Sunday, November 23, 2008
Where Are the Little Red Schoolhouses of Yesteryear?
Posted May 3rd, 2008 by Arnold Aprill
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While on a trip to Washington, D.C., I paid a visit to the offices of the U.S. Department of Education. Special structures had been built around the entrances to the building- replicas of the archetypal “Little Red Schoolhouse”. I later found out that these had been installed to protect government employees from falling masonry, but why were these particular wooden pieces of nostalgia chosen to grace the doorways to these large, gothic, stone buildings? The enduring image of the one-room schoolhouse, painted red, with a hand-rung bell mounted in the little cupola on the roof, must represent something central to the mythology of American public education to be such a persistent symbol. Where did this symbol come from? Is it historically accurate? Why is it red? What ethnic tradition did this structure come out of? Were there Little Red Schoolhouses in England? Germany? Does it represent an idealized image of rural America? When schools were small and intimate and taught by someone from the community? When classrooms were all multi-age? Is the Small Schools movement an attempt to reclaim the imagined intimacy of the little red schoolhouse? Where are the Little Red Schoolhouses of Yesteryear now?
Arnold Aprill
Founding and Creative Director
Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE)
www.capeweb.org
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Little Red Schoolhouse Tidbits of Info and Insight....
Arn, thanks for always inspiring me to write....well not only write...but do some research and then write!
Based on what I've gathered regarding the history of the little red schoolhouse, this is how I could summarize what I understood:
Since the 18th century well up to the 20th, the country school has always stood as a symbol of civilization and democracy in America...and as redundant as it may sound, it was founded upon the 3Rs....
Little really meant small. To add to that, a little red schoolhouse was a one-room schoolbuilding, usually built on "a small piece of wasteland that farmers could readily spare (according to Daugherty, 1978)." ----In addition, Daugherty (1978) stated that, "the little schoolhouses were painted, if at all, with red or yellow ochre, the cheapest possible paint." The schoolhouses were located at a central point to serve several farm families along country roads throughout New England and states further west.
Looking at the description of the little red schoolhouse from a historical perspective, I begin to feel the need to compare and contrast the past and the present....but let me keep it real.
Schools, at this present day and age, are not only centers of academic learning. Our schools now offer more than just the 3Rs...In fact, I'd like to add another set of 3Rs that are being integrated into our schools' curricula: Respect, Responsibility, and Relationships.
In terms of building schools at strategic locations, the current initiative of our public school system is to continue building a lot more schools--- "smaller schools" for continued academic advancement and to provide families with more choices.
It is indeed a big dream waiting to fully come true, in time.
On a positive note, I believe that currently there are organizations that help in beautifying schools. Community arts partnerships are crucial in keeping a balance between the beauty of reality, perception and idealism.
We are fortunate to be collaborating with an arts organization like CAPE (Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education) that has been able to show us all that the world is indeed full of color and that we must enjoy it by looking at it from various perspectives, in the light of art appreciation and in celebration of creativity!
REFERENCE:
Daugherty, Mary Lee. "The Little Red Schoolhouse," in Ray B. Brown and Marshall Fishwick, eds., Icons of America. Bowling Green, Ohio:Popular Press, 1978.