Recently, I’ve been reading in the news media where elementary school teachers are placing students of like ability, irrespective of their grades, in the same room to receive instruction. Educators call this arrangement the open classroom. They hail this as the latest thing in teaching. I disagree with them.

The open classroom is not something new. Actually, it had its beginning out of necessity more than a hundred years ago. It was the only way teaching could be conducted in a one-room country school where teachers were charged with teaching 30 or more students spread out over six to eight grade levels.

Recently, the State of Missouri passed a law requiring students to do a certain amount of community service as part of their graduation requirements. This law is being hailed as one of the latest innovations in education. Not true. In the one-room country school community service was actually a part of the curriculum. In fact the school revolved around the community, and the community revolved around the school.

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I write from experience. During the school year of 1930-1931, I taught six different grades, consisting of 32 students, in a one-room country school in Jackson County.

I would be pleased to talk with anyone interested in knowing more about education as it was, in a one-room country school.

Charles D. Neal Ph.D

SIUC College of Education professor, retired