Tour looks back on 100 years of schooling in the Swan Valley

The first part of this two-part series reported on the individual one-room schoolhouses in the Swan Valley from 1918 to the present.

Swan Valley - In addition to the self-guided tour of the old school buildings, Upper Swan Valley Historical Society held a finale program on the museum grounds. Sharon MacQuarrie, who had attended both the Smith Flats School and the Wineglass School, provided some insights into the role of the schools in the culture of the Swan Valley and the unique value of the mixed-age-level education. She also enlisted the aid of eight Swan Valley School students who demonstrated some of the typical activities that took place daily in a one-room school: salute to the flag; a patriotic song; action songs designed to wake up (and warm up) the mind and body in preparation for learning; recitation or reading of a poem.

Prior to the demonstration, Sharon Lamar introduced each of the children and elicited from them connections with the Swan Valley school tradition. Some children had grand or great-grand parents who had taught at or attended one of the pioneer schools. Some had parents who were currently teaching in SVS or serving on the school board.

Part of the USVHS event was a reflection not only on the trials, tribulations, joys and fun associated with the one-room schools, it was also an opportunity to reflect on the intrepid teachers without whom none of the schools could have succeeded. Many of the tales told by former students manifested an appreciation and even a love for their teachers.

Not all teachers were able to adapt to the hardships and keep a firm reign on a boisterous mix of students. Some teachers lasted only one year, a few even less. When the audience was invited to share their own school day stories, Loretta Cooper stood up and said she might have been part of the reason some teachers didn't make it a whole year. Cooper told stories of beleaguering a Mrs. Bernice Winter, newly hired to teach at the Wineglass School.

Cooper described the little library room inside the school building which "must have had, oh I don't know, 20 books." It also had a small window. Cooper said, "We [MacQuarrie later confessed to being her accomplice] learned to bar the door to the library and go out the window. We'd go out and play and wander around. One time, very close to Christmas, we crawled out the window and Mrs. Winter had to use the outhouse. It had a handle on the door that was "D" shaped both inside and out. And I knew if you put a little stick in there, you couldn't open it. So I put a little stick in there – and she was locked in the outhouse. I don't know what we did during that time while she was there, but I do know she left [the teaching post] shortly after."

Cooper added, "The next teacher who came in put on my report card a big red "F" in deportment. So I guess I carried on."

Taking over the microphone, Lamar said, "And who would have thought, but Loretta became a teacher!"

MacQuarrie ended the tour event with mention of one of her fellow Wineglass schoolmates. She said Henry Pennypacker is internationally recognized as one of the outstanding educators in the world of psychology and psychiatry. He lectures all over the world and had a building named after him at Harvard University.

MacQuarrie said, "If he could stand here in front of you... Henry would say unequivocally that he is who he is because of what happened to him up here in those very formative years that set him on the path to realizing the joy of learning, the excitement of something always new in front of you. He completely says, it was the school. It was this school that made the difference in his life, as it did in mine."