The Experiences We Give

Throughout the process of starting up a learning community we continue to wonder “is this the right thing for our learners?” “What if taking them from a traditional learning environment is harmful to them long term?” “Yes, they are showing progress now on what we are learning - but what would they be doing in a traditional classroom?” The worries are endless.

Yet, over Christmas, my father commented that our adventures at HMLC reminded him of his experience attending a one-room schoolhouse. And yes, my father (a retired judge) and his sister (a retired museum director) attended a one-room schoolhouse in Rochester, Minnesota. 

My brothers and I grew up hearing the stories from their one-room schoolhouse at the dinner table - the adventures they had, the Christmas pageant they put on, the projects they organized without involvement. I could tell some of these stories by heart. I can even tell you the name of their teacher - in fact, my grandmother had a dog named after this teacher when I was a child.

(A short side note: As a child, my brothers and I grew up very confused about history. I loved reading historical fiction, and everything I knew about one-room school houses came from Anne of Green Gables, Caddie Woodlawn, and Laura Ingles Wilder. So of course, whenever my father shared his experiences of attending a one-room schoolhouse, my brothers and I assumed he grew up in those times as well. On a dairy farm in Minnesota no less - his stories sounded no different than what I read in books.)

When my father mentioned the similarities between our school and his I finally realized that yes - we were following a similar model. A small group of children of multiple ages, with one teacher - periods of instruction in math and reading, and student-led projects (in my father’s case, I think it was just because the students decided on the projects, but it could have been a deliberate decision). Of course, it’s not the 1800s wood stove, rows of desks, school house from my imagination (but of course, that’s not actually where my father attended anyway).

It was not until I was an adult that I learned my father attended that school for only one year before it was closed down. One year, that was full of stories and projects and misadventures. I know very little about his schooling before that, or the boarding school he was sent to for middle and high school. Those were not stories to tell. In those experiences, he did not have the opportunity to plan an entire Christmas pageant or organize other students to create an ice rink in the parking lot. 

I’ve thought a lot about this as I think about the value our little school may bring to our learners. All my life I’ve been jealous of my father’s one-room schoolhouse adventures, and it just now occurred to me that I’m helping make that experience come true for our learners. 

My father and aunt never talk about what they did or did not learn that year - they don’t talk about being behind when the school was closed and they were sent on to other more traditional schools. They don’t talk about how their lives were ruined because of that one year they went to the public one-room schoolhouse. They share stories of their experiences, and the leadership opportunities they had, and marvel at the fact that they were given so much autonomy and agency as children. That is what I hope we can give to our learners as well, so that their children will sit at dinner and hear about all they experienced at their little micro-school, HMLC.