Country Schools--Old & Brand New

             Primarily out of Covid concern, my thoughtful, Fort Collins niece and her husband have put their five-year-old in a co-op “pod” first grade with friends’ kids.

New name, folks, but a very old concept: the country school! Once upon a time in the last century, neighboring families sent their kids to the closest school, usually one room with a wood burning stove, a few books and a blackboard.

            The physical plant number and varying grade levels of pupils—forced children to become independent learners, able to work on their own at a very young age. With a child in most every grade, older students gave younger ones lessons, providing “oldsters” valuable review. The teacher was executive, who assessed the various levels of math, reading and writing competency and grouped kids at similar levels and set the schedule.

            An academically talented young people, especially girls, would become the teacher’s assistant, go to high school, get a year of college, in summer school or by “correspondence” and become teachers themselves. Most students emerged from country schools with a solid level of overall literacy that might put some of today’s to shame.

            While most country schools had fewer than a dozen students, some had as many as 2 dozen—the one I attended at St. John’s Placid was 5^th to 8^th grade—had that many. First to 4^th was in the nun’s living room, which is where my niece is going: in the teacher's living room.