A day in the life of a frontier child as school brings history to life

By Fletcher Halfaker

Click here for updates on this story

    HARRISBURG, Nebraska (Star-Herald) — Fourth graders from throughout the Panhandle are making trips to a one-room schoolhouse in Banner County to experience a day in the life of a frontier child complete with period accurate studies, attire and behavior lessons.

Flowerfield School has been a staple of elementary social studies lessons for over 30 years in the Panhandle. Countless kids have taken the field trip to the past in that time, ahis week a group of fourth graders from Kimball got their chance to see what life was like in the “good old days.”

Led by their school teacher, Miss Sample, the students learned the same lessons that would have been taught in 1888. These included reading, penmanship and orthography, or spelling.

Reading lessons were conducted using genuine McGuffey Readers, which contain stories that not only develop literacy, but teach life lessons. For example, the Kimball students got to read aloud the story of James Brown the Truant, who skips school and falls in with a group of “idle boys” who put him in harm’s way.

The penmanship lesson does not utilize pencils or pens, but rather a quill and ink. Students are also expected to write in cursive and maintain proper cleanliness while they practice their letters.

Orthography lessons also use a period appropriate tool: the slate and chalk. The words the students must spell during these lessons are often new to them, giving them a chance to explore new ideas.

One example discussed by the students was a “chamber pot,” which Sample told them was the equivalent of an indoor toilet on frontier homesteads. Having such an item in the home was essential, as going outdoors to use the restroom was dangerous at night.

“Whose job is it going to be to clean that up in the morning?” the teacher asked the students.

They correctly guessed that the unenviable task was the responsibility of the homestead children.

For Mary Lynch Elementary fourth grade teacher Jolie Dorrell, Thursday’s visit to Flowerfield was a return trip. She explained that fourth grade students spend several weeks preparing for their trip to Flowerfield and even have to learn a different way of saying the Pledge of Allegiance.

“We prepare them weeks in advance, so it’s not just a one-day experience. It’s an experience that they get at school and then it all culminates here with the costumes, the lunches and even the proverbs they learn in the classroom that are repeated here. It really is immersive,” Dorrell said.

The experience is just as much fun for teachers as it is for students, Dorrell said. To her, buying into the immersion of Flowerfield School helps her students do the same and get even more value out of their trip.

“We try to make it as authentic as possible for them, and it truly comes alive,” she said. “It is so fun for the teachers and the kids. The more we get into it, the more they get into it, which is just a riot.”

Of course, schooling was very different in 1888. One of the most notable changes for the kids was the way in which they were expected to behave. Rather than finding it stifling, Dorrell said her students took to the situation with enthusiasm.

“I think the expected behaviors are an eye opener for them, but they seem to enjoy it,” she said. “They’re participating incredibly well. It enhances the learning experience so much to be able to take everything we’ve been learning and apply it.”

Although Dorrell expressed appreciation for the Flowerfield experience, she also took the chance to reflect on just how much progress has been made in the field of education since the days of the prairie schoolhouse.

“Education today is so much different from the one-room schoolhouse,” she said. “We have small groups, we have differentiation, we’re able to divide into grade levels. We have everything pinpointed for specific student needs, whereas in this environment it was tough to even get kids to attend a full year of school. We’ve fine tuned education so much. This would have been tough to learn in.”

Spending one day in the past is the best way to truly bring history to life, and Dorrell said that she wishes her students had even more opportunities that could solidify and reinforce their lessons the way that Flowerfield does.

“The small schoolhouse, the fire in the learning environment, writing with the quill and ink … you can tell them about it all day long, but even if we did it in our own classroom, it wouldn’t be nearly as effective as coming up here and doing it,” Dorrell said. “If we could do more hands-on things like this, lessons would really stick for them.”

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.