Tales from Kentucky One-Room School Teachers

Introduction

Introduction When I came back to the schoolroom from the outhouse one morning , teacher Jerry Bowman beckoned me over to him and whispered, “Lynwood, button up your britches—you forgot to do it!” The era of the Kentucky one-room schoolhouse represents a facet of the educational profession that no longer exists. Kentucky lost an abundant amount of its social, cultural, and educational heritage when its one-room schools were closed. I conceived this collection to gather valuable oral history of this unique period from former one-room school teachers across the Commonwealth, knowing that they could share fabulous stories and historical information that would otherwise be lost to us when those who can tell these stories have left us for good. My purpose in recording the memories of these old-time teachers, most of whom were in their nineties or older, was to help preserve the legacy and contributions of this particular sector of Kentucky history. This book provides descriptive accounts of what the one-room school era was like for teachers, students, and the wider community, encompassing school infrastructure, school events both typical and unusual, teacher-student relationships, and other factors relative to the culture of an educational system that began in pioneer times and ended during the 1950s to the 1970s, primarily in the 1960s. Historical information passed along verbally is a significant and valuable source of data that complements formal historiographical sources. Combining the two sectors of knowledge forms a fuller historical record: formal historiography provides objective interpretation based on information on file, and oral history offers an insightful personal touch. Oral history methodology helps to achieve invaluable perspectives on local culture. 2 Tales from Kentucky One-Room School Teachers It should be noted that none of the oral accounts in this book are universal, a term used by folklorists in reference to verbal stories that are told statewide, nationwide, or even worldwide in some instances. Folklorists study and reproduce universal legends in some instances, but they are primarily interested in meaningful individual stories that describe a local culture at a particular point in time. This is true of oral history, “which is both the method by which verbal information about the past and/or present is collected and recorded, and the body of knowledge that exists only in people’s memories, which will be lost when they and other members of their generation have died. . . . Orally communicated history can supplement written records by filling in the gaps in formal documents or providing an insider’s perspective on momentous events.”1 Many of the teachers’ stories herein do reveal these inside perspectives and viewpoints that make oral history projects such vital scholarship. At the heart of this scholarship is an intensely personal human process: this book’s evocation of the wonderful heritage of Kentucky’s one-room school era is thanks to the many former teachers who shared their stories—by turns laugh-out-loud funny, heartwarming, poignant, sad, and even frightening—and were thrilled for the opportunity to do so. Often they spoke with tears in their eyes. To locate my interview subjects, I contacted Brenda Meredith, editor of the quarterly publication KRTA (Kentucky Retired Teachers Association ) News and explained my intended project. She asked me to write an explanatory letter for inclusion in the December 2008 issue. I very quickly began getting responses from former one-room school teachers in several counties across the state. After initial contact with prospective storytellers by telephone or e-mail, I wrote a letter to them, including a set of questions intended to suggest story and viewpoint categories for them to ponder. Then, depending on the interviewees’ preference, I either drove to their residence to tape-record their memories or they sent me tape-recorded or written accounts, the latter by e-mail or regular mail. All three of the suggested methods were employed, almost evenly. Meeting face-to-face with these former one-room school teachers to interview them was truly an honor as well as a fascinating venture. For their part, the teachers were friendly and excited to be participating in my project. I was also in contact with many others whom I never met personally but talked with on the telephone or communicated with via e-mail. (I am particularly thankful that I had the opportunity to inter- Introduction 3 view Mamie Wright, one of my own three one-room school teachers...