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The Rural Teacher in the Early 1900S

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The Rural Teacher in the Early 1900S Journal of Research in Rural Education, 1993,Vol. 9, No.2, 57-65 The Rural Teacher in the Early 19008: Sentimental Image and Hard Reality Mary Phillips Manke National-Louis University My analysis attempts to reconcile conflicting images of the early 20th century rural teacher, contrasting popular nostalgia for schools of the past with a negative view from fiction and educational history. I conclude that the reality was diverse, and that the sentimentality of the period hascolored popularretrospectiveviews of its schools and teachers. A deep and sentimental nostalgia for certain tained there in the face of formidable obstacles. images of our national past is a recurring theme in The boys we remember playing through the sum­ American popular culture. Remembered or imag­ mer often worked harder than most adults do ined settingsare forever desired, forever recalled­ now, and grew up with little education or knowl­ yet hidden beneath a coat of sugary icing, conceal­ edge of the world outside their neighborhoods. ing their reality. It is easy to call up some of these Yet they probably did claim freedom from adult images. The warm kitchen of a prosperous farm­ restraints during some part of their childhood, an house, filled with loving care and the rich aroma opportunity that the fears and pressures of the of apple pie; the summer days of a traditional modern world deny to most children today. country boyhood, quintessentially carefree and Those happy Fourths were founded on an un­ rebellious; the whole-hearted patriotismof a small­ questioned faith in our national rightness that is a town Fourth of July, glowing with pride and com­ luxury we cannot afford in these times, and the munity solidarity; a legislature or constitutional unified communities that celebrated it were likely convention of the early republic, where wise and to exclude from their membership those perceived thoughtful representatives sat solemnly to weigh to be "different" in religion, ethnicity, or values. the needs of their neighbors and make rational Yet those communities did know how to celebrate decisions for the good of all. Another such setting their shared values, and how to build bonds of is the one-room country school, home to happy, care and concern among neighbors. Similarly, the well-behaved children and ideal teacher. remembered legislators were far from representa­ Before going on to discuss our nostalgic tive of those for whom they made decisions, were memory of these schools more fully, it is impor­ often narrow and exclusive in their views, but did tant to recognize how the coating of sentiment embody a belief in the obligation of service to the overlying these images not only obscures for us community that is far from pervasive among well­ the negative aspects of their reality but also makes educated and successful members of today's soci­ it difficult for us to see what about them was both ety (see Bellah, Madsen, Sullivan, Swidler, & real and desirable, and might be revived or revis­ Tipton, 1985). ited to enhance our modern lives. For example, As these images appear, bathed in a golden the life of the rural farmhouse was based on a level aura of nostalgia and sentiment, we fail to discern of physical work by both men and women that few in them what was not good in our national past, would choose to undertake today, and must fre­ what we want to leave behind us. Equally, be­ quently have been pervaded by sadness caused by cause our experience of modern life warns us that the early deaths of adults and children. Yet the nothing lighted by that golden glow can be real, unity and continuity of family was often main- we are unable to find in these images of the past Mary Phillips Manke is Assistant Professor in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies in Curriculum and Instruction, National-Louis University, Brookfield, WI 53045-5861. This article is based on a paper presented at the 1991 meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Fransciso. A version of this article appears in Joseph and Burnaford (1993). 57 Manke The Rural Teacher the benefits they might have for our present and Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" books, which have future. This is particularly true of our image of the enjoyed continuing popularity as children's books country school. since they were published in the 1930s and 1940s. The popular American view of the history of Farmer Boy (1933), Little Town on the Prairie (1941), schools has been characterized by nostalgia for and These Happy Golden Years (1943) each contain the teachers, the classrooms, the students, and the considerable material on rural schools. curricula of the imagined rural past. The continu­ The memoirs I read include those of Mary ing popularity of images created by Norman Ellen Chase (A Goodly Fellowship [1939]), Marshall Rockwell and of reprints of the McGuffey Readers A.Barber (The Schoolhouse at Prairie View [1938]), are two indications of this nostalgia. In a remem­ and Marion G. Kirkpatrick, (The Rural School from bered golden age of American education, many Within [1917]), as well as the briefer reminiscences believe, learning and teaching were successful of teachers from this period found in F.R. enterprises conducted in country and small-town Donovan's sociological study, The Schoolma'am schools by dedicated, competent, and morally su­ (1938) and in Cloverdale: A Salute to One-Room perior teachers who maintained discipline and Schoolteachers by H.B. Christensen (1986). passed on important knowledge to well-behaved The textbooks I read were written in the early and willing students. These beliefs have led to a 1900s, and had as their dual purpose to serve as (a) persistent demand for a return to the education of texts for the short courses offered at normal schools the past; if the past was perfect, how could we not for the preparation of rural teachers, and (b) ready want to return to it? references on educational questions for those same teachers when they had returned to the isolated Sources and Methodology work of their rural schools. Of these, I read M. Carney's Country Lifeand the Country School(1912), This study began as an attempt to reconcile J. Kennedy's Rural Life and the Rural School (1915), conflicting images of the early twentieth-century H.W. Foght's The Rural Teacherand His Work (1917), rural school, which I had accumulated over a num­ T.J. Woofter's Teaching in Rural Schools (1917), F.J. berof years. I was aware of a popular nostalgia for Lowth's Everyday Problems of the Country Teacher the schools of the past, for the version of the rural (1936), and J.R. Slacks' The Rural Teacher's Work school presented by Norman Rockwell and (1938). McGuffey's reader. Memories from reading of Reading these sources has led me to two gen­ early twentieth century fiction seemed to contrast eral conclusions. First, the image of rural teachers with this nostalgic image. Educational historians and rural schools that they present is far more like Tyack (1974) presented a view of these schools diverse than the nostalgic and sentimental vision that seemed substantially negative. of rural schools so common today. Indeed, most In an effort to gain better understanding of of the problems that trouble schools today were these images, I first returned to a reading of the actually part of daily life in the rural schools of the kinds of novels I remembered, as well as some past. Not only do many of the novels and reminis­ memoirs written by teachers from the period. Re­ cences include passages revealing what was diffi­ lying on the realistic nature of such fiction, I made cult and daunting about the teacher's life in the notes of each incident that had to do with school­ rural school, but the advice given in the texts, ing, and began to see particular themes emerging while phrased very positively, is evidently aimed. from my reading. Later, seeking confirmation of at helping the teacher surmount these difficulties. the images I had found in fiction and memoir, I Second, it is remarkable to what extent many turned to texts intended to prepare teachers for of these writers, whether novelists, teachers, or service in rural schools, and searched for material textbook writers (usually instructors at normal on the same themes. schools) held as a positive value what the more Limiting myself to novels published in the modern thinker or scholar would call sentimental­ twentieth century, I read Rebecca of Sunnybrook ity. Not only is the rural teacher often sentimen­ Farm (1903) by Kate Douglas Wiggin, now thought talized-that is, painted with a wash of one-sided of as a "children's classic," but originally written praise and positive thinking-but the textbooks for a general audience; and A Daughter of the Land actually recommend the reading of sentimental (1918) by Gene Stratton-Porter and Glenngarry novels of the schoolroom as ways to raise the tone School Days (1902) by Ralph Connor, which are of teachers mindsand show them what they should now very little read. I also included three of Laura try to achieve. 58 Manke The Rural Teacher Perhaps this sentimental tone, common to both Someofthe most sentimental statementsabout the novels and the textbooks, is part of the reason the desired character of the rural teacher are found that we have remembered about the rural school in the texts intended for use by the teachers them­ what was "beautiful and good" and forgotten what selves. For example, Kirkpatrick (1917) wrote: was problematic. I will consider three aspects of the image of The teacher who has drunk deeply from rural teachers: their character; their concernsabout sorrow's cup, and is rich in experience that discipline, order, and student behavior; and their has left him not hardened and embittered preparation to teach.
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