Author Laura Engels Wilder gave us a glimpse of life during the settlement of the American West in her book,”Little House on the Prairie” by enacting life in a one room school house. In these small but special spaces, students and their teachers brought to life the joys and challenges associated with early pioneering.

There was a time in American history when almost every American child was educated in a one-room school. In the 1700’s, John Adams taught in a one-room school in Boston. Abraham Lincoln was educated in one and Henry Ford loved his one room school so much he had it moved to a museum in Michigan. As late as 1913, half of American children were enrolled in 200,000 one-room schools in the United States. However, after World War I, one room schools began to close as people moved into cities and schools consolidated to accommodate larger student bodies.