Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 21, 1993 TAG: 9310200323
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG LESMERISES STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
As the oldest of seven children, George has little time or energy for school because of all the chores he has to perform on his family's small farm. Even if he were awake, he would have trouble learning in a room with 40 other children, some of them only 4 years old.
There are no lights and barely enough slates to go around. And worst of all, there is no soccer.
Welcome to Crystal Spring School, where for two weeks, 41 third-graders have been living in 1872, re-creating what school was like in pioneer days.
They've combined their two classes into one, and a large cardboard wood stove dominates the front of the room.
Work sheets are a thing of the future, and slate boards and chalk are the learning tools of the day.
Lanterns sit in the windowsills, and the overhead lights are never turned on. Soccer balls are gone from recess, so games include tag and Red Rover. And sleepy teen-ager "George Baker" is really 8-year-old Barry Wirt, acting out his part.
"When you come in the room, you are in Apple Valley School," said "Miss Barbour," the 18-year-old teacher. She's actually Kitty Sims, who planned the project along with fellow teacher Ann Moore, 26-year-old "Miss Fitzgerald."
The third-grade literature program incorporates some pioneer books, and the students will later study Roanoke history beginning in the 1800s, so the pioneer school idea "just hit our frame of mind," Moore said.
The simulation they're using was developed by the Interact company of Lakeside, Calif. The company outlines activities, skill development and the other basics needed to create the Apple Valley community.
"We've tried to be as authentic as possible," Sims said.
The students were divided into nine families and took on the identities of brothers and sisters. Their names, ages and parents' occupations were changed.
"The kids really got into it," Sims said. "Over the weekend, they were still calling each other by their family names.
"The parents even started writing their notes to Miss Barbour and Miss Fitzgerald."
"I liked really being the character," Emily Cullum, 8, said. "It was a little bit tricky, but I got used to it."
The rest of the family background was up to the students. They decided as families how their houses looked and then drew the homes.
"If they wanted a pond, they had a pond," Moore said. "If they wanted trees, they drew trees."
The activity not only gave a taste of pioneer life, but of life in a different family.
"If a child was an only child in real life," Moore said,"then we put her in a large family."
"I'm the big sister," said 8-year-old Stacy Black, "and in real life I'm the youngest, so it's good."
The students also performed recitations, a major aspect of pioneer schools, and discussed diary entries as families.
Recitation was just one of the different ways of teaching basic skills.
"Things haven't changed that much [from 100 years ago] as far as the basics," Sims said. "As far as the teacher's role, so much is the same it's uncanny."
"Ciphering" provided the daily math lesson. The teacher called out a five- or six-number math problem, adding or subtracting a number at a time. The children followed along on their slates and then held their answers up when finished.
Penmanship was one of the most important school subjects in the late 1800s. The Apple Valley kids dutifully practiced their cursive writing every day.
The best part for most of the students was the real-life, old-time activities. They made apple butter and corn bread.
"It was really like 100 years ago," 8-year-old Jane Kuhn Roberts said.
Each student sewed together nine quilt squares that were made into a full quilt. They learned songs of the day and danced the Virginia Reel. And they graduated from their school, many of them in 1872 costumes, with a performance for parents last Friday.
Jamie Bonds, 8, said his parents thought the pioneer program "was crazy" at first, but he said, "I think they should do it again."
This year's program and graduation was given a stamp of authenticity by Georgia Reeves, great-aunt to student Alicia McGhee.
"I could relate, because I taught at a one-room schoolhouse at Bent Mountain in 1948," Reeves said, "and we had a wood stove just like they did. The program was wonderful."
by CNB