School Days by E. Ayers

 Seems education is on most peoples' minds. So many places the buses sit empty, the kids are home, and parents are coping with educating their children at home. But it's not a new thing. 

It was a few years ago when a friend's brother decided he'd had enough of teaching school in the city. At the end of the school year, he quit his job, got rid of his apartment, went to his parents home, and looked online for a new job. One school district in the northern part of middle America had an opening. It was a very small school. He applied, and the next day he got a phone call. They invited him to come and sent him airline tickets. 

The principal met him at the airport in a pickup truck. They drove for hours and instead of being put up in hotel or motel, he got to stay in the principal's parents' home in an apt over the detached garage that they referred to as the barn. (There were no hotels or motels near there.) The refrigerator was stocked and he was told to come to the house for meals. There are no traffic lights in the small town. There were two school buses for the county. The school held all grades. The children who lived in town walked to school. About a third of the students never attended school except via computer. In bad weather, the kids outside of town all attended online. Teaching students with a camera focused on him was a new thing. He took the job and never looked back. He loves it there. He teaches science and math to students from Fourth to Twelfth grades. 

His description of that small town became the basis of the contemporary Creed's Crossing books, A Snowy Christmas in Wyoming, A Cowboy's Kiss  in Wyoming, A Love Song in Wyoming, and A Calling in Wyoming. 

But what about schools in 1800s? Schools varied. Education didn't become a big thing until 1900s. Although right after the American Revolution, the USA was the most highly educated country in the world.  The standards in education wasn't anything like today. Reading, writing, and arithmetic were basic. Teachers weren't very educated. And every locality could choose what and who they wanted to teach their children.  Often the job went to the local minister or to someone who was willing to teach especially in rural areas. The big cities on the east coast developed a more formal school system but rural areas were on their own. 

Colleges began to spring up in the 1800s especially for women. Normal schools were created just for women. They could train girls to be teachers. Two years of training meant you were qualified to teach. Rare did schools go beyond the 8th grade. And many schools in rural areas never went beyond the sixth grade. My father was born in 1903 and he only had a few years of school and then he had to work on the farm. His grandmother sat him down and taught him to read. It was a Bible. At four years of age, he could read it. 

I have no idea how he managed, but I could bring home a complex Physics problem and he'd solve it. I couldn't figure what he was doing, and he wasn't using a slide rule. But if my answer didn't match his, I knew mine was wrong. 

My father grew up in a multi-generational home. He had aunts and uncles who were younger than he was. They walked to school. His school had two classrooms. Yes, they walked uphill in the snow. It's not joke when you live in a hilly area. The kids walked together and the older children were responsible for the younger ones.  They carried their slates. These were small wooded framed slabs of  slate, and they used chalk to write on them. Paper was expensive. 

If you'd like read about area where my father went to school, it's hidden in A Husband for Matilda (The Brides of Homestead Canyon).  He actually went to the school one locality from that school. My father was more rural. But that school was typical of the times in a fair-sized town in the east.

Parents were responsible for teaching their children. Public school was limited to cities and towns. Localities were responsible for their schools and used taxes to support them. But in the rural areas it was the parents who had to teach their children. Farms and ranches that had workers often formed their own school to educate the children living near or on the property. In an already busy household, school was only a few hours of instruction. Classes flowed around the schedule of the ranch or farm. Harvest time meant the kids helped. Moving cattle, the kids helped.  If it was canning time, the kids helped. I'm working on a new matchmaker series and it starts with a young woman who is going to meet a minister who happens to be the school teacher for a large ranch.

Parents in the 1800s were responsible for their children's education or lack there of. Many children never learned to read or do more than count enough to function in the world.  It's called functional literacy. When my girls were young I knew a man who was a functional literate.  He often would say I can't read your handwriting. But one day I caught him struggling to read something. Omigosh! He had no education beyond third grade. The puzzle pieces came together. I'm positive he was dyslectic. But he was wicked smart! 

My husband when he was young worked with a man who couldn't read. If the man needed to know the gap for a spark plug, he'd have to ask someone to look it up. But he never forgot what that number was. That man could work rings around his younger counterparts.

There are many people today in the USA who do not have a good education. My mom used to say if you can read, you can do anything and learn anything. I'm not sure I totally agree, but I mostly agree. My mom taught me to read when she realized I was struggling to read. I could sight read certain words, but she taught me to read phonetically. After that, my reading took off. 

I feel sorry for parents today who are stuck trying to teach today's math to children. Twenty years ago, my granddaughter brought home math problems and I couldn't figure out what they were trying to teach her. (I was the math major!) But150 years ago, schooling was limited. I could write a whole book on the educational system, how it evolved, and who was educated. Church schools and other private schools were the foundation of schooling in the USA but public schools became the norm. Education has changed over the years but so has society. Today, with a pandemic, it's bringing schooling back into the limelight. Many schools have changed what they teach in order to teach online. But maybe all this hype is helping parents to evaluate what is important to them and to their children. Personally, I think homeschooling has its problems. When my daughter graduated from nursing school, she had several several fellow students who had been homeschooled. I picked out every one of those students. School teaches things beyond the classroom. It teaches children to get along with everyone no matter what their background, and it exposes children to various cultures. That's something that is difficult to teach in private. But I've listened to things that are now part of the "new" public school curriculum, and I'm thinking no way! I'd homeschool before I'd expose my children to that. But nothing is new. Homeschooling was the norm in rural America.

Little House: Laura Ingalls Wilder By Cora Leland

Little House: Laura Ingalls Wilder

By Cora Leland

 

My interest in Laura Ingalls Wilder's works began with book #8 in the Little House series, These Happy Golden Years, with Mrs. Wilder's careful description of the kitchen in the 'little house' her betrothed, Almonzo, had built for her.

In The First Four Years, the kitchen was  arranged differently, but still carefully described.  I'd found that books #8, #9 and the novel published after her death, On the Way Home, wove satisfying descriptions of everyday life in the 19th century Middle West.  

 

Their first home lay on their Tree Claim, a type of homestead granted for developing a forest,  with slightly different homestead rules. But this was a beautiful spot for a log cabin, or a small house.  Laura said she used to day-dream about when the trees would be fully grown, and their little home would rest among them in the shade they provided.

 

Their first year passed so peacefully!   The following years had hardships, like their both coming down with diphtheria. (One of Almonzo's bachelor relatives came to care for them and Rose went to her grandparents' home.)

 The First Four Years is broken into four chapters, including a chapter for each of the three years of their early married life.  Before they married, Laura said she'd try farming out for three years, to learn if the crops would come in well enough to support them decently. If not, Almonzo promised to try some other profession.

 

Mrs. Wilder described herself, in The First Four Years, as a 'pioneer girl' and not a farmer's daughter. (Her folks had taken her from place to place, before the West became too crowded.) 

The house where Laura Ingalls was born

 

 Shortly after she and Almonzo were married, the harvest began, and she cooked the mid-day meal for the crew of threshers for several days. (One of my sisters was a farmer's wife and cooked for the crew during harvest.  It sounded exhausting!) Laura tells about going into the yard to pick pie plant, then valiantly making pies and cooking the huge meal.  

 

The First Four Years also describes the increasingly hard years that they'd cheerfully lived through, together.  On the anniversary each year of their starting to farm,  they'd discuss if things were going well, or not. The first year was seen as a beginning, nothing more.  Breaking the sod, sowing the seeds, getting livestock and some equipment.

 

The second year had been hard and not very profitable, but they decided to keep trying The third year was close to a disaster, and then they stopped noticing the anniversary dates.

 

They couldn't avoid seeing that things were just too hard for people of their income. They started to consider leaving.   Like many other farmers, they'd gone in debt in order to have the latest farm equipment; Almonzo had felt that good equipment was an investment in their future. 

 

But the weather didn't cooperate with their future.  Hailstorms, then dry hard winds destroyed crop after crop. 

 

Finally they discussed their situation. Almonzo stated flatly that they were 'trapped.'  Again, they braved bad weather and hoped for a turn of luck. 

 

The years after that proved only that it was impossible for poor people to rely on the weather in the Great Plains. For example, hailstorms wiped out a beautiful, huge wheat crop that was already being harvested.  

 

After the hail, it was worthless, even as hay.  This happened once more, then for the next few crops, dry, hot winds 'baked' the wheat and oats, making them fit only for hay, and short crops of hay, at that. 

 

 Finally they discussed how they were reaching the end of their resources. They continued, but eventually they were forced to give up, when they couldn't pay taxes or interest on the loans.   When the bank couldn't extend their loans any longer, they lost their claims, moved into town, then left.  (The bank, then, went out of business.) 

 

By 1894, the year they left, the frequent natural disasters and tight credit forced thousands of homesteaders off their land. They were simply two people among the thousands in the US who suffered during the economic depression of 1893. Millions of people throughout the world were unemployed and starving. 

 

 The Wilder family's 650 mile journey in their covered wagon from De Smet, South Dakota to Missouri is described in On the Way Home.  As they were in her earlier books, these descriptions are engrossing.  Until the final book, she'd discussed the beauties of the plains in all seasons, from blankets of violets through deep dangerous snow storms.  She told of the beauties and the fascination that even prairie fires and cyclones held.

 

The final descriptions are different. They examine the outside world from a covered wagon.  Also, Laura wasn't the proud owner of her own home, but a woman escaping with what she and her family could save from the wreck of their world. 

 

Their daughter, Rose, gives thrilling accounts of the turbulent years surrounding the time when her parents were forced from their land. 

 

Pages 1-3 of On the Way Home describe Coxey's Army: a group that 'rampaged' from town to town, demanding food.  Rose tells, through a child's eyes, how her grandpa said 'this panic <1893> is no different from the rest.' They were safe in their beds, their stomachs filled. Only where Coxey's Army fell upon people was there any unrest.

  

Rose described how starting in California, Coxey's Army stole railroad cars, 'drove them at full throttle' into towns and demanded "Justice for the working man!"  Eventually the army was joined by other groups and they made the first protest in Washington, D.C.

 

Non-fiction sources make the depression of 1893 dry and boring, and even Coxey's Army becomes just a ’failed protest' and nothing more.

 

But On the Way Home turns the 1893 era into thrilling, life-threatening events (which they were). Rose stated flatly, 'this wasn't a depression.  Nobody had heard of a depression. But everybody knew about panics. There'd been plenty of those...' A precocious child, she rattled off the dates of the panics, since the nation had first been industrialized.  

 

She was being sarcastic, but she was correct.  For the 'panic' of 1893 did terrible things across the country. The bad weather and failed crops hadn't hit just Laura and Almonzo, but farmers across the nation.  The Panic of 1893 started due to the crop failures in Washington state, and then banks failed across the nation. 

 

Books 8 and 9, then On the Way Home are optimistic like the Little House books.  But the author had to be more candid than earlier.  

 

On the way Home gives an excellent account of driving through the 'roads filled with beggars'. The roads were 'churned into dust' by wagons and covered wagons.  Laura mentions how many wagons, and where the people came from, several times for each day of the trip.  

 

Most of them were eager to talk, and most were the families of failed farmers. Many were going to or leaving Missouri or simply trying out other places.  They seemed to be going everywhere, trying once more to safely settle down and farm. 

*

Mrs. Wilder left this book for eight years before she considered it for publication.  She was unable to revise it.   After she passed on, the editor and her family decided that publishing it as she'd left it was best.

 

 

CHILDHOOD TOYS OF YESTERYEAR By Cheri Kay Clifton

 

CHILDHOOD TOYS OF YESTERYEAR

Our historical books include not only our heroes and heroines, but often children as secondary characters. A story I’m working on now has young children and thus, my interest in researching what toys and games would occupy their playtime. I should add that “playtime” is a key word. Children in 19^th century America didn’t have much time for play, responsibilities and chores taking up a major part of their day, far more than our youngsters of today.

The early immigrants brought their toys and games to America from England, Africa, Germany, France and many other countries. The rules and ways of playing with them were handed down from generation to generation and many of them are still enjoyed by children today.  That is, when we can get them away from the TV and computers and put down their Xboxes and cell phones! LOL

Listed are a sample of the popular toys and games across the ages. Next month I’ll continue with more favorite pastimes early American children enjoyed.

Tops were a favorite spinning toy throughout history. Primitive twirly tops have been found from as far back 2000 BC. Many of the early American tops were handcrafted, the peg top once being the most popular toy in America. The toy was set in motion by wrapping a string around it; tossing it away and into the air; then watch it land spinning on to the floor.

Cup and Ball toy was an excellent test of hand-eye coordination. This folk toy originated in ancient Greece and early India. Fashionable by the late 16^th century, it was one of the earliest toys played by American children. The ball is tossed and caught in a cup on the end of a stick. In the more difficult bilbo catcher variation, the ball can also be caught on the tip of the opposite side of the spindle by a hole drilled in the ball.

Rolling Hoop was a pastime the American colonists brought with them from Europe. In the 19^th century, both wood and metal hoops were favorite playthings. The hoops were rolled along in solitary play or raced by any number of players.

Wooden blocks were a common 19^th century toy. Using their imagination, children created bridges, houses, forts and castles. Blocks during that time period were played by both boys and girls. While some of the manufactured, more expensive blocks were stamped with pictures or the letters of the alphabet, most blocks were homemade from scraps of wood and quite plain.

Dominoes is a game that can be traced back to China in 1120 AD. Domino sets are commonly made up of double six (28 tiles) and double nine (55 tiles). There are many variations of games that can be played with dominoes.

Dice Games are as old as ancient Egypt. Dice as we know them today were used in backgammon, reportedly one of the oldest games in recorded history. Dicing games such as Hazard were 18^th century tavern favorites in the colonies and the forerunner of today’s most popular casino dice games. Dice were a common household item in early America, made of wood, bone and ivory.

Marbles have been played in all parts of the world for more than 2000 years. Children in 18^th century America played with marbles made of stone or clay; glass marbles were highly prized in the 19^th century. Mass production became possible in 1884, when Sam Dyke of Akron, Ohio, created a wooden block with six grooves, each of which held a lump of clay. An operator would roll a wooden paddle over all the clay balls at once, with a back-and-forth and slightly lateral motion, creating six marbles. With around 350 employees, Dyke's factory was cranking out five train carloads, or about one million marbles, every day. Mass production made marbles much cheaper to make, allowing the price to drop from about one penny each to a bag of 30 marbles for the same price. Other businessmen jumped on the bandwagon and Akron soon became the marble capital of late-19th century America. Some of the first U.S.-produced glass marbles were also made in Akron, by James Harvey Leighton. The basic game of marbles is played in a ring drawn in the dirt. Each player then tries to knock the marbles out of this circle with his ‘shooter’ marble, also called a ‘knuckler.’ A big bag of marbles was considered a treasure.

Jacks is a centuries old game and was once played with seeds, bones, stones or other such materials. Originally named “knucklebones” after the bone of sheeps’ ankle, they were thrown up and caught in various manners. When the game became popular in America, children used a wooden or rubber ball and objects made of six-pronged metal or wood objects, called jack-stones, or jacks. (It was always one of my favorite childhood games, fondly remembering scattering the jacks loosely into the play area, then taking turns bouncing the ball and picking up the jacks before the ball bounced a second time. Some of you may recall the names, “onesies,” “twosies,” and so on, as well as the variations of the game with names such as “horse before carriage,” and “eggs in the basket.”)

Checkers originated in France around 1000 AD. The game made its way to England and called ‘draughts,’ then to America, where it became known as ‘checkers.’ The game steadily rose in popularity as the years went by. 1847 was an important year in the history of checkers when the first championship award was given.

Hopscotch diagrams still cover sidewalks today, but it is one of the oldest and most popular children’s games of all times. There is still a hopscotch pattern etched into the floor of the Roman Forum from several centuries ago! Traditional American hopscotch dates back to the 1800’s.

Yo-Yo has been popular since the ancient times of the Romans and Greeks. However, it didn’t become well-known in the U.S. until the middle of the 1800’s. People began to create yo-yos of all types and from different materials. It wasn’t until Duncan introduced their version of the yo-yo in the 1920’s that the yo-yo became widely popular.

Pick up Sticks was believed to be originated by Native Americans. They used straws of wheat and then passed the game on to English settlers. The English settlers passed it from generation to generation and wheat sticks eventually became thin pieces of wood of different colors. The count of sticks used in the game were 25. Like many childhood games, this one a great one for learning hand and eye coordination. Today Pick up Sticks still remains popular for all ages.

Dolls have been a part of little girls’ lives since ancient times. Girls often had their first sewing experiences creating dresses, hats, and quilts for them. Some of the earliest were carved of wood and dressed in scraps of cloth.

The most common dolls throughout the 19th century were homemade cloth dolls. These were often made from scraps of fabric, with embroidered or button eyes. They might have been stuffed with feathers, cotton, or even straw. Manufactured dolls might be stuffed with sawdust as well.

In rural areas, people fashioned dolls out of the materials at hand. Some carved dolls from pieces of wood or sewed rag dolls from cloth or deerskin. Doll heads were sometimes made from dried apples. "Apple dolls" resembled very old, wrinkled people. Even cornhusks could be bent and tied to make a doll.

Toy makers created a variety of dolls in the 1800s. Most looked like adults. Dolls that resembled babies were not made until the late 1800s. Most dolls had wooden bodies. Many had joints at the elbows, hips, and knees so that children could bend their arms and legs. Doll heads were made of wood, papier-mâché, wax, or china. Dolls with wax heads cost the most. They had glass eyes and natural-looking hair. Some even had real human hair.

Some dolls were quite fancy with ribbons, ruffles, and lace. Sometimes a doll was so beautifully dressed that its owner was only allowed to play with it on Sunday, and then only with clean hands. Some dolls were not to be touched by children at all.

 

These are but a few of the all-time favorite toys and games of children of yesteryear … and I’m sure have stirred memories of the child that still resides in all of us.

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CheriKayClifton.com

Wheels of Destiny Trilogy (3 book series) Kindle Edition (amazon.com)