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Memories by Bev Jackson Cotter

I didn’t attend a country school. I do wish I’d had the experience, although my years at Ramsey were great. I had some wonderful teachers who taught me life lessons that were not in text books.

In kindergarten, one day when the class didn’t settle down during our rest period, Miss Bodeen said, “The next person to talk will have to stand outside the door for 15 minutes.” I turned to the girl next to me and said, “I wonder who it will be?” Then I heard “Beverly!” I never questioned Miss Bodeen’s directions again, and I respected the directions of my future teachers.

In third grade, Mrs. Potter told me I was a leader. I was surprised and wondered just what she meant, but I never forgot her confidence in me and I know her comment has made a difference in my life.

Then, years later, at Austin Community College, Mr. Guentzel’s history classes were fascinating. He made history come alive describing decisions made by real people, not simply facts to be memorized for the next exam.

I’ve always placed teachers on a pedestal, some higher than others. Our children’s lives are influenced by these people who share several hours each day with them. I respect their determination to give the kids an education that will help them make the right decisions and guide their future lives.

Recently, I’ve had the opportunity to read about and to visit with students who had attended country schools just a few miles north of Albert Lea, people now in their 80s and 90s who have fond memories and recognize the value of that education where they attended that one room school with their brothers and sisters.

Country school teachers deserve a spot at the top of the list. Imagine a young woman, with a high school diploma and a one-year teacher training course at a normal school, tackling daily lesson plans for eight grades. Some classes with only two students and others with 16-, 17- and 18-year-old boys who missed classes during planting and harvest seasons, yet kept returning to school until they had the credits for that eighth-grade diploma.

The teachers, who often boarded in the nearby homes of their students, arrived at school early enough to put wood in the stove so the little building was warm when the 25 or 30 kids arrived, and they were ready to call each small class up to the front of the room for its particular lesson. Occasionally the older students were called on to help their younger classmates.

One of my friends mentioned how he was a year younger than the others in his grade. Even though his birthday was in October, he was allowed to ignore the September birthday deadline. Another recalled the value of listening to the lessons taught to the other grades while studying his own lessons, and how the repetition helped the memorization process

I’m sure things didn’t always go smoothly — kids being kids, some bigger and even older than the teachers and sometimes disruptive. A fun example is the story of an older student from District 22 who enjoyed showing off his bicycle skills by riding up and over the wooden playground teeter-totters with no hands on the handle bars. I wonder how his teacher handled that situation. Then there was the winter decision. “Do I send the children home when it looks like a snow storm is coming? Some of them have to walk almost a mile or more. I have no way to notify the parents.”

Many of these schools were named for the farmers on whose land the school was built. North of Albert Lea were the Rofshus, Bell, Monarch schools and Big Oak, which is now in the Historical Village, History Center of Freeborn County. The schools all had water pumps in the yard and bells on the roof to call students in for classes.

Some of these students completed their text book learning when they graduated from eighth grade. Others found transportation or housing so they could move on to Albert Lea to attend high school. Determined, others found funding to allow them to go on to college.

Another former student remembered their first school bus that carried kids in to Albert Lea to attend high school. It was originally a gravel truck with the box removed and a wooden frame and seating built on the bed.

In the 1930s some older schools were replaced by new ones built by the WPA, the Roosevelt era Works Progress Administration. In the 1940s and ’50s, changes gradually occurred. School buildings had telephones, and then electricity and coal stoves, and seventh and eighth graders began attending junior high in Albert Lea. Eventually, all grades were bussed into Albert Lea.

It’s been fun visiting with these former country school students and hearing the fond memories of their shared experiences.

Bev Jackson Cotter is a lifelong Albert Lea resident.