Thursday, April 29, 2010
By Denise Dick
By DENISE DICK
POLAND
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Rachel Wolfe and Katie Masucci read from old school books as second graders from Union Elementary School, Poland, spent Wednesday at the Little Red Schoolhouse on U.S. Route 224 to see how children their age learned many years ago.
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A barefoot Jake Rutana climbs the pole in the Little Red Schoolhouse Wednesday morning as his teacher and classmates cheer him on. Second-graders in Linda Watts’ class at Union Elementary School, Poland, spent the day at the schoolhouse on U.S. Route 224.
Second-graders CODY STACEY and Jake Rutana, both 8, enjoyed some old-school entertainment.
The boys, along with their classmates in Linda Watts’ class, left their modern-day classroom at Union Elementary School on Wednesday and spent the day instead at the Little Red Schoolhouse.
The building on U.S. Route 224 at Struthers Road, was used as a school from 1858 to 1915. It now houses the Poland Historical Society.
“That pole in the center of the room is the original pole,” said Pat Grimm, historical society archivist and trustee. “Boys used to climb it in their bare feet, and whoever got to the top would slap their hand on the ceiling and be king for the day or the week.”
It’s not as easy as it sounds.
one of the students made it all the way to the ceiling, but they liked trying.
“It was really hard,” Jake said. “My feet kept on slipping. I had to use my hands a lot to climb up.”
Jake said he’s used to scaling poles, often doing it on the playground at recess.
“It was really fun,” Cody said.
He made it about half-way up the pole, employing a special strategy.
“You have to get all sweaty,” Cody said.
It helps you grip the pole with your hands and feet, he explained.
Their teacher says spending a day as children did long ago fits with the social-studies standards.
Throughout the school year, second- graders learn about how things were long ago compared to today.
“This is sort of a culminating activity for them,” Watts said.
Rather than pens or pencils and paper, they wrote with chalk on slate boards. They read from school books similar to what students who attended school in the schoolhouse used, like McGuffey Readers. At recess, they played stickball or spent time doing embroidery.
“There’s no swings or sliding board,” Watts said.
The kids even dressed the part with boys in hats and boots and girls in bonnets and long, prairie dresses.
Ty Homrighausen, 7, and Michael Cougras, 8, sat on the floor, heads bent over a shared copy of one of the old-time readers.
“It’s about a boy who sends a letter to Santa Claus,” Michael said.
Both he and Ty think they would have liked going to school in the old days.
“I think it’s pretty cool,” he said.
Ty, dressed in a straw hat with suspenders, said the best thing about the schoolhouse is “everything in it.”