In honor of the new school year rolling around again, this month’s history bit takes a closer look at a piece of Webster schoolhouse history, faithfully recreated at the Webster Museum. 

It’s the museum’s very own one-room schoolhouse. Tucked at the far southern end of the museum’s exhibit space, the room represents a typical early-1900s schoolroom. It seats 24 students at double desks and includes a schoolmaster’s desk, a collection of early textbooks, and early teaching aids.   

The schoolroom is a very popular tour stop for the elementary school classes who visit the Webster Museum every year. As part their 75-minute tour through all of the museum’s exhibits, students take a 15 to 20-minute detour into the classroom and step back into a time when a wood stove provided the heat, lessons were completed on slates, and your older brother or sister might be sitting in a row behind you.

The lessons are designed to be as interactive, entertaining and humorous as possible, while illustrating what a typical school day would look like 120 years ago. The teacher rings a school bell to begin the day, students complete a math lesson on the slates, and are required to raise their hand and stand when called upon. They hear about how students had to walk to school because there were no school buses, how the wood stove in the corner of the room provided all the heat, and when you looked out the window you would very likely see fields and orchards, not a playground and parking lot. 

More than a dozen volunteers, many of them retired teachers themselves, take turns leading the museum tours and presenting the classroom lesson. Most of the students who come through are Webster Central School District second graders; the curriculum that year focuses on community, and a big part of that is comparing “then and now.”  

Our children already know all about “now.” And thanks to our dedicated Webster Museum volunteers, they’re also learning about “then,” when Webster was an agricultural community and the schools – and school day – looked a whole lot different.  

Stop by the Webster Museum and visit the schoolroom for yourself. The museum is located at 18 Lapham Park in the Village of Webster, and is open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 2 to 4:30 p.m. Read more about the classroom and all of the museum’s exhibits at webstermuseum.org.
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Missy Rosenberry
Webster Community Blogger

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