By Pierre Ratte
See for yourself. View this beautiful building in an early morning mist along Felta Creek and reflect on generations of children passing through its doors. This one-room schoolhouse is a well-preserved symbol of early education in Sonoma County, in California and in the United States. A common room for a common education.
One-room schoolhouses were standard around the turn of the century. This one was built in 1906. There were reportedly 132 other one-room schoolhouses in Sonoma County at that time. Most were built on private land with neighbors donating lumber and materials. Teachers usually boarded with a nearby family. Perhaps 5-30 students were taught in grades one through eight. Older children were expected to teach younger children the Monitorial System.
Fun Facts: The first school in California was opened in Santa Clara by Mrs. Olive Isbell in 1846. A mere 21 years later, the State of California declared free schooling for all children. In 1910, 72% of America’s children reportedly attended school, with 50% in one-room schoolhouses. The phrase “an eighth grade education” often refers to one-room schooling.
A “common school” is another term for a free public school. Common schools were advocated by Horace Mann as first secretary of education in Massachusetts in 1837. Common schools promoted a “common” education: reading, writing and arithmetic, known as the “three R’s.”
“Normal schools” were created to train teachers in common schools. The first normal school was in Lexington, Massachusetts, in 1839 and it offered a two-year education. Prior to normal schools, rural districts might select the most promising eighth grade graduate to teach.
Normal schools taught the “trivium,” from Latin (tri-via) three roads coming together: grammar, logic and rhetoric, the Art of Words. The “quadrivium”: arithmetic, astronomy, music and geometry—the Art of Numbers—rounds out the seven liberal arts.
Lincoln’s Congress gave federal land to states for schools focused on agriculture, military science, science and engineering—practical subjects. In 1890, Congress granted money for institutions now referred to as HBCU’s—Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Trivial Pursuit was trademarked and released in 1981; by 1984 sales reached $800 million. Strictly speaking trivia doesn’t stem from “trivium,” it derives from Latin “trivialis,” meaning found everywhere, commonplace, unimportant.
‘Snapshot’ is a weekly column featuring a photo and fun facts by Pierre Ratte, [email protected].
Thanks for the article on the Felta School. I have a good friend who taught at the one-room schoolhouse in Stehekin, WA, for over thirty years. The children of Stehekin get an excellent education.
The “Healdsburg Spittoon” printed the results of the standardized tests of students in the Healdsburg Unified School District years ago. 66% of students were below their grade level in English and Math. The California Teachers Union didn’t like their dirty laundry aired in public, and soon enough, legislators passed a bill that made test results a secret from the public. The Teacher Union and Prison and Police Unions run California. California has the second worst government schools in the nation, and only Mississippi is worse (same with roads, BTW). This is why private schools educate Governor Newsom’s children.