September 1997 (Volume 1, Number 1)

It's a cold winter morning and you've just walked (no cars, trucks, or buses) a mile through the snow from your house to the school. Here it is a little square building standing all alone on the prairie. And inside it has only ONE room! You are in class with your brothers and sisters, cousins and neighbors. Whether you are six or 16 years-old you are in the same room with the same teacher.

Before There Was a Kansas

Did you know Kansas had schools before there was a Kansas? Kansas didn't become a state until 1861, but as early as the 1920s, mission schools were established for Native American children.

Do you know how your school got its name? Maybe it was named for an important person or for the neighborhood where it is located.

One-room country schools had no lunchrooms, and fast foods were a thing of the future. Lunch from home was usually carried in simple tin pails. Family leftovers were wrapped in wax or brown paper.

What No Playground

It's time for recess! Let's hit the monkey bars! Whoa, hold on a minute. Unlike today, most rural schools didn't have any playground equipment. Kids had to be inventive and make their own fun; group games were favorite recess and lunch hour activities.

What happened 100 years ago when you got into trouble at school? Teachers and parents were strict. And remember, your brothers and sisters were in the same classroom with you and would probably tell on you when they got home.

Even though classes are no longer conducted in one room schools, some school buildings have survived. They are used today in other ways, indlugin museums, restaurants, barns, and homes.

Look for these stories:

On the way to school kids often took shortcuts across the prairie. And on these prairie paths they never knew what they might find.

Can you find the items used in early country schools hidden in a schoolroom picture?

At the turn of the century hardly any women held elected offices. In 1919, Lorraine Elizabeth "Lizzie" Wooster became the first woman to hold a statewide office when she was elected State Superintendent of Schools.

A timeline of events of Kansas schools from writing on slates to logging on the Internet