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Published: 2022-05-21 01:01:08 Updated: 2022-05-21 01:01:08
Posted May 21, 2022 1:01 a.m. EDT
By ALMA GAUL, Quad-City Times
BETTENDORF, Iowa — Students are once again attending class in the 1873 Forest Grove School in Bettendorf.
After raising about $200,000 over seven years to restore the falling-down, one-room school, supporters have opened the building for free “reenactments” of a typical student day. A schoolmarm teaches subjects and skills as they might have been taught during the 1920s, the time period to which the school was restored.
Iowa once had 12,000 to 14,000 one-room school houses, depending on which report you consult, but with either number, Iowa had more than any other state in the nation. Supporters of Forest Grove preservation efforts want Forest Grove to be used to interpret and teach the role these schools played in the state’s history, Sharon Andresen, project coordinator for the nonprofit group, told the Quad-City Times.
Because of legislation requiring consolidation of schools, Iowa’s last one-room school closed in 1967; Forest Grove closed 10 years earlier in 1957.
Half- or full-day reenactments are open to any public, private or homeschool classes in the Quad-City area. Fourth grade is a good target level, but Diane Borcherding, a retired Bettendorf High School biology teacher who is volunteering her time as the schoolmarm, is open to other grades, depending on the circumstances.
Classes have finished for this spring, but students are being recruited for next year, both fall and spring.
To figure out what and how to teach, Borcherding did research.
To begin – and so as not to “reinvent the wheel” -- she sat in on the class of a woman who has been conducting reenactments in Marshalltown for about 15 years, “copiously taking notes.” She read through a box of school books from 1920 and before that Andresen collected during restoration efforts, and Borcherding and her husband purchased more on eBay, including reading and arithmetic books.
She also consulted old school yearbooks from the Davenport school district to see what types of clothes the teachers wore, and what kinds of clubs and other activities were offered. Newspaper archives provided another source of information.
The typical school day begins when Borcherding calls kids to class by pulling on a rope to ring the school bell – the school’s original – that is hanging in a reconstructed bell tower atop the building.
As students take their seats in rows according to grade level, one student is sent out to get water for drinking and hand-washing. A hand pump stands in front of the school, but it is not hooked up to a well, so this involves a bit of pretend.
After taking attendance, there is a Bible reading, a short prayer, recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance and singing of “America.” Borcherding sends letters to parents before the reenactment letting them know what to expect, including the Bible reading and prayer. Parents can decide against sending their child to the class, but Borcherding does not want to eliminate the religious aspect because “it (the school day) is either authentic or it’s not.”
To further enrich the experience, she also sends parents a copy of typical recess games such as “Blind Man’s Bluff’ and “Red Rover” and some old-time cookie recipes that they can make at home and take back to school for lunch, wrapped in paper.
Subjects include reading, writing in cursive and arithmetic. For counting, Borcherding has a stock of 1920 or older coins.
For writing, older students use pens dipped in bottles of ink, while younger grades use chalk on a slate.
Additional subjects are history, geography, science, art and music, depending on whether it’s a half- or full-day. Children stand at a recitation bench at the front of the classroom to be quizzed on what they know, and the day ends with a spelling bee.
One-room school teachers worked with one grade level at a time, so a big challenge was to keep the other grade levels occupied while she did that. This is a challenge for Borcherding, too.
For authenticity, Borcherding wears a long, all-cotton dress with buttons (not a zipper), lace-up boots, and pins (not a rubber band) to hold her hair in a bun.
Children’s plastic water bottles must be checked at the door, and if they need to use a restroom, they have to leave the school and walk to a portable toilet out back.
One welcome concession to modern times is that the school is air-conditioned. The consulting architect advised the preservation group to add this amenity for the sake of better preserving the 100-year-old materials in the school.
Another difference? Borcherding does not use corporal punishment for misbehavior.
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