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Box 212 Monroe, CT 06468
There will be a free drawing for a David Merrill framed print on December 10 at 3:00 p.m. Please clip the coupon above and bring it with you to be entered in the drawing. Please bring donations of baked goods to the Old Schoolhouse on December 2. You may drop them off anytime during the day beginning at 9:30 a.m. Home baked goodies are always one of our most popular offereings. Call Nancy at 261-8554 is you can help out on any of the sale days. We will also need help packing up on December 10 at 4:00. The Historical Society is especially pleased to see the new building take shape. There will be a special room in the new building dedicated to local history. The Monroe Historical Society will be able to display many of our unique documents, including letters and writings of the Burr sisters, Fannie and Jennie, and make these writings available to the public. We also have paintings by Fannie and Jennie that will be on display, as well as photographs from our collection. Built circa 1790 and originally located at Barn Hill and East Village roads, the East Village Schoolhouse offers to third graders of Monroe schools a unique opportunity for "hands on learning". This living museum at Wheeler and Old Tannery roads was restored by the Monroe Historical Society in 1973. Third graders today are invited to step back in time to experience this unique one-room schoolhouse, just as children did two centuries ago, complete with an old-fashioned blackboard, genuine McGuffey's readers, slate boards and slate pencils, and hornbooks, a paddle from which children of the colonies learned the Lord's prayer, their letters, to spell and to read. According to Nancy Zorena, President of the Monroe Historical Society, after its restoration the schoolhouse was set up in the era of the early 1800s, opening in time for the celebration of the town's sesquicentennial. In 1985 Nancy Zorena and Judy Standerford created a summer program at the Beardsley House called Hands-On-History, and have been teaching children ages eight through 14 ever since. Both are hoping to expand this program into spring vacation. Like classes at the schoolhouse for third graders, Hands-On-History is a unique program in which older children learn how to paint on glass, weave and spin on a loom and dye wool with natural materials, such as onion skins, herbs and fresh flowers. The children also play games, such as rolling hoops, bake cookies, make homemade ice cream, churn butter and hand dip candles. They write poems as well with pen and ink and illustrate their stories with watercolor. Hands-On-History, at a more advanced level, goes hand in hand with what is being taught to third graders at the schoolhouse today. Third graders are literally taken back in time from the moment they step off the school bus. With every care taken to refurbish the structure of the schoolhouse, the furniture is made to resemble the desks of the period, with reproduction benches and tables made possible by donations. Stepping into this schoolhouse, which has seen so many children come and go from years past to present, one gets the feeling of literally stepping back in time; to a much simpler time when girls donned "mopcaps" and boys their "tri-corn" hats. As the Historical Society states on their website: "Third grade classes visit for a day to get a chance to try their hands at using slates and chalk instead of pencil and paper, using an abacus instead of a calculator, reading from McGuffey's readers, living without indoor plumbing (the school has a functioning outhouse), and trying on the "dunce hat". Recess includes playing colonial games such as rolling hoops and running three-legged races." For students in Monroe public schools, visiting the schoolhouse has been a part of the third grade curriculum for many years, according to Alan Beitman, Superintendent of Schools. Even so, only two schools, Stepney Elementary and Monroe Elementary, availed themselves of the program. The previous principal of Fawn Hollow, Beitman said, for whatever reason decided not to participate in the program. "Now Fawn Hollow," he said, "is back in the loop with its new principal Jack Ceccolini." At a principal's meeting in the spring of 2005, Beitman addressed specifically the schoolhouse issue. All but one of the principals stated that their third graders have attended classes at the schoolhouse every year, but Ceccolini stated he was not aware of such a program at the time. "We are working now," said Ceccolini, "on scheduling tours that all third graders in my school look forward to attending." According to Beitman: "Parents enjoy the fact that their child is able to participate in this program." According to Debra Kovachi, Principal of Monroe Elementary, her school has utilized this program in the past and will continue to do so. "It has been a part of the third grade social studies class and it gives our students a wonderful opportunity to role play what children experienced during colonial times," said Kovachi. Susan Ebdon, Principal of Stepney Elementary, said: "It's a wonderful, interactive way to bring living history to her students. It's always something they look forward to." As head of the Historical Society, Nancy Zorena was concerned children in Monroe did not have the opportunity to come to the schoolhouse, while students from area schools, such as Guilford, Trumbull and Stratford, were visiting quite often. "We felt it would be nice for our students to have the same opportunity," she said, "since it's a museum in their own backyard." She went on to explain that St. Jude's preschool class taught by Mrs. Glatt, now retired, used to come years ago. "They would dress up in period costume," Zorena recalled fondly of the preschoolers, "and the entire class would walk over and have a picnic on the grounds." Mrs. Flynn and Mrs. Vosburgh-Kelly's students from Monroe Elementary recently visited the schoolhouse. Nancy Zorena greeted the third graders by ringing the official school bell, as the children departed the bus. Most of them dressed in period costumes, which Zorena said doesn't necessarily have to be from the 1790s, because the schoolhouse was in operation until 1935. "They can wear dresses and suspenders," she said. Some boys wore suspenders, hats and socks up to their knees, while the girls donned bonnets and frilly dresses. According to Mrs. Vosburgh-Kelly: "This is a favorite trip [of my students] and they are so thrilled once they get back to the 21st century! I think they appreciate it more." "Are we ready to go back in time?" Zorena asked of the children, to which they excitedly replied: "Yes!" Before entering the schoolhouse, the teachers made the girls practice their curtsies and the boys their bows. "That's making manners," Mrs. Flynn said to the class. The children entered the schoolroom with their booklets, which Zorena created, entitled: "My Trip to the One-Room Schoolhouse". Zorena began the class by explaining all about the community and what specific chores children performed on their farms. She discussed the history of the one-room schoolhouse, identified particular studies in school and explained to students the act of bartering and trading, which was most common in that era. She invited the children to answer her questions throughout the morning, but before they did they were directed to stand up and "make their manners" by bowing or curtsying. "Children were very respectful back then," said Zorena to the class. The children were then given a taste of what it was like to have been reprimanded in the old days--from the wearing of a dunce hat in a corner of the room to stretching out their arms for firewood if you pulled someone's hair. There were math quizzes, which the children relished, adding and subtracting figures on slate boards with slate pencils. But the real excitement began when they were given a task to write with pen and ink. The children used what is called "nut brown" ink (the shell of the hickory nut). The same ink, Zorena pointed out to the class, which was used to sign the United States Constitution. There was also a reading/drama lesson, which the children enjoyed participating in. Old-time chants such as, "Reading and writing and arithmetic," which Mrs. Vosburgh-Kelly began singing when the children started to get overly excited, "all to the tune of a hickory stick." In closing, this program at the schoolhouse should be commended for its unique hands-on approach to learning. There is much for our third graders to learn by attending a class at the East Village Schoolhouse. It goes beyond learning, really. Beyond reading and writing and arithmetic. The schoolhouse is a true gift of living history, which many communities are not so fortunate to have. Luckily for our children in Monroe, and for generations of young ones to come, this part of history is very much alive and well. |