EDUCATIONAL MATTERS.

-Pioneer Schools-

"Model" Examination and a "Model" Teacher of a "Model" School

by Ex-Sheriff, Samuel A. Lane

Fifty Years and Over of Akron and Summit County

published Akron, Ohio, Beacon Job Department, 1892

 

When the writer first came to Akron, in 1835, the public schools of the village were under the jurisdiction of the township authorities, Portage Township then being divided into seven school districts.   It was the fortune of the writer to teach school in the district number seven, in the winter of 1835-6.  The school house about 16 x 18 feet in size, was built of logs, with a huge stone fireplace at one end, surmounted by a stick and mud chimney; plain board desks running lengthwise around the sides of the room, with slab benches for older scholars, and an inner circle of lower board seats for the smaller ones.  The house was situated on the northwest corner of Medina and Portage roads (opposite the northeast corner of the present Infirmary farm), and the "district" extended from Old Portage on the north, to, and including, the Perkins homestead on the South, and from, and including, the McGuire farm upon the west, to the Ohio Canal upon the east, embracing, as will be seen, quite a large slice of the western portion of the present City of Akron.

Then, as now, teachers of public schools had to be examined, and provide themselves with certificates, to enable the trustees to draw their proportion of the school fund, but, unlike the present usage, in addition to the half or quarter yearly examinations, the president of the board was authorized to make examinations and issue certificates during vacation, as occasion might require.

Akron was then a dependency of Portage County, the president of the board of examiners being, at that time, Darius Lyman Esq. a prominent lawyer of Ravenna.  Riding on horseback via Middlebury, Old Forge, Cuyahoga Falls, Stow Corners and Franklin Mills (Kent), 18 miles to Ravenna, on a cold December Saturday afternoon I reached the house of Mr. Lyman, a short distance east of the public square, just as the family was retiring from the supper table.  Making known my errand, Mr. Lyman turned to his law-student, Fredrick Hudson, a young man about my own age, and with whom I had a slight acquaintance, and said: "Fred, you take Mr. Lane into the office and examine him while I go to the barn and do chores."

Repair to the office, after a few preliminary questions as to where I was going to teach, size of school, etc., Fred shoved a law book across the table, requesting me to read a few sentences, which I accordingly did.  Then handing me a sheet of paper and stubbed goose quill pen, he asked me to write a line or two, and I "writ." Next a sum in simple interest, and a problem in the "Rule of Three" were submitted which were duly wrought out.

"That'll do," said my examiner.  "What!" I exclaimed, "don't you examine in geography, grammar, etc.?  "No," said Fred, "the law only requires knowledge of reading, writing and arithmetic - the three R's you know - and in all those you've done first-rate."

President Lyman soon coming in, was informed by Fred that I was "O.K." and a certificate for one year, was duly executed, and, paying the customary fee of 75 cents therefore, I wended my way back to Akron, in the face of a blinding snow storm, rejoicing at having slipped through the dreaded examination-mill so easily. How some of the modern aspirants for pedagogic honors, in contemplation of the intricate mathematical problems, grammatical conundrums and geographical, historical, and other puzzles which will be fired at them, will envy me.

My stipulated salary was $11.00 per month and "board around," some ten or twelve families thus sharing the "honor" of providing the "school master" with fresh pork, sausage and buckwheat cakes during the winter.  The average attendance was about 30, ranging from 6 to 21 years of age.  Every house where I boarded but one was of log cabin variety; in one, my bed being in the loft, reached by ladder, and through the long oak shingles of which, on stormy nights, the snow would sift liberally down upon the coverlet.  The house where I boarded the longest, had two rooms; one kitchen, dinning room, parlor and bedroom, combined, the high bed in the corner being occupied by the old folks, and the trundle bed, beneath, by the two younger children; the other room containing two beds, one of which was occupied by the "Master" and a twelve-year-old boy, and the other by the three older girls of the family, a linen sheet suspended midway between the two beds!

As prolific as were many of those early families, the enumerated youth of the district, of school age, warranted the drawing of less than half the amount of public money needed to pay the teacher's salary, as meager as it was; consequently a roll of attendance had to be kept, even to the half days, and the deficit assessed, pro rata, and collected from the parents, a task which proved so irksome to the acting director, the late Sidney Stocking, that he finally gave up the job in disgust, paying the last ten dollars out of his own pocket.

 

Lane was 77 years old when he wrote this story.

He was 20 years when he taught common school.