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| Several Cultures, One Goal Luther Bryan Clegg, a professor of education at Texas Christian University, wrote in his well received tribute to early Texas education, The Empty Schoolhouse, that "schools reflect, and have always reflected, the society and times in which they operate." Nothing could be more true when looking at schools within the Red River Valley. A Noble Mission The mission of every school, whether in Texas or Oklahoma, was unanimous: to provide every student who came to school the opportunity to learn. Prior to laws establishing public funds for schools, communities paid for education themselves. In many towns around the Red River, however, schools were by subscription: a family paid to send their child to a school that used a private (and often Christian-focused) curriculum. Public school teachers' salaries often consisted of livestock, vegetable harvests, and free room and board instead of a salary. The school building often doubled as the community church. If the teacher got sick, married, or became otherwise indisposed, the school year would end just like that. Time in school was cut short, anyway, for fall harvest and spring planting. Things got a little easier (but not by much) when public trust funds were established to secure state-wide education. In Texas, this happened in 1854; in Oklahoma, the Organic Act, which created Oklahoma Territory - separate from the eastern Indian Nations - guaranteed school funding in 1890. "Colored" Schools The public funds weren't evenly disbursed, however. Rural schools by default always received less money - and schools for African Americans even less. To correct this, Julius Rosenwald, President of Sears and Roebuck in the early 20th century, established the Rosenwald Foundation, which opened over 5300 schools around the south and southwestern U.S. to counteract the deleterious effects of a racist school system. In Texas and Oklahoma, Rosenwald schools were established in several Red River Valley counties, such as Bowie, McCurtain, Pushmataha, Red River, Fannin, Latimer, Murray, and even as far west as Tillman. As schools were later integrated (and children were forced to attend schools father away), many African Americans communities succumbed as their schools closed. Schools of Assimilation Native Americans, like the Choctaws, had to abandon their traditional forms of education - learning from parents and elders - in order to survive in the white man's world. As early as 1821, the Choctaws established missionary schools in Mississippi, which they opened again after their removal to Indian Territory. American policy forced separation of Indian children from their parents (to "assimilate" into the Anglo world) and the Choctaws opened boarding schools. Armstrong Academy opened in 1843 in Bokchito (Bryan County), then was superseded by the Calvin Institute (renamed Presbyterian College) in Durant. We Love Our Teachers The one-room schoolhouse was the staple of the educational landscape in the Red River Valley. Teachers would sometimes face up to fifty students per day (even more if the weather was bad and the farm couldn't be worked). Along with these eager minds came the pranks - and lots of discipline. Unlike today, teachers had free range when it came to meting out punishment, though that didn't mean the teachers enjoyed doling it out. Many students from those long-ago schools tell that their teachers were mostly kind. Often, the teacher proved to be the only adult children actually trusted. A Disappearing Act The little old school houses that banded communities together are rapidly disappearing. One-room buildings are gone, of course - but even the larger schools that serve smaller communities are being consolidated to oblivion. Education has become just another big government concern, where each school actually competes with the other so that "no child gets left behind"- in effect, what really gets left behind is a sense of belonging. Schools are American culture's way of staying connected. Wherever a school remains, there remains a viable community. I say let's praise our schools, even if some of us tend to get the hives thinking about our school days. When we preserve our schools, we ensure our heritage. |
| Old high school in Denison, Texas - abandoned |
| Bucher school, northern Cooke County, Texas. |
| Ardmore, Oklahoma High School - abandoned |
| Old Dundee school in Archer County, Texas |
| Abandoned Spanish Fort school from 1924, Montague County, Texas |
| Old Choctaw school, now Choctaw Nation HQ, Durant, Oklahoma |
| The freedman's "seemingly unquenchable thirst for education": "A negro riding on a loaded wagon, or sitting on a hack waiting for a train, or by the cabin door, is often seen, book in hand delving after the rudiments of knowledge. A group on the platform of a depot, after carefully conning [cradling] an old spelling book, resolves itself into a class." Bureau Officer observation, as recounted by Eric Foner in A Short History of Reconstruction (New York: Harper & Row, 1990), p.43 |
| Assimilation In Indian Schools "One day when we came to school there was a lot of writing on the blackboards. We did not know what it meant, but our interpreter came into the room and said, "Do you see all these marks on the blackboard? Well, each word is a white man's name. They are going to give each one of you one of these names by which you will hereafter be known." The teacher had a long pointed stick in her hand, and the interpreter told the boy in the front seat to come up. The Teacher handed the stick to the him, and the interpreter then told him to pick out any name... When my turn came, I took the pointer and acted as if I were about to touch an enemy." Luther Standing Bear, My People the Sioux (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1928). Excerpted in Our Hearts Fell to the Ground: Plains Indians Views of How the West Was Lost, by Colin G. Calloway (Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin's Press, 1996), p. 173. |
| Restored 1901 Lovejoy schoolhouse, Collin County, Texas |
Red River
Schoolin'!
Schoolin'!