Early Mountain Schools

              From: Stories ' Neath the Roan ( 1993)
EARLY MOUNTAIN SCHOOLS
Zora Green
For years they toiled and worked, and hunted and fished, till they began to see the
need at last of school for their children. There had been no provisions yet for such. Only
thought in their minds... they had been so long without a school, for there had never been
any in the moun- tain section. This was a problem for them as there were none learned
enough to teach a school.
At last, the county and state supported schools with four month terms. The schools
were staffed by poorly educated people, especially, the teachers, but they were doing what
they could to bring culture to the boys and girls whose parents had lived so long in a
harsh environment.
One particular schoolhouse contained one window with windowpanes and wooden
shutters. The walls were soot black from smoke. The pupils varied in age from six to
twenty years. For the first ten years after the school was built, there was no chimney. the
fireplace was built in the middle of the floor. The fireplace was made from dirt and rock
and nature took care of the smoke. The children were weeping from the smoke and soot
that, on cold days, was most unbearable.
The only furniture was rough hewed seats without a back, a blackboard that was
made from hewed puncheons, a waterpail, and a dipper made from a gourd.
The drinking water was carried from a nearby spring by the boys who were
appointed for the job. Pupils were allowed to get water without snapping their fingers.
Many of the boys and girls used tobacco and snuff. Often the larger ones would shift their
quid of tobacco to the other jaw while drinking water. The rules were that no water
dipped from the bucket must be poured upon the floor, which meant that each pupil must
take only the amount of water he could drink. Such an arrangement did not work well.
Many pupils did not drink all the water. It was poured back into the pail. When this was
reported to the
teacher, he snorted, “ They hain’t so many germs as doctors says they air. ‘ Else everybody
would be dead.” Other sanitary conditions were just as bad.
One teacher, as he finished reading his rules, scowled toward the pupils and said,