Date: Fri 04-Dec-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: JAN

Quick Words:

history-one-room-schoolhouses

Full Text:

Remembering Newtown's One-Room Schoolhouses

(with cut)

BY JAN HOWARD

Nothing seems to evoke nostalgia for Newtown's bygone era more than the

memories of those who attended one-room schoolhouses.

Their memories are part of our common heritage, and though comfort and modern

teaching techniques were often lacking in those one-room structures, the

people who attended the schools still think of the days they spent there

fondly, despite the drawbacks of no water, outdoor toilets and not much heat

in the buildings.

The history of Newtown's one-room schoolhouses is a long one that begins in

the early 18th Century with the construction of the first schoolhouse and

continues to 1921 when Mary Hawley, the town's benefactress, donated the funds

for the construction of the Hawley School, which was completed in 1922. At

that time, the school housed all of the town's schoolchildren, grades K-12,

and the one-room schoolhouses were closed.

But that wasn't the final curtain on the story of the one-room schoolhouses.

During World War II, some of the schoolhouses were reopened because of

overcrowding at the Hawley School.

Marie Walker of Newtown remembers attending the one-room Flat Swamp, or

Dodgingtown, schoolhouse during World War II as a sixth grader. She had

attended the Sandy Hook schoolhouse for fifth grade.

"I caught the school bus at Walker's Corner on 202 (now Route 302) and was

driven to Hawley School and picked up by another bus that took us to the

Dodgingtown school," Mrs Walker said recently. "I knew all my classmates

because of the class being small."

"We had outside plumbing, which was stepping back in time," she remembered.

"The class had bottled water to drink. Some company delivered big bottles of

water to us. We brought our sandwich and fruit and on good days we would eat

our lunch outside. The yellow jackets were a bit of a problem; they wanted my

fruit.

"On cold days many times we would sit around the pot-bellied stove, and Mrs

Musnicki would read to us. I really looked forward to those times," Mrs Walker

said.

"At the end of the day a bus would pick us up and take us back to Hawley and

then we would take our regular bus back to the bus stop and walk or get picked

up by our parents and ride back home," she said.

"My parents never got upset on my attending a one-room school house. It was

just something that had to be done to correct overcrowding at Hawley," Mrs

Walker said.

"Looking back, it was a wonderful learning experience, probably something my

grandparents had done," she said.

Marion Rothe also remembers her sixth-grade class at Flat Swamp fondly.

"We had the greatest teacher, Miss Brennan. She got married while we were

there," Mrs Rothe said. "We had a great time with her. She was great. We loved

her.

"There was a pot-bellied stove, and we would all sit around it while Miss

Brennan told us stories.

"I also loved the school bus ride over," she said.

Not remembered fondly by Mrs Rothe were the outhouses and physical

examinations by doctors and nurses. "We used to hate those," she said.

In spite of the inconveniences, most of all, "We had a lot of fun there," Mrs

Rothe said."

"Miss Brennan was a pleasant teacher," Mrs Rothe remembers. "She made things

interesting. I just remember her as one of my greatest teachers."

"It was very different to be a teacher there," Mary Musnicki (the former Miss

Brennen) said. "I had only one grade, sixth grade.

"The children would all come at one time on the bus, and the bus would take

them back to Hawley School. It was a long ride for some of them."

Mrs Musnicki said her aunt, a teacher in Newtown, warned her that the

reopening of the one-room schoolhouses was not a popular move in town.

"She told me the parents were not happy with their children being bused," Mrs

Musnicki said. "She said `Make sure they're happy.' "

However, Mrs Musnicki said she never received any complaints and the use of

the one-room schools worked out well. She said supervisors would visit the

school once in a while to see how everything was going.

The only heat in the school was from a wood-burning pot-bellied stove, Mrs

Musnicki remembers. "The woman next door started the stove and kept it going

for us."

Among other inconveniences, the school did not have a telephone, which, on one

occasion, could have had dire consequences if the wind had been blowing a

different direction.

Prior to Christmas one year, the children had celebrated the closing of school

for the holidays with a party. Mrs Musnicki and one of the boys took the paper

debris outside to burn it in the open container provided for that purpose.

"It was a little windy, and a fire started," she said. "The fire was burning

like crazy."

The fire blazed away from the little schoolhouse, following a narrow driveway

up the hill where blue spruce trees caught fire. Luckily, because of the

direction of the wind, no buildings caught fire and the children were never in

any danger in the schoolhouse.

"A neighbor called the volunteers. What an awful feeling it was waiting for

the volunteer firemen to come," Mrs Musnicki remembers. "I didn't even have a

phone. When I think of it now, I wonder about that."

She remembers there was a field on the side of the school where the children

could play ball at recess after eating the lunches they brought from home.

"Since it was the war years, they belonged to the clean plate club. They had

to eat all their lunch so nothing would be wasted," she said.

"They were really a nice group of children," she said proudly.

Mrs Musnicki said the mind-over-matter concept worked well for her on more

than one occasion.

"It was very cold there in the morning before the fire got going. When I would

see the bus drive up, I would put my hand on the thermometer to make the

temperature rise to make it appear warmer, so when the children would say it

was cold, I could say it wasn't really so bad," she said, laughing.

Another funny episode centered on the children's study of ancient history.

"We were studying the different ruins," Mrs Musnicki noted. "A couple of the

kids found what we thought were old bones. We looked them over and figured

they were old relics."

The children took the package of what they thought were bones to religious

instructions and then left them in the church, Mrs Musnicki said.

"A day or two afterwards, there was a knock and there were state policemen at

the door," she said.

Mrs Musnicki said it turned out the "relics" were old sticks of dynamite, and

because it was the war years, it was thought someone was trying to blow up the

church.

On another occasion, the school's American flag was incorrectly hung upside

down, which, Mrs Musnick said, meant you were in trouble. A man stopped at the

school and asked her, "What's the trouble?"

"I told him there was no trouble here, and then we fixed the flag," she said.

Main Street Schoolhouse

Andy Sedor attended the Main Street schoolhouse for one year before going to

the newly-constructed Hawley School. The school was located south of the Mary

Hawley Inn. He remembers the schoolyard with a flag in front.

"It wasn't easy in those days," Mr Sedor said. "We had to walk. On bad days,

Dad would take us down with the horse, Brownie, either with the wagon or the

sleigh. There was no school bus.

"It was a different life than today. Everyone lived the same. I don't know if

it was better or worse," he said. "The '20s weren't anything to brag about.

"We had to drink water out of a pail. There was no running water, and there

were outhouses," he remembers.

He also remembers the pot-bellied stove. "We wore boots to keep warm," he

said. Stoically, he said, "If you get used to the cold weather, you can stand

it."

Huntingtown School

Isadore Brier, who attended Huntingtown School for eight years prior to

attending high school at Hawley, remembers, "We had a beautiful teacher."

Mr Brier, who still resides on Huntingtown Road, remembers his teacher, Ruth

Roberts, fondly. She was his teacher throughout his eight years in the school.

"She was a fabulous teacher," he said.

He remembers walking to the Huntingtown school every day, despite the weather.

"Every class was taught separately," Mr Brier said. While a class was

receiving instruction, the other students would do their homework or study.

"There was a big map that was over the blackboard that was used for geography

lessons," he noted.

Mr Brier also remembers the short recess period and the games the children

played, such as hide and seek and "Johnny on the Pony," which was similar to

leap frog.

He explained how the children would have to stay after school and write on the

blackboard if the teacher caught them in some mischief.

"We would have to write 100 times one word as punishment if we were caught

doing something wrong, like smoking," he said.

Mr Brier remembers the schoolhouse's one room as being "nice and warm" with

the pot-bellied stove.

"We had to be careful not to throw dogwood in it because it made a scent," he

said. He wore felt boots with rubber soles to help keep him warm and dry.

The students sat at desks that had a lid, with storage space underneath, and

an inkwell, he noted.

Every year there was a Christmas tree, Mr Brier said, even though most of the

students were Jewish at the Huntingtown school. The students, who could afford

to do so, would give gifts to the teacher, and she would give each of the

students something, whether they had given her a gift or not.

There were no school vacations except at Christmas and during the summer, he

said.

A well was put in for the school when Mr Brier was in seventh grade. Until

then, the schoolhouse relied on a neighbor for water, he explained.

And there are some things that never change.

"Every night," Mr Brier said, "we did homework."