FIction/nonfiction

When I was a kid, we had to walk 10 miles to school through snow up to our knees...... Actually, it was 2 miles and when it snowed, Dad took us in the jeep to the old country school, Albany INB where the farm kids in a 3-4 mile radius gathered for a day of learning and fun. Hours were 9 to 4, with the old bell in the tower ringing the warning bell 5 minutes before school started and before each 30 minute recess and 1 hour lunch. Tardiness was not tolerated. I don't know what would have happened because it just wasn't dont. We had a teacher for a couple years that actually lived in a room at the school. The school room was very Little House on the Prairie. The teacher's desk at the front of the room, with blackboards behind her and on both sides. In front of her desk was a "recitation bench". Classes were broken into 15 minute recitations. As all the students did their assignments, the teacher would call "third grade reading" etc. and the 3 third graders would go forward, etc. All very subdued and quiet. Permission from the seat was asked by raising a hand if question was for the teacher, 1 finger to go to the bathroom, and 2 fingers was asking permission to visit another student for 5 minutes to get help with an academic problem. The grades were 1st through 8th, so the older students were often helping the younger ones. They had bigger desks, so you could sit right down with them, which was very cool. As you were doing your own work, you were also aware of the classes going on at the front . It was a great learning environment - I loved recess, but don't remember going crazy sitting at my desk. Mostly, I loved school and when friends came over to play on Sunday after church, we would usually play school.