Students Participate in a Living History Lesson at the Weber-Blaess School

As the 2010-11 school year went into the history books, elementary school students in the district took a trip back in time and experienced school the way their grandparents and great-grandparents might have known it.

The district, along with volunteers from the Saline Area Schools Historic Preservation Committee, provided lessons in the Weber-Blaess one-room schoolhouse, which was built in 1867 and educated students on Ellsworth Road in Lodi Township until the 1950s, when Saline Area Schools consolidated.

Last Wednesday, third-grade teacher Trina Bell and her class, dressed in early 20th-century garb, visited the schoolhouse. In some ways, it was a special visit for Bell, whose grandfather served on the school board for the one-room schoolhouse. She has other relatives who attended the school.

“He told me about how he went from door to door in support of consolidation, and how people weren’t very friendly to the idea,” Hill said of the move that consolidated many rural school districts into one bigger district based in the city.

In many ways, last week’s three-hour lesson was an exercise in role playing. When Hill or volunteers Jim and Cheryl Hoeft asked a question, students with answers quietly raised their hand, and when called on, they stood and politely provided the answer.

At one point, to give students an idea of what it was like to have Grades 1-8 in the same room, Hill asked her students to get into character, with some students as older students and some as kindergartners. Students practiced multiplication tables and recited poems aloud, creating a cacaphony of voices.

Students also read from authentic McGuffey's Readers, which were used for instruction. Another lesson involved practicing penmanship on slate boards, which are a thing of the past in modern schools. For recreation, the students played hopscotch, walked on stilts, batted a barrel hoop with a stick and played “pass the ring.”

“Getting all dressed up and acting the part is the best way to learn," Hill said. "They’re not just reading and looking at pictures, they’re in the classroom, experiencing things in a way that is very much like it was years ago.”

The students enjoyed the games and were eager to participate in the classroom activities. They were most eager for the chance to draw the rope and ring the schoolhouse bell.

Jim Hoeft, a Saline resident and retired Chelsea schoolteacher, attended a one-room schoolhouse on Austin Road. He and other volunteers have spent considerable time, energy and money on the Weber-Blaess schoolhouse, first moving it to its one-acre site on Woodland Drive in 2002, then renovating, maintaining and updating it. Volunteers also provide the school with authentic desks, equipment and curriculum. The school is owned by Saline Area Schools Community Education.

“Understanding local history is important,” Hoeft said. "It’s important to know where you came from.

“What we have here is more than a schoolhouse," he said. "It’s a living museum where students can experience what it was like to be a child 100 years ago.”

For more on the Weber-Blaess Schoolhouse, visit salinehistory.org/index.php?section=sites&content=weber-blaess_school.