Posted in Our School

Well, I can't believe that our 2nd week of school is already over.  It was a great week. We ended our week by packing up our books and a picnic lunch and headed up to the Little Greenbrier Schoolhouse. 

Located inside the Great Smoky Mtns. National Park, the small log structure was built in 1882.  The first school was for two months in the fall of 1883.  It was built of hewed poplar logs as large as thirty inches on the hewed side.  The blackboard and four class windows were put in in 1906.  The school was equipped with benches made of split logs with the flat side up and supported by four pegs.

Children from nearby families attended school here for more than 50 years. The school was also used as a church on Sundays and there is a small cemetary in the front year.  Though formal classes ended in 1935, teaching and learning did not.  The school still serves local children and park visitors.

Here is a photo of students from the class of 1909.

Here is a photo of my class.  Mamaw even came along for the fun.

This is one of my favorite places to visit in the national park.  The kids really enjoyed the old school house.  I was standing up in the front of the school and the girls were chanting "Speech, speech, speech." 

Mamaw said, "You want to hear a speech?  I'll give you a speech." 

Then she began reciting The Gettysburg Address.  (Thus began the history lesson.)  The girls sat there with their mouths opened.  Then they asked her where she learned that.  She told them school.  So they started asking a 100 questions about when Mamaw went to school.  She told them how she had to walk to school, because they didn't have a car.  She told them about the "out house", and how they had to get a drink out of a bucket using a ladel because there wasn't any inside plumming. (These stories amazed the girls, and me.  Especially since my MIL is only in her 60's)

After the History lesson was over, we began our other studies. Sarah Beth settled right in and began her writing.

Rachel, on the other hand, had to try out every desk in the school before she settled in one next to the window.

Then Rachel stood up at the front of the room to do her reading. (Because that is how they used to do it in the 'Olden Days'.

Rachel was very curious, and kept asking where the 'Time Out Bench' was.  So I showed her...

Of course they didn't have the luxery of 'sitting' while they were in time out!  lol

You may have noticed all the graffiti on the walls.  The girls asked why people wrote on the walls, and we discussed the importance of preserving history. 

It was a great day!  I think we will have to plan another day of school in the old schoolhouse.

© Amy Beth Kear, 2005