I'm Talking About Old School

I let myself get talked into proofreading and editing a new book by the Fannin County Historical Foundation on the history of schools in Fannin County. What a job that’s been.

There have been 144 schools in Fannin County’s close to 200 year history. In 1926 alone there were 46 schools. The idea was that no student should have to walk more than two and a half miles to school in the days before busing, paved roads and student drivers. That meant that every little hill and dale had its own school.

Imagine a student having to walk two and half miles to school today. There would be an outcry that the school system was subjecting the student to cruel and unusual punishment. Sadly, in this sicko world that we live in today, making a kid walk to school is probably exposing the kid to all sorts of dangers from perverts to drive-by shootings. Based on what I saw when my kids were in school, most kids today would benefit from walking four or five miles a day. There would be a lot less fat ass kids.

Most of the schoolhouses were one- and two-teacher schools teaching all grades in a one-room building. Heat came from a wood stove, and water was carried from a near-by spring. Some of the schools did not get electricity until the 1950s. Remember that Fannin County is part of southern Appalachia, the land that time forgot until the TVA and rural electrification.

Many of the reminiscences contained in the book tell about how it was the older students’ responsibility to keep a school’s woodstove supplied with firewood. Once a week the teacher would hand an axe to a couple of the older boys and tell them to cut more firewood. If a teacher handed an axe to a student today the teacher would be fired, arrested and sent for psychological counseling for anti-social behavior. I can’t help but think that it would send a good message about life to students today they had to chop wood to stay warm in class.

A number of the accounts talked about the games that kids would play during recess. It seems that mumbly-peg was a favorite of the boys. For those of you who have no clue, mumbly-peg is a game played with a pocket knife. Back in the day a pocket knife was a prized possession for a young boy. If a kid got caught with a pocket knife in school today, the police would be called and he’d be suspended in nanoseconds. In fact, you can make an argument that just about the only thing that a modern school system does efficiently these days is punish student behavior that the school system considers contrary to its view of a progressive, enlightened, and politically correct society.

In the old days, teachers would punish students who misbehaved by giving them a dose of a hickory switch. Sometimes the student would have to go out a cut the switches for his or her punishment. Talk about adding insult to injury. To a person, the authors of the stories said that what they feared the most was the second whipping they would get at home if their parents found out that they had been punished for misbehaving at school. Wouldn’t it be great if all parents today cared as much about their child’s behavior and education?

Time out for an anguished cry over the present state of the country. Can anyone give me a good explanation of why things have changed so much over the last 60 or so years? I know how things have changed. I want to know why. It’s almost as if the United States has contracted an insidious festering disease that slowly is getting worse with time. Personally, I blame it on Roosevelt, progressivism, the Democrats, television, video games, the Eastern Establishment, Rosie O’Donnell, Ivy League schools and the United Nations. But I digress.

None of these one- and two-teacher schools had indoor plumbing or bathroom facilities. Kids had to use outhouses. Some of the schools only had outhouses for the girls. The guys would have to crap in the woods. I’d like to hear the bitching today if kids had to put their bare asses on a cold board in 20 degree weather to take a dump.

About half the book consists of personal reminiscences by former students and the other half consists of histories of the many schools. All told I’m editing about 400 pages of material, and it’s been a challenge.

Despite my bitching, I’m proud of the job I’ve done, honored to have been chosen to do it, and happy that I had the opportunity. Editing the book has given me great insight into the history of this area and a real appreciation of what it was like around here before World War II.