Topics: Depression-Era Rural Life; Social History; Agriculture; Technological Change; Education
Suggested Grade Level: 3-5
Required Time: 60 or 90 minutes
Description:
Students will experience Brackett School, a rural one-room school located five miles north of Sparta, which was in operation from the 1880s to the 1960s. On their visit, students will become familiar with historical items within the one-room schoolhouse and have a chance to experience what school might have been like if they would attended a rural school in Wisconsin in the 1930s. Activities include a walk-to-school geography lesson, an in-school scavenger hunt, and completing authentic “learning The Three Rs” lessons. Note: this program has a maximum capacity of 28 students.
Notes:
Programming at the Brackett School is limited to warm months (May-September). Bathrooms are separate outdoor toilets for boys and girls.
Goals:
- Students will leave the one-room school with an understanding of the longevity of one-room rural schools.
- Students will experience what school in a multi-grade classroom in rural Wisconsin was like.
- Students understanding of the relationship between education and community will be enhanced.
Wisconsin Standards for Social Studies related to the program:
- SS.BH4 Wisconsin students will examine the progression of specific forms of technology and their influence within various societies.
- SS.Geog1 Wisconsin students will use geographic tools and ways of thinking to analyze the world.
- SS.Hist2 Wisconsin students will analyze, recognize, and evaluate patterns of continuity and change over time and contextualization of historical events.
- SS.Hist3 Wisconsin students will connect past events, people, and ideas to the present; use different perspectives to draw conclusions; and suggest current implications.
