00:09 - Hi i'm Carson Devitt with PCN and today we are in Towamensing township in Carbon county

00:14 - and most of you watching this probably spent your education in different classrooms

00:17 - different grades and even different buildings

00:19 - but in the 1800s to the mid 20th

00:21 - century you would have spent your entire school day

00:23 - in a one room schoolhouse just like this schoolhouse behind me

00:27 - this is the kibler schoolhouse and it was built in 1898

00:30 - for 460 dollars and today

00:31 - we're going to be talking about its history.

00:42 - So today i'm here with Roy Christman and you were

00:44 - actually a student here before weren't you yes i was

00:48 - what grades and what year.

00:49 - I went to second and third here.

00:52 - That would have been from 1948 to 1950

00:56 - and can you tell us maybe just one of your fondest

00:58 - memories as a kid as we enter into the schoolhouse

01:01 - yeah i would say

01:02 - like most kids

01:04 - my fondest memory was recess

01:06 - we'd come out here and play games we had recess in the morning.

01:10 - Then a lunch break

01:12 - at noon and then

01:13 - an afternoon recess.

01:15 - What kind of games would you play at recess? we invented our own

01:19 - If it was in the wintertime and there was snow

01:21 - we had a game called ring tag we also

01:25 - invented a game called hungry deer

01:27 - which was a combination of track and football

01:30 - an incredibly rough game

01:32 - boys and girls both played

01:35 - and.

01:36 - Yeah that was that was a

01:38 - a nice time.

01:40 - So what do we see as soon as we enter into

01:42 - the schoolroom? well obviously the blackboard

01:44 - where we spend

01:46 - quite a bit of time

01:47 - we have a map

01:49 - of the world

01:50 - we have a flag with forty eight stars we have the

01:55 - very large heater here

01:57 - the heater burns either coal or wood

01:59 - the teacher would have the older boys go out and

02:02 - bring the coal in. our school burned coal.

02:06 - In the wintertime it was neat if your clothes got wet you could just

02:10 - put them over the top and by.

02:12 - The next

02:13 - time you wanted to go out there were all dry

02:15 - and this was used to heat the school rooms?

02:18 - yeah

02:18 - it was if you sat back here.

02:21 - You roasted

02:22 - if you were up in the far corner you froze it wasn't a great heating system

02:27 - so i kinda want to talk about this school

02:29 - itself how did they get here and how old is it?

02:32 - It was built in 1896

02:34 - it was on a corner about a mile

02:37 - to our east the

02:39 - family that owned the building the lot said that

02:43 - they were going to develop the lot and the

02:46 - area historical society could have the school

02:49 - if we moved it

02:51 - and what school district is this

02:53 - school part of? well when i went

02:55 - each township had their own.

02:59 - There were nine schools in all

03:01 - there are still

03:02 - four of them i think one of them getting renovated

03:05 - by the Towamensing township historical commission

03:08 - when the schools were decommissioned.

03:11 - Everything inside was sold.

03:13 - So when we asked for desks a lot of people had desks in their barns and their

03:18 - attics and

03:20 - so everything was moved back when we got the school

03:24 - it was completely empty

03:25 - and that's your school picture right there

03:27 - this is my school picture from

03:28 - 1950

03:30 - and you can see

03:32 - the name of the school is Kibler

03:34 - this is me

03:35 - i'm the only kid with glasses.

03:38 - There's our teacher Mrs Hessinger

03:40 - as you can see there's quite a few kids

03:42 - for a one room

03:43 - quite a few.

03:45 - What was the teaching style like in a one room schoolhouse

03:48 - you did one grade at a time

03:50 - if she was doing the second grade lesson on

03:53 - spelling

03:54 - the third

03:55 - graders would

03:56 - sit here

03:57 - and do

03:58 - homework at one time all eight grades

04:00 - went to one room

04:02 - at that time.

04:04 - the classes were obviously very small.

04:07 - The kids who are doing their lesson would sit in the front row

04:11 - and then the other kids

04:13 - all

04:13 - other seven grades

04:15 - would be very quiet

04:16 - and so she would

04:17 - sit up here and this is mainly where she would teach the classroom is that right? yes.

04:22 - What kind of materials did she teach with

04:24 - since we didn't

04:25 - we had the spelling books.

04:28 - Arithmetic books and you know things i

04:30 - guess kids have today

04:32 - it was a lot of work at the board especially for

04:35 - arithmetic you'd come to the board

04:37 - you'd do problems at the board

04:39 - and did she teach you guys cursive, music, what were all the subjects

04:43 - this thing here you can

04:45 - you can.

04:46 - Well here's an example

04:48 - so you could have a staff for music.

04:50 - Or you could

04:52 - practice writing

04:53 - and yes we learned cursive

04:55 - did you guys learn math, history?

04:58 - we had

04:59 - limited subjects we had history

05:02 - and we had spelling.

05:04 - Spelling was big

05:05 - geography

05:06 - i don't know if they still teach geography this is a map.

05:10 - All the schools had maps.

05:12 - This one as you can see

05:14 - all the African.

05:16 - Countries were still colonies Belgian Congo Namibia

05:21 - was part of South Africa then

05:23 - some teachers

05:24 - used

05:27 - Physical punishment. we have some examples of paddles over here

05:31 - this one is really scary.

05:35 - Because of the noise.

05:40 - So what kind of things would you

05:41 - get punished for school.

05:43 - My fourth fifth and sixth grade teacher

05:45 - was a

05:47 - very large man and he would punish you

05:51 - for talking.

05:53 - When the lessons were being given or.

05:57 - Just

05:57 - misbehaving

06:00 - Fifth sixth graders.

06:02 - Misbehave.

06:04 - But you didn't misbehave much if you had this threat.

06:08 - Now the way that the desks are kind of layed out did that

06:10 - make it harder to learn was that a disadvantage as well?

06:14 - I was in the double desks

06:17 - like these right here

06:19 - my

06:20 - desk mate for two years was a

06:22 - Nicky Simpson

06:23 - we got along very well.

06:25 - The little desks that you see

06:28 - those were when the school had all 8 grades

06:31 - and

06:32 - the little ones were for the little kids cause you had

06:34 - your

06:35 - first graders with eighth graders.

06:40 - so what was it like to be a student sitting in

06:42 - these desks listening to your teacher? Take us there.

06:47 - You learn to read a lot at least i did i read so many books i

06:51 - when i was in fourth fifth and sixth grade i read every book in the school library

06:56 - and

06:57 - that habit's ingrained i'm still

07:00 - i read

07:01 - probably

07:01 - two books a week book a week.

07:04 - Earlier you mentioned that you really enjoyed recess

07:05 - was there anything here that you didn't enjoy.

07:08 - Yes

07:09 - i did not enjoy

07:12 - penmanship we

07:13 - used something called the Palmer method

07:16 - business and writing where you

07:19 - practiced

07:20 - over and over writing letters and

07:23 - i was not very good at cursive

07:26 - which is why

07:28 - when they say kids aren't

07:29 - they don't teach kids cursive any more

07:31 - i think

07:32 - thank goodness.

07:33 - Yeah i never personally learned it either i just had to learn how to write my name

07:37 - yeah.

07:39 - Talk about maybe some of

07:40 - the other disadvantages to learning in this

07:43 - setting

07:44 - i think there were.

07:45 - Two big ones the one is that if you were a kid with learning disabilities there

07:51 - was no special ed for you no special

07:55 - teaching

07:56 - that was a problem.

07:58 - The other

07:58 - disadvantage was if you had an interest in music

08:02 - or in art unless you had an exceptional teacher

08:06 - you did not get any lessons there.

08:08 - Before we leave can i show you the

08:11 - jug

08:12 - of course yeah this is where we drank

08:14 - everybody drank out of the same cups

08:17 - fortunately when

08:18 - one of us would get mumps

08:20 - everybody in the school got mumps everybody in the school would be out for a week

08:24 - now i notice there wasn't

08:26 - any other rooms in there obviously it's a one room schoolhouse

08:29 - is this where you would go to the bathroom?

08:31 - when you went to an outdoor toilet in the wintertime that was not heated.

08:37 - My sister was four years after me

08:39 - and she said the best thing about her new school was

08:42 - A, it had a cafeteria and B, even better

08:45 - you didn't have to go outside to use the bathroom.

08:48 - So does this bell over here does this

08:50 - signal the start of the school day.

08:52 - The bell

08:54 - was from one of the schools that later burned

08:57 - and

08:58 - it was moved into the new school and it was in the way so they gave it to the

09:01 - historical society some kids from the technical institute in carbon built

09:06 - the platform for it to practice their bricklaying skills

09:10 - Kibler school did not have a bell.

09:13 - You want me to ring it?

09:14 - yeah sure.

09:16 - Okay we ring it

09:17 - by pulling the clapper.

09:19 - Definitely you can hear it for a long way.

09:26 - What were some more of your

09:28 - fondest memories I know we mentioned some earlier i'd love to hear

09:30 - to a few more of your favorites.

09:33 - I had really good friends

09:35 - in the one room school now then

09:37 - the

09:37 - the whole class went to high school together too but i have friendships that.

09:43 - I still have.

09:45 - When you're

09:46 - sitting with a kid for.

09:48 - All day long day after day.

09:51 - you become friends

09:52 - so how is the Kibler 's

09:54 - history preserved

09:55 - today?

09:56 - we have a group of one hundred volunteers who donate fifteen dollars a year minimum

10:02 - that provides money for the upkeep the electricity

10:06 - the school is open every Sunday in the summer from one to three

10:09 - it's free

10:10 - come and see it

10:11 - and anyone can come and see this inside of the school

10:15 - yes if they want to come

10:17 - in an off period

10:18 - they should contact the Palmerton Area historical society. we have docents who give tours.

10:23 - Awesome

10:23 - well thank you very much Roy for sharing all

10:25 - of your memories and your experiences that

10:28 - you had here at the Kibler school

10:29 - i really appreciate your time today.

10:32 - Thank you yeah and

10:34 - thank you guys very much for watching this tour of the Kibler school

10:37 - on PCN