Join me in the continuation of Cooper School Memories as I share popular book titles of the time and describe one young lady's punishment for misbehavior.

The big coal/wood-burning furnace was in the southeast corner of the building in the back of the classroom. The coal shed was located north of the school. In the late 1930s and throughout the 40s, one of the older students tended the stove. The pupil responsible for the task arrived to school at 8 AM and fetched a bucket of coal from the coal bin. Tin sheeting covered the wall, the floor, and ceiling surrounding the furnace. The rest of the walls had painted wooden wains coating (usually grey enamel and turquoise in later years) higher than the bottom of the windows on all the walls. The walls above were usually white enamel painted over the plaster. Roller shades accessorized the windows.

In the late 1940s, an oil-burning furnace was installed and the old furnace was removed. The oil furnace was placed in the girls' cloakroom. Around the same timeframe, indoor chemical toilets were installed in each of the utility closets off the cloakrooms.

Also, in the 1950s, two girls stayed behind to clean the blackboards and the bathrooms. They swept the floor and dusted while the teacher graded papers. The register for the furnace came out above the door, and the girls filled a reservoir with water, adding humidity to the air. It is thought the girls received a few dollars a month for completing these daily chores, and in addition, the teacher gave the girls a ride home as they lived on her way.

Bench-type desks were fastened to the unpolished, tongue and groove wooden floor with long screws. All of the desks faced the north. The center aisle led from the south door to the teacher's desk positioned to face the recitation benches at the front of the room. There was a single row of desks to the right of center, a small aisle and another row of desks on the east with an outside aisle. The same configuration was on the west side of the aisle. The small desks were east of the center aisle; the larger double desks were located on the far west side of the room. The seating arrangements were normally chosen according to seniority grade level and a student's physical size. However, before the children's arrival on the first day, the teacher had already determined where the extroverted students would be sitting - they did not get to choose their space!

A few individual desks with working inkwells were located west of the center aisle. These individual desks and seats were fastened to the floor and had a varnished finish. Later on, some of the older desks, which were held together by many layers of grey paint, were replaced by varnished individual bench desks fastened to wooden skids. The teacher's grey wooden desk and swivel oak chair could be found front and center at the north end of the classroom. A black slate chalkboard covered the north wall. It was full of checkered cracks, and it had a shine to the finish. The chalkboard reminded one former student of an ancient woman's wrinkled face!

The chalkboard was later replaced with a new softer chalkboard. Above the board were approximately eight-inch high perfect Palmer penmanship style examples of upper and lower case letters of the alphabet. After the earlier easel flip-style world and United States maps were quite outdated, large tubes of pull-down maps were installed at the top of the chalkboard. The United States flag with 48 stars kept the plaster from crumbling around the huge crack in the plaster on the north center wall above the chalkboard.

From time to time, the children became restless, and trouble ensued. Punishments for talking too much or inappropriate behavior usually resulted in staying after school. Many times students wrote sentences 100 times each for talking too much. One night after school one girl found herself in a bit of a dilemma. As her punishment she had to make and shoot 100 paper wads at the tin ceiling, pick them up one at a time and carry it to the wastebasket next to the teacher's desk. There were different assignments to fit the punishment. Generally, there were no major discipline problems.

In the 1940s, some of the boys would chase the girls just to tease them. The children often played in the ditch. There they would sometimes catch frogs or the occasional snake and torment their comrades with their captures.

Two long recitation benches faced the chalkboard, one on either side of the center aisle. The upright piano always stood on the west wall to the north of the windows. The piano was always used during the annual school Christmas program, but rarely during the years between 1947 and 1968. A two-door, wardrobe-size cupboard with shelves located on the west wall next to the northern-most window held the school library. Normally, the teacher selected one of the books to read to the older grades over a period of weeks.

The school library grew to more than a small cupboard of books once the old furnace was removed from the classroom. The entire tin-lined corner became the library. Shelves were built and as many new books as the budget would allow were purchased each year. Book titles included Kit and Kat, Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates, Treasure Island, and Robinson Crusoe. In addition, the library housed a gigantic book about the Civil War. There were two sets of encyclopedias as well. One set was newer and easy to read; the pages were glossy with plenty of illustrations, pictures and photographs. The other set was older: The print was smaller, sentences were longer and the descriptions were more difficult to read. There were mostly pictures of paintings or prints, and ink drawings described mechanical equipment.

Little House on the Prairie books were wildly popular when they came out - as popular the 'Harry Potter' books of today. The teacher read the Little House books aloud to the students before placing them on the shelves of the library. Throughout the 1940s, the children looked forward to the end of the school week. Each Friday, late in the afternoon, the teacher would read aloud to her pupils. Other favorites were series of books about The Box Car Children and The Hardy Boys. All of the students looked forward to the teacher reading aloud and would often beg her to read "just one more chapter".

The Roman numeral pendulum clock hung on the east wall to the north of the windows along with a picture of George Washington hanging between the two front windows. A certificate from the State of Michigan Department of Education hung on the wall as well. Sometimes the meager wall hangings were moved around after two or three years when the school was cleaned and painted.

In the early 1950s, music classes were initiated by the University of Michigan and the State of Michigan county intermediate school boards encouraged participation. The teacher facilitated the class as it was conducted via radio. A shelf was built on the west wall to hold the little, white AM radio. In the spring, the one-room country school participants traveled to Bad Axe, Michigan, for a spring music festival, normally held in the Bad Axe elementary school auditorium.

Another program initiated through the Huron County Intermediate School Board was a program to learn about Current Events. Each week participating schools received a small newspaper. It contained articles about the main news headlines of the week. It had questions and answers about federal government issues and an educational puzzle. Students were tested periodically to assess their knowledge. Students in the mid-50s were fascinated about the Russian Sputnik (1955/56) but very cautious about expressing their excitement, because the United States was at a time in history, preparing for civil defense (a possible Atomic Bomb attack).

Reminisce with me in the continuation in next month's issue, and I will share memories of recess activities and Christmas fun.

If you would like to see your schoolhouse featured in this series and are willing to share your experiences, please email Janis at janis@lakeshoreguardian.com or write to Janis at The Lakeshore Guardian, 9697 Purdy Rd., Harbor Beach, MI 48441.

Copyright © 2004 Janis Stein