Schools After the Civil War. Little educational progress was made during the Civil War, but when peace had come to Kansas and the people could turn their minds to the needs of their homes and communities, schoolhouses built of logs or sod sprang up everywhere, for the pioneers had brought with them a desire to educate their children. Sometimes the settlers did not even wait to organize their district, but gathered together and began work on their schoolhouse. Where there was a timber supply they made their buildings of logs. On the prairie they built of sod. With the breaking plow they sliced out long pieces of sod from two to four inches thick and twelve to fourteen inches wide, and these, mortared with soft mud, were used like brick to build the walls. The roof was sometimes of lumber, but often the sod was laid over a framework of brush and poles. Whether the building was of logs or of sod, the floor was usually of dirt sprinkled and packed until it was hard and smooth. As the country grew in population and resources these buildings were replaced by others made of lumber, brick, or stone, but the little log and sod schoolhouses served the pioneers well. They were used not only for school purposes, but for religious services and for social gatherings, spelling schools, singing schools, and literary societies. The schoolhouses were the social centers in early Kansas.
Interior of Sod Schoolhouse.
The Work of the Pioneer Schools. Although the minimum term was three months, it was usually made a little longer for the benefit of the smaller children. As a rule the older boys and girls went to school only during the winter months when they could be spared from the farms. The work in the schools in those days consisted chiefly of the three R’s, “readin’, ’ritin’ and ’rithmetic.” In most cases, the pupils started each year at the beginning of their books and worked as far as they could. This was continued winter after winter until the girls and boys were eighteen to twenty-one years of age, or even older. There was no such thing as graduating from the country schools; the pupils attended until they were ready to quit. Since there were almost no high schools in the State, few of the children received more than a common school education, and most of the teachers had no more than that.
A Present Day Rural School.
Changes in the District Schools. Conditions are quite different in the country schools to-day. Many of them have terms of eight months, a few have nine months, while seven months is the shortest term permitted by the State. The truancy law requires attendance during the full term, whatever its length. The sod and log schoolhouses of pioneer days were, in time, replaced by neat little box-like buildings usually constructed of wood, though occasionally of brick or stone, and these in turn are now rapidly disappearing and their places are being taken by buildings that are larger, more beautiful, more comfortable, and far better adapted to educational needs. The qualifications of teachers have been raised. In earlier days, when there were but few high schools, many teachers had no education beyond what they had obtained in the country schools, but to-day ninety per cent of the rural teachers of the State are high-school graduates, and this per cent is steadily increasing. The work of the rural schools has expanded far beyond the “three R’s.” In addition to the regular work it now includes as much as time will permit of such subjects as music, manual training, agriculture, and household arts. The rural schools have been receiving a great deal of attention in recent years and are very rapidly being improved. Several hundred of them have already met the requirements laid down by the State for a “standard” school, and a few for a “superior” school, and these lists are constantly growing.
A Consolidated School.
