Mill Lane Schoolhouse (ca. 1850)
Mill Lane Schoolhouse (ca. 1850)
The Mill Lane School
was a one-room schoolhouse constructed in Middletown, Delaware, around 1850. Up to twenty-two children, ranging from first to tenth grade, were taught together in the school's 19 x 20 foot classroom. The Mill Lane School featured differentiated instruction, a mode of instruction where pupils received personalized direction from a single teacher.
The school day began with the teacher ringing a bell to announce the start of the lessons. Students entered into a vestibule where they would hang their jackets on hooks. The children would then sit at wooden desks arranged by age from youngest to oldest with boys on one side and girls on the other.
Former Mill Lane School students, Edith Cochran Hoeren and Frances Cochran Stafford, recalled, “...a large bookcase with lots of books and a big world globe.” A pot-belly stove warmed the occupants during the winters; notes and work were completed on slate boards as well paper and pencils.
The typical school day began with students of various ages working on their assignments independently, or practicing their penmanship in homemade copybooks. Afterwards, the students were called by grade level to the
recitation bench where the day’s schooling would begin!
Students were taught writing, spelling, reading, arithmetic, geography and history. Oftentimes students would learn all disciplines from one standard book, such as the McGuffey Reader.
Students brought their lunches from home in lunch buckets; a basket, small metal pail or large cloth napkin/bandana. Lunch could be a sandwich, a cookie, strawberries or a peach. Trading often took place because other students’ lunch pails’ contents often looked tastier. At the Mill Lane School children were, on occasion, permitted to pick apples and pears from the nearby orchard for a treat.
Former Mill Lane School student Edith Cochran Hoeren recalled that she and her classmates played a variety of different games during recess such as, "Simon Says," “Mother May I?,” and "Duck-Duck-Goose," as well as various ball games, tag, and hide and seek. At the nearby stream, the children hunted for frogs, snakes and mice. On occasion these creatures reappeared inside the teacher’s desk!!!
Seasonal holidays provided students in rural Delaware (as in other rural areas of the country) with a welcome break from the daily monotony of school. This was true especially at Christmastime
when the children would enact scenes from plays, recite poetry or sing songs.
Online Lesson Plan for Students Age 9 - 12