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One-room school
One-room school
Gallery
A simpler life with effective learning principles
The one-room teacher had 40 scholars.
Her monthly wage was $60 dollars.
She taught eight grades from nine to four,
Then she banked the fire and swept the floor.
She taught them all from A to Z.
Her subjects were not just two or three,
That was the average one-room school —
Where all were taught the ‘Golden Rule.’
— Mae Beringer
PHOTOS and story
MERCER, Pa.
Driving up to the Caldwell one-room schoolhouse, just north of Mercer, Pa., you can almost hear the bell as it rang for the last time in 1960, when consolidations took place and closed the school.
The desks are still in straight rows, and memorabilia from that time now is in almost every desk and nook at the school on Mercer Greenville Road.
Old roll-down world maps still hang above the blackboard, and a yellowed poster-size reading aid still hangs on the wall.
The quills and inkwells are in place, and the wood still is stacked neatly next to the old stove.
It’s hard to imagine with today’s SMART Boards, electronic books and devices that the education of our country started in these humble one-room schools.
Today there are fewer than 600 left, and at one time, there were well over 150,000 one-room schools such as Caldwell School.
Mae Beringer started teaching at Caldwell School in Mercer County in 1927 and continued for the next 30 years without heat, electricity or running water.
Many mornings, on wet, cold or rainy days, she would start at 6 a.m. and the building was still cold when the students arrived at 8, some walking two to three miles to get to the school. The inkwells still would be frozen as she started each day with a Bible verse and then math. After recess at 10:30, spelling, geography and writing were taught.
After recess, even on the coldest days, students played outside; and after lunch, English, health and history were taught.
What made the one-room schoolhouse special was “the older students helped the younger students and repetition. Everyone who left the school knew the basics. Completely,” said Beringer, now deceased.
Beringer was instrumental in collecting and keeping the school as it originally was.
The school is open Sundays starting Memorial Day weekend from noon to 5 p.m. and is located at 2159 Mercer Road (Highway 58). It is operated by the Mercer County Historical Society.