One Room Schools by Susan Apps-Bodilly

Author:Susan Apps-Bodilly
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wisconsin Historical Society Press
Published: 2013-01-14T16:00:00+00:00

Students, from tallest to shortest, spell out the word Christmas during a program in December 1946 at James Otis School in Fond du Lac County.

Courtesy of Mary Hanley

The biggest celebration and the social event of the school year was the annual Christmas program. Lily Wolff, the teacher from Wildwood School in northern Wisconsin, remembers that she began planning for this program well before the weather turned cold. Miss Wolff recalls, “If you could put on an excellent Christmas program, you were an excellent teacher. Some of my teacher friends even spent their own money to be sure it would be good.” The entire community looked forward to this gathering. All families were invited. Neighbors who did not have school-age children also came. The show was held in the evening, just before the school’s winter break. Each program at the Chain O’ Lake School had a theme: the songs and poems were about snow, snowmen, winter, cold weather, or Santa. Some schools did an entire Christmas manger scene with Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus.

On the Monday after Thanksgiving, students at the Chain O’ Lake School began preparing for the program. They continued all of their regular classes, but every day in the afternoon children began learning songs and poems to recite. Everyone participated, from the youngest first graders to the oldest eighth graders. These weeks of preparation incorporated many kinds of learning: reciting a poem with good expression, singing, building and setting up a stage with curtains, making costumes, and planning the order of the show. The older students helped the younger ones learn their lines. While the older students practiced, the younger ones made paper chains and tissue-paper snowflakes. It took the best efforts and cooperation of everyone to put on a great show.

A typical program had 2 or 3 small skits put on by groups of children. The teacher chose the parts for each student based on what he or she could do. In between the skits, there was a performance by a singing quartet or a special solo. The teacher or a parent accompanied the singers on the piano.

Each student also recited a poem. The program ended with a grand finale group song, which included everyone in the school.

The weekend before the big performance at the Chain O’ Lake School, the fathers on the school board pulled down long wooden boards from their storage place in the woodshed. Mr. Swendryznski, Mildred’s father, dragged the boards into the schoolhouse and put them on top of sawhorses. Mr. Jenks, the neighbor who helped build the fire in the morning, nailed the boards to the sawhorses to hold them in place. The stage was made of boards nailed to sawhorses that were about 2 feet high. The stage was high enough that everyone could see the performers on the stage. Parents strung a wire across the front of the room. On this wire, they attached some bedsheets, which became a curtain for the stage. At each side, more bedsheets on wires formed 2 “dressing rooms”: one for the boys and one for the girls.

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