarm teach? Surprisingly in the late 1800s, the Plains states had one of the highest literacy rates in the country.  Farmer ordered books from mail order catalogs, larger towns started libraries, and if lucky subscribed to big city newspapers.  School resources included a blackboard, a Bible, a hymnal, dictionary, almanac.  If money was available they added a McGuffy's
reader, then a grammar, geography, and arithmetic book.  In the early days, there was only one copy for the entire schoolroom.  Children advanced when they could read the next most difficult book.

So as education got established (along with churches), the community could attract more professionals and families with permanent settlement plans, growing the West into civilized communities...thus America grew.

Next time...Frontier Medicine
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On September 27, 1869,  Ellis County Sheriff Wild Bill Hickok and his deputy respond to a report that a local ruffian named Samuel Strawhun and several drunken buddies were tearing up John Bitter’s Beer Saloon in Hays City, Kansas.

8th Grade Exam in 1895

I have probably posted this before, but it has always been popular so here it is again for all you who think you are Jeopardy candidates ha ha  Good Luck!

EIGHTH GRADE EDUCATION IN 1895

 Remember when grandparents and great-grandparents stated that they  only had an 8th grade education?  Well, check this out. Could any of us have passed the 8th grade in 1895?
  This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina, Kansas, USA. It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library  in Salina, KS, and  reprinted by the Salina Journal.

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8th Grade Final Exam: Salina, KS -1895

Grammar

(Time, one hour)
1. Give nine rules for the use of capital letters.
2. Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications.
3. Define verse, stanza and paragraph.
4. What are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of"lie," "play," and "run."
5. Define case; Illustrate each case.
6. What is punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation.
7 - 10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of  grammar.  

Arithmetic

(Time, 1.25 hours)  

1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
2. A wagon box is 2 ft. deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?
3. If a load of wheat weighs 3942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1050 lbs. for tare?
4. District No. 33 has a valuation of $35,000.  What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?
5. Find the cost of 6720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton. 6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at $20 per metre?
8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance of which is 640 rods?
10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt.  

 U.S. History

(Time, 45 minutes)  

1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided.
2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus.
3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
4. Show the territorial growth of the United States.
5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas.
6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?
8. Name events connected with the following dates:  1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865.

 Orthography

(Time, one hour) Do we even know what this is??

1. What is meant by the following: Alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication
2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?
3. What are the following, and give examples of each: Trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals
4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u.' (HUH?)
5. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e.' Name two exceptions under each rule.
6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling.  Illustrate each.
7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis, mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup.
8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the  sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.
9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane, vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.  

Geography

(Time, one hour)  

1. What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas?
3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?
4. Describe the mountains of North America.
5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia,Odessa, Denver, Manitoba, Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco.
 6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S.  
7. Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each.  
8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?
9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.
10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth.  

   Notice that the exam took FIVE HOURS to complete. Gives the saying "he only had an 8th grade education" a whole new meaning, doesn't it?!   Also shows you how poor our education system has become... and, NO! I don't have the answers.

It Pays to Know Somebody!

In the early 1800s, children were an economic asset and work was labor intensive.  Boys were taught to split rails, pile rocks, hoe corn, stoke fires, butcher, do carpentry, tanning and smithy work, and distilling skills.  Most likely boys also knew basic cooking, sewing and home remedy skills as well.  Receiving a boy's first rifle was a sure passage into manhood.

Although education as we know it was non-existent on the frontier in the early 1800s, the Walkers were treated as members of the better educated class.  There is a hint in history as to why...

Sam Houston lived with the Cherokee as a runaway and dropout from white society.  After returning to Tennessee, he set himself up as a schoolmaster based on a degree from "Indian University", as he called it.  He was an avid reader and a good speller and his one room school in Tennessee was said to have been his favorite place in his life.  The means by which any Walker children probably learned their ABCs as well.

Next time...The Jacksonian Man