Cultural History Commons^™

'Were We Hard On Teachers Or What?': The Female Rural Schoolteacher Of Wabaunsee And Pottawatomie Counties, Kansas, 1908-1950, Katie Goerl

Online Journal of Rural Research & Policy

Immortalized in pioneer tales and rural history as an icon of early Kansas, the female one-room schoolteacher represents more than an instructor of readin', 'riting, and 'rithmetic. Sometimes called a "school mother," historians often note that she also served as nurse, janitor, fire builder, ash carrier, snow shoveler, program director, and coat buttoner. Popular media and museum exhibits tend either to reference the longstanding cliché of the strict, prudish, old "schoolmarm" or paint a rosy portrait of a plucky yet feminine youth. Upon careful consideration of the evidence, a more nuanced profile emerges of a young, single woman, who labored …