Former teachers and students recall one-room school days, pot-belly stoves and feed-sack dresses

On the centennial program, Kathy Burris and other interviewees described early-school life in Richland School District 2, offering details about one-room classrooms, instructional routines and home life that shaped attendance and daily schedules.

Kathy Burris said the Little Red Schoolhouse was a one-room school that could be divided to teach multiple grades; teachers used slates and chalk, and students would sometimes nap on rugs. She described a pot-belly stove used to heat the room; families brought coal or fuel from home to keep the stove going, and outhouses were located outside because indoor plumbing was not available.

A former student recounted attending Bethel School in Blythewood, saying there were no cafeterias and that students brought lunches, walked to school and sometimes rode in horse-drawn wagons provided by the district. The program also included recollections of Miss Hanbury, described as a strict but caring teacher, and reflections that the speaker is the last surviving member of an 11-person graduating class.

A former teacher told how she was recruited in 1944 by Superintendent Wright to teach for two days at a country school, later earned elementary certification via summer coursework and began a teaching career. She described class sizes that began at about 18 students and grew to roughly 36 by the end of the school year, and the use of mimeograph machines to send home reading sheets.

These on-air memories were presented as personal recollections from district alumni and former staff; the program treated them as oral-history material rather than documentary records.