I have this thing for historical one-room schoolhouses. I don’t know why. They are cute, inviting and have history that is yearning to be told. Ever since I visited the one-room schoolhouse in old town Sacramento during my oldest son’s 4th grade Sacramento trip, I have wanted to write a story about one.
- How specific some of the rules were.
- How students were separated with boys on one side, girls on the other.
- How each student had to stand at the side of their desk to speak.
- How lashings were given for the most interesting infringements.
- How a female teacher had different rules than a male teacher.
- How for some of these students, it was the only education they would ever receive.
- How children of all ages were taught in the same room.
- How one measly stove in the center of the room provided heat.
- How lunch was carried in a bucket.
Maybe it’s the influence of Little House on the Prairie, but I find the history of the one-room schoolhouse a little romantic. And so, when I went on the same trip with my second son two years later, the same curiousness came back, a few characters formed in my head, and a story screamed at me to write it.
So I did.
My story is about a town across the river from Sacramento that has a brand new schoolhouse. This schoolhouse seems to want to match-make for its teachers. Their first teacher got married before she set foot in it. The next one, my heroine Olivia, wants to remain a teacher her whole life. But God, the one-room schoolhouse, and Bert the rooster, all have a different plan for her.
It will be interesting to see how long she lasts, and who else might come to teach at this match-making one-room schoolhouse.
To find out more about the story I’m writing, go to the Going West Series page of my website. Or click on this link if you’d like to see the photos of One-Room Schoolhouses I’ve posted. I’ve also created a Pinterest board about One-Room Schoolhouses which has been fun to build.
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