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One Room Schools:
Michigan's Educational Legacy

School House

Several generations of Michigan children received their education in one-room schools. In these small buildings students and their teachers learned together. They shared a unique experience characterized by camaraderie and personal challenge. Despite their many successes, one-room schools were a passing phase in American education. Dwindling rural populations and a move to improve childhood education through consolidated schools, ended the days of the one-room school.

This exhibit is divided into five sections. The first four explore the teachers and their education, the experiences of the students, a typical day in a one-room school, and the buildings themselves. The last section, a bibliography, includes an extensive listing of one-room school textbooks that are found within the Clarke Library.

 

This web exhibit was prepared in July 1998 by Frank Boles and is based upon an exhibit regarding one-room schools that was shown in the Clarke Historical Library during the summer of 1998. That Clarke exhibit was curated by Evelyn Leasher of the Clarke Library and included material prepared by Laura Quackenbush for an exhibit on one-room schools mounted at the Leelanau County Historical Society.