One-Room School

Plum Grove, Prairie Rose, Possum Hollow, Good Intent, and Apple Pie-for 250 years one-room schools with names like these existed across America. Blessed with remoteness, small size, and simplicity, most of them offered not only a safe place to learn, but also a family-like setting and an education rooted in community. Ray Bial's camera eloquently captures the wistful-looking little buildings of logs, sod, wood, or stone, and his narrative, spiced with quotes from the teachers and students who spent so much time there, brings to life both the charm and hardships of our rural schools. As readers imagine a school without buses and computers, hot lunch programs and gymnasiums, they will also marvel at these students' determination to learn in a single room, poorly-heated and simply furnished with puncheon benches and slate pencils.