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The historic Old North Grove School on Brickville Road harkens back to a different time in education; children of different ages gathered in a single room, subjects were more basic but thoroughly covered, and teachers had to follow and enforce strict rules...while working around the needs of farm families
Jane Dargatz is with the North Grove School Association; they represent the last one-room schoolhouse in the state of Illinois which is still on its original site. Students from District 427 routinely go there to learn how their peers were taught decades ago, in a very different era.
Students back then were from rural families, and they often had to skip or take breaks from school to help out on their family farms; even when they were able to attend, they still have to do their farm chores...then take care of assigned chores at school...and then devote their days to study. Students from first through eighth grade shared the same room, with older students helping the teacher instruct or supervise the younger ones; teachers were responsible for the entire building, and were always firmly in charge of the students -- but also were restricted in their behavior, and had to resign if they chose to get married.
North Grove School Days will be coming up on June 23rd and 24th; the weekend will feature tours of the schoolhouse, along with old-time games, musicians and singers, period domestic chores and other attractions. The school will be open on Saturday, June 23rd from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Sunday, June 24th from noon to 4 p.m.