16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, September 29, 1911: Papa took us to school this morning. It was so rainy at noon it came down as if it meant business. Teacher has rearranged our classes, and now we’ll have the program every now and then to see where our class comes.
Recent rainy day at the school that once housed the McEwensville School.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
How can you measure school quality? Is the school providing students with an adequate education? How does it stack up when compared to other schools?
These questions have been around for a long time. A hundred years ago people also wanted to know if students were learning what they were supposed to know.
This diary entry suggests that the teacher at McEwensville High School changed what he was teaching in response to some outside pressure. Maybe he used different books—or at least put more emphasis on different content– than he had previously. It also suggests that the students were going to occasionally be assessed to see how they did compared to students in other schools.
Sound familiar–
Today we have No Child Left Behind—and students take statewide tests. Schools are held accountable if students don’t make adequate yearly progress.
Some issues and concerns never seem to change—though it sounds much lower key a hundred years ago.
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Thursday, September 28, 1911: With just about the same languor as last year, I pursue my studies. It is almost a review, nothing hardly new. Tomorrow we commence with mental arithmetic. Certainly is baby stuff, but we haven’t had it for two years and he thinks we need it. I am eager to take up something I haven’t yet had.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Grandma sounds bored. She must have been good at mental arithmetic and found it easy.
In the days before calculators it was important to know how to quickly do various math operations in your head—and students learned many math “tricks” and practiced mental math strategies.
Here is an example of a math trick that enables you to easily multiply certain two digit numbers together in your head:
To multiply together two numbers whose tens are alike, and the sum of whose units is ten.
RULE: Multiply the units together for the two right-hand figures of the product, and the remaining part of the multiplicand by the remaining part of the multiplier increased by 1.
Example: 64 X 66 = ?
64
66
4224
Solution: The 6 units X 4 units = 24 units which we write for the two right-hand figures of the product. Then 6 tens multiplied by 1 more than itself for the remaining figures. Thus, 6 X (6+1) = 42.
Kimball’s Commercial Arithmetic (1911 )
Now you can try doing some mental math. Here are some oral exercises that were in the book:
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Tuesday, September 19, 1911: Thought this would be the last day for our substitute, but afterwards learned that he is going to teach tomorrow instead of having it off for the fair.
Recent photo of building that once housed McEwensville School.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
It sounds as if the teacher had the option of deciding whether to give students the day off to attend the fair in nearby Milton.
I don’t know why there was a substitute teacher for the first several weeks of the school year (the teacher from the previous year was slated to return the following week) — but Thomas Kramm, in his History of McEwensville Schools, wrote:
The election of a teacher from the available candidates sometimes became a serious problem. In 1901, a sixth ballot was required to break the previous five tie ballots. In 1904, seven ballots did not results in the an election of a teacher. All candidates were rejected, and a slate of new applicants was considered. Just before school was to start, the eight ballot resulted in an election. This suggestions that there were probably power struggles within the board membership.
. . . At least one teacher and perhaps more would not return to teach the following year because the school board refused to increase the teacher’s salary.
Throughout the United States in 1911 there were more school board members than teachers. This had both advantages and disadvantages.
For example, in McEwensville there were two teachers (an elementary and a high school teacher)–yet there probably were either 4 or 6 members on the board.
The community was very involved in ensuring that the schools were high quality and met the needs of the community–but they also sometimes micromanaged the schools and perhaps didn’t always make decisions in the best interest of the students (as suggested by the quote above).
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, September 15, 1911: Had visitors at school today, but fortunately they didn’t stay very long. I’m so nervous on such occasions for fear I’ll make a break in reciting at class. More so if the visitor is an important one.
Textbooks published in 1910 and 1911.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Since the high school had had a substitute teacher since the beginning of the school year, I’m guessing that school board members or the county superintendent of schools visited the school to see how things were going.
When I read this entry I wasn’t quite sure what reciting meant in this context—though it had a negative connotation and made me think about students’ memorizing poems.
I was surprised to discover that recitation referred not only to orally presenting memorized text, but also to orally responding to questions by the teacher. And that it was commonly used with small groups of students in multi-grade classes. Some students would be working with the teacher while others were working independently.
The one-teacher country school regularly faces the challenge of a wide range of grade levels and academic growth. One response to the multi-age conditions of this naturally small institution is a teacher’s regular use of “recitation” lessons with individual and small groups of students. This pedagogical device is a common legacy of the one-teacher country school. . .
. . . This instruction involved little more than the teacher lecturing and students reciting memorized passages or orally answering a series of questions as directed by the teacher’s textbook guide. Student learning was determined through the accuracy of the recitation and appropriateness of responses to teacher questions. Students were then introduced to the next topic and their assignment in the textbook. They were expected to work quietly and individually on their preparations for recitations.
It requires a good deal of self-discipline on the part of the student. “Doing school” for the students means continually keeping up with one’s work, knowing that you will face the teacher regularly, and understanding that neither is a choice. It is traditional in the sense that is presents itself as common sense, or just the way things are done.
While very few would advocate this as an acceptable model of instruction in public schools today, the form of the country school recitation, with its predictable student-teacher interaction and emphasis on independent work, nonetheless appears today as a sensible practice for curriculum and student management.
“Notes on a Country School Tradition; Recitation as an Individual Strategy,” by Stephen Swidler (Journal of Research in Rural Education, Spring 2000)
This description brings back memories of my mother. She taught in a one-room school-house for a year or two when she was in her early twenties. She used to say that she thought that multi-grade classrooms were the best place for learning. Students who excelled could listen to the lessons directed at an upper grade class and accelerate their learning.–and the student who was behind could discretely listen to the material being taught to a lower grade. It gave the child the opportunity to relearn the material that he or she hadn’t grasped the previous year without embarrassment.
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Monday, September 11, 1911: Got hit by a stick this afternoon at recess in the region of my left eye. It did hurt a little bit for awhile. It is a little bit sore now.
If I use my imagination I can almost see 16-year-old Grandma, her 6-year brother Jimmie, and the other students playing on the grass outside the old McEwensville School building.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
I’m amazed that high school students had recess in 1911. The high school and elementary school at McEwensville shared the same building. Apparently the entire building had recess.
Some things are better now than a 100 years ago—but I’d argue that recess for high school students is an example of something at was better a hundred years ago.
Today high school students don’t have recess. And, obesity is an issue. At the high school my children attended I think that they only have two semesters of physical education during the entire four-year program.
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, September 8, 1911: Had to laugh at the mistake a certain pupil made in school today. It seemed so comical. Something about sailing to the Spice Islands, wherever they are, and that said person had to remain after school this evening in order to recite her history properly.
1910 map of Molucca Islands (just west of New Guinea). They were sometimes called the Spice Islands. (Source; Commercial Geography, 1911)
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
This was the fourth day of the school year. I bet that the history text used at McEwensville High School began with Columbus discovering American—and that the question that the student missed was something about Columbus searching for the Spice Islands but instead finding America.
Years ago the Molucca Islands were often called the Spice Islands. They are now part of Indonesia. In 1911 they were part of the Dutch East Indies. According to a 1911 textbook:
The Moluccas are still, as they were when Columbus set sail in search of them, and chanced upon America, the spice islands; thought the spice trade has relatively declined in modern times, owing to the use of fresh meat and green vegetables.
Commercial Geography (1911) by Edward Van Dyke Robinson
A footnote indicated that the chief spices from the East Indies were: black pepper, cloves, nutmegs and cinnamon.
16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, September 6, 1911: Have to study in the evenings now, instead of sitting around, reading or doing nothing. I got stuck on an algebra problem this evening. Don’t know whether I’ll get it yet or not. I know how to work the problems of that kind but this is a bulky one.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
I suppose Grandma forgot some math over the summer.
Here are some problems in the first chapter of an algebra book that was published in 1911. Maybe the problems Grandma was struggling with were similar to these.
A bicycle and suit cost $54. How much did each cost, if the bicycle cost twice as much as the suit?
Two boys dug 160 clams. If one dig 3 times as many as the other, how many did each dig?
The average length of a fox’s life is twice that of a rabbit’s. If the sum of these averages is 21 years, what is the average length of a rabbit’s life?
The water and steam in a boiler occupied 120 cubic feet of space and the water occupied twice as much space as the steam. How many cubic feet did each occupy?
Canada and Alaska together annually export furs worth 3 million dollars. If Canada exports 5 times as much as Alaska, find the value of Alaska’s export.
The poultry and dairy products of this country amount to 520 million dollars a year, or 4 times the value of the potato crop. What is the value of the potato crop?
First Year Algebra (1911) by William J. Milne
For additional 1911 math problems see these previous posts:
