Riverview kids travel back in school time

Ken Johnston

Way back on June 3, 1904 students then went to one room schools spread around the countryside of the Rainy River District. Last Thursday, June 3, 2004, about twenty students, from Riverview mult-room school, travelled 20 miles and 100 years back in time to attend a one room school.
SS Spohn #2 is one of the last remaining one room schools left in the region and it is still fully functional. Residents in Harris Hill have worked hard to preserve the historic building and one of those people is Riverview teacher Carolyn Kreger.
Kreger took her grade 2/3 students to SS Spohn #2 for an entire day last week. It began with the bus ride from Riverview. It was a ride that did not go all the way to the school. In fact the bus driver was instructed to purposely drop the students off about a quarter of a mile away from the school, “So they could experience the walk to school like it really was back then,” said Kreger.
Kreger stood on the steps of the school and summoned the students to class with a hand held bell.
During opening exercises the students sang God Save The King and then had a reading from the bible.
Roll call was then held and then it was down to business for the kids who were now divided into grade 1-8, just like the school would have been 100 years ago.
They did math, wrote in their journals, did some creative writing and then learned how to make butter in a churn.
Using some of the school’s original text books the students read and then answered questions written on the blackboard.
Lunch time they broke out their homemade lunches which some brought in baskets, some in pails and some in boxes. “Nothing could be prepackaged,” explained Kreger. Sandwiches were even wrapped in wax paper, not plastic bags or wrap.
Students were also instructed to dress for the era.
Recesses were filled with old time games like fox and goose, dodge ball, relay races, skipping and tag.
About a quarter of the students attending last week had relatives, mostly grandparents, who actually attended the school in Harris Hill. Kreger said they worked on a unit involving the history of the school and its setting before putting what they learned into practise.