Name: Reichert, Doris
E-mail: DorisReichert55@hotmail.com
Topic: The Evolution of Elementary Education in Arkansas
Grade: 4
Time: Two class periods
Ark. Hist. Framework: 1.1.5 , 1.1.6, 1.1.8, 2.1.4,
2.1.5, 2.1.6, 3.1.1, 3.1.2, 3.1.3, 4.1.9,
and5.1.10
Objective: Students will be able to trace the beginning of education in
Arkansas to present day.
Set: Brainstorm: What do you think of when someone mentions
education?
Materials: Books: Early Schools, pp. 42-43, 19, 32
Friends and Places
Preprimer Spelling
Copies of blank writing paper
Kindling wood, small blackboard and chalk, goosequill, candlestick/candle,
embroidery kit, completed scarf, jacks & ball, marbles, ragdolls
Key Terms: Education, arithmetic, charcoal, slate, goose quills, morals,
composition, pronumciation, rebuses, penmanship, sampler
Key Facts: Education has suffered tremendously from the problems of a poor,
rural state. About 50% of Arkansas public schools were one-room structures
with one teacher who taught all subjects and all grades. Of the 10,000
teachers, approximately 800 were college graduates and more than 1,600 had not
gone beyond the eighth grade. There were only about 400 high schools in
Arkansas. The school term was an accomodation to the farming time
table. Another problem was money. In the early 1920's, students
expenditure was about $23.00 per student. Arkansas's geography posed the
problem of travel hardships.
Activities: KWL chart, Venn diagram, vocabulary worksheet/spelling
bee
The 5-Finger Lesson (from Early Schools book)
Sample penmanship, grammar, math, and geography lessons
Invite Curtis Tate to relate the stories of a slave learning to read and
write.
Students will interview their parents/grandparents and senior citizens in
the area about what school was like for them.
Possible questions: What were the subjects you learned? What
did you eat for lunch? What was the building like? How did you get
there? When did you go? How many grades did you complete? How
many teachers were there? Where were the restrooms? Where did you
get a drink of water? What kind of discipline was used? What were
some pranks students played? What games did you play?
After the students have conducted their interviews, have them write the
interview in essay form. These essays can then be published.
Closure: Discuss how schools have changed over the years.
Examples:
No mandatory attendance laws to present mandatory attendance laws.
No set curriculum stands to the present standard curriculum.
The "3-R's" to the present choices in classes. (technical studies,
business, higher math, etc.)
Harsh discipline to positive discipline.
Female gender was treated unequally to the male gender.
Bibles were used in the classroom in the past. Now we use
textbooks.
Home schooling compared to government compulsory attendance.
It was a luxury but is now a necessity.
No formal buildings with amenities compared to today's school
structures.
No provided transportation in the early years compared to today's
mobility.
Assessment: Students will write essays based on their interviews which will then
be published.
Resources: Early Schools, Bobby Kalman
An Arkansas History for Young People; T. Horn Baker and Jane Browning
Historic Arkansas Museum - Little Rock, Curtis Tate
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