# How did one-room schoolhouses work?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-one-room-schoolhouses-work/683370>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 10, 2014, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-one-room-schoolhouses-work/683370 "2014-03-10T18:18:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2014, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-one-room-schoolhouses-work/683370/41 "2014-03-12T21:18:40Z")

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> [@nearwildheaven](#):
>
> Where did your mother teach?

In several small farming communities in northern IA.

I don’t think they had a telephone in the building. This was during the Depression and money was scarce. She had trouble enough getting books.

Interesting aside - while trying in vain to determine when the first telephones were used in Iowa schools I found out that by the early 1900s Iowa had the most telephones _per capita_ in the US.

I also ran into a piece of pioneer history that talked about a man in northern IA who sought out a teaching certificate in the late 1800s and was handed a note that read, “If you are satisfied, I am satisfied.” That was his degree!

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**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2014, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-one-room-schoolhouses-work/683370/42 "2014-03-12T22:43:43Z")

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> [@Giles](#):
>
> …I was enrolled in the New South Wales Correspondence School for my second-last year of high school, but I wasn’t a typical student – my family was living in London, England, for the year, so I was living about 12,000 miles from the school in Sydney, i.e., about as far away from school as you can be and still be on the Earth’s surface. That really put the “distance” into “distance education”.)

Interesting, may I ask why your parents did that instead of enrolling you in an English school?

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**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2014, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-one-room-schoolhouses-work/683370/43 "2014-03-13T00:58:10Z")

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> [@alphaboi867](#):
>
> Interesting, may I ask why your parents did that instead of enrolling you in an English school?

So I could stay on the New South Wales curriculum, and probably because I was old enough to be trusted with self-directed education. My brother, who is two years younger than me, enrolled in a local grammar school for the year.

I did finish my lessons in less than half of a day, and spent the rest of the day wandering around London. It’s wonderful how many free museums are in London.

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