School Days
School has recently begun again after the Christmas vacation. Kids are waiting at the bus stops in the morning to go to classes, most of them only anxious to see friends again and play with them at recess. In our township there are three large schools, along with the high school. But the younger children in some of the villages still attend the local escola unitaria.
These small unitarias, as they're called by most people, are one or two room schoolhouses. The classroom is on the bottom floor, and on the top floor is a small apartment for the teacher. The smallest are only one classroom. The biggest have two classrooms, and apartments for two teachers. In the middle of the parish where my husband grew up, there are two buildings with two classrooms each, together. Practically all these small schoolhouses around here were built in the 1940's and 1950's, to bring a certain order to education. My mother-in-law went to school in a private house where the teacher was boarding. My husband and his brothers and sister went to the schoolhouse in the center of the parish. According to him, there were around sixty to seventy children of different levels in the classroom he was assigned to. The classrooms weren't very big. I can imagine them all squeezed together, and the ferreous discipline to keep so many children in check. Because the parish was big enough and had enough children, the two buldings were originally built to separate girls from boys. Until the sheer number of children made it impossible. In our village there is a one-room schoolhouse where our neighbors went to school. By the time my generation entered the halls of learning, a larger school had been built, and children only attended the local school until fourth grade. From fourth to eighth they went to the larger one in town by bus.
Gradually, larger, graded schools were built, and the small schoolhouses were closed when the children within their radius dropped below a total of five. The closed schoolhouses have either languished in forgetfulness, or have been used for cultural purposes of one kind or another. The one in our village was used for Saturday evening Mass for many years, until the parish priest retired. It's also ocassionally used for reunions in which to discuss property common to the entire village and its uses. Other than that, it's just sits there, waiting for time to pass. Like so many others, some of which have already descended into ruin.
One-room schoolhouses in the United States vanished a long time ago. I remember reading the Little House books and how strange it seemed to me to go to school with all different levels together with one teacher. But kids my age here were doing just that. And now parents and teachers are fighting to lower the number of children in one classroom to below twenty-five, all of the same age. Slowly, education is catching up with the times. It took it long enough here. Yet, it still has a ways to go.
These small unitarias, as they're called by most people, are one or two room schoolhouses. The classroom is on the bottom floor, and on the top floor is a small apartment for the teacher. The smallest are only one classroom. The biggest have two classrooms, and apartments for two teachers. In the middle of the parish where my husband grew up, there are two buildings with two classrooms each, together. Practically all these small schoolhouses around here were built in the 1940's and 1950's, to bring a certain order to education. My mother-in-law went to school in a private house where the teacher was boarding. My husband and his brothers and sister went to the schoolhouse in the center of the parish. According to him, there were around sixty to seventy children of different levels in the classroom he was assigned to. The classrooms weren't very big. I can imagine them all squeezed together, and the ferreous discipline to keep so many children in check. Because the parish was big enough and had enough children, the two buldings were originally built to separate girls from boys. Until the sheer number of children made it impossible. In our village there is a one-room schoolhouse where our neighbors went to school. By the time my generation entered the halls of learning, a larger school had been built, and children only attended the local school until fourth grade. From fourth to eighth they went to the larger one in town by bus.
Gradually, larger, graded schools were built, and the small schoolhouses were closed when the children within their radius dropped below a total of five. The closed schoolhouses have either languished in forgetfulness, or have been used for cultural purposes of one kind or another. The one in our village was used for Saturday evening Mass for many years, until the parish priest retired. It's also ocassionally used for reunions in which to discuss property common to the entire village and its uses. Other than that, it's just sits there, waiting for time to pass. Like so many others, some of which have already descended into ruin.
One-room schoolhouses in the United States vanished a long time ago. I remember reading the Little House books and how strange it seemed to me to go to school with all different levels together with one teacher. But kids my age here were doing just that. And now parents and teachers are fighting to lower the number of children in one classroom to below twenty-five, all of the same age. Slowly, education is catching up with the times. It took it long enough here. Yet, it still has a ways to go.
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