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Grant No. 9 School Daze Memories from former students and teachers!
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Anna Johnson, who taught in Grant township’s one-room schoolhouse in the 1930s remembered: “I was also an administrator, mother, doctor, nurse, judge and jury, artist, cook, librarian, custodian, carpenter, adviser, psychologist, and humanitarian.” In the summer term, the only relief was from hand fans and open windows, which allowed insects to disrupt studies. Insects were not the only creatures of concern to teachers. And Johnson recalled that the last thing she did before leaving school was “check the fire and set the mouse traps in my desk drawers, because with cold weather, the field mice moved in.” Few schools of the time had their own wells, so water had to be carried from the nearest house, which was often a half-mile away. The era of the one-room schoolhouse was eclipsed by better means of transportation and communication, decreasing rural population, and a desire to compete with the expanded programs and teacher salaries of city schools. Former teacher Anna Johnson mourned it’s passing: “The one-room schoolhouse is gone. I feel sorry for the children of today, who cannot enjoy the experiences of the generation before them.” [Memories and quotes from Anna Heeren Johnson who taught in Grant No. 9 (1932-1933) and Grant No. 7 (1936-1938.)] Source: LeMars Sentinel
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