School Life at Massie

School days, like all days, have changed; yet the problems remain the same and the best clues toward solutions of contemporary concerns are often built on past experiences. In the Massie Common School House there seems to be an ever-lingering spirit that sets the mood for proper teaching and learning.

Each school day was opened and closed with roll call, the reading of the Scriptures and the Lord’s Prayer.

Teachers used “moral suasion” to control their unruly pupils. Obedience to God, parent, and teacher was the foundation rock of learning. Contrary to current belief, corporal punishment in the early years at Massie was rare. The paddling was administered by the principal in the afternoon but only after all teachers and pupils had left the building.

Through 1890, following the British custom of designating the graduating class as the first form, the highest grade at Massie was the first grade. In the grammar school, the six-year-olds were in the seventh or eighth grade at Massie depending upon the number of grades in the school.  In 1890, the seventh grade at Massie (six-year-olds) contained 71 children for one teacher, and the average enrollment per teacher in the nineteenth century was always well above 50.

Primary classes were taught to read by the “word method.” By the close of the school year, the pupils were expected to read with fluency then lessons contained in the First Reader.

Drills of repetition, memorization, and spelling bees were important teaching methods. While parsing and diagramming were essential, composition was not neglected even in the primary grades. Much stress was placed on mental arithmetic. In penmanship, teachers “set copy” for the pupils to imitate.

Textbooks were used for many years, handed down from the older children in a family.  It was considered a foolish waste of money for a school to change textbooks frequently.