Travel in Time: Lessons in History and Leadership at The Little Red One-Room Schoolhouse
Hey everybody, this is Dan Blanchard with the Traveling Time with Dan Show, where we mix travel, history, and leadership. Today, we are exploring a truly fascinating piece of history: The Little Red Schoolhouse in Gaylordsville, near New Milford, Connecticut.
This location is a living link to district rural education, showcasing over 200 years of one-room schoolhouse history from the 1700s to the mid-1900s. In fact, this site is the longest running one-room schoolhouse in Connecticut.
The Foundation of American Education
When you consider the history of education, you are fundamentally thinking about the history of democracy. Public education did not start perfectly; it initially relied heavily on donations and was often driven by Christian or church organizations.
A foundational change occurred in Massachusetts in 1647 with the passage of a law known as the Old Deluter Satan Act. This act stipulated that any town containing 50 or more families was required to establish a school and hire a teacher. Crucially, the funding for this system would come from taxes, shifting responsibility away from charity.
The push for modernization continued, spearheaded by Horace Mann, often called the father of education, who introduced modern schools based on the Prussian model utilized in Europe.
Stress, Mandates, and Long-Term Gain
The United States education system faced immense stress around the 1900s due to a huge influx of immigrants. Education subsequently became a compulsory mandate in the United States. This meant that children were required to attend school, and they were taken out of the factories and fields where they often worked.
It was tough because children were trading their potential education away to help their parents pay for things like apartment rent. While financially this move hurt the families and parents (short-term pain), it provided the children with a future (long-term gain).
The Little Red Schoolhouse Story
This historic location started on donations, just like early education, but later transitioned to tax funding. Believe it or not, citizens could even pay some of their taxes in firewood so the schoolhouse could get heat. This institution eventually became known as School District Region 14. Teachers here were compensated $1.25 a week or 25 cents a day.
Around 1850, the school was in very rough condition, leading to plans to knock it down and build a new structure. The people, however, loved the school so much that they threatened to withhold their taxes if the town tried to replace it. The threat of not paying taxes successfully persuaded the town to simply repair the existing school and keep it operating for a very long time.
Progress did arrive, however: in 1952, the school finally got rid of the outhouse. They also replaced the coal furnace with an oil furnace and installed electricity. Unfortunately, the Little Red Schoolhouse closed its doors in 1967.
Leadership’s Bet on the Future
Today, the Gaylords Historical Society manages the site and opens it up on Sundays in July and August for visitors who want to check out this cool part of Connecticut.
The history of public education teaches us an important lesson about leadership: leaders bet on people that they may never meet. By establishing a public education system and collecting taxes, they invested in our youth and our future. That act of faith and investment is special.
Thank you for spending time with me as we mixed some travel, history, and leadership. I will be back with another episode soon.
Uncovering History. Inspiring Leadership. The Travel in Time Show is where travel, history, and leadership intermingle with history teacher, author, and speaker Dan Blanchard
*Check out Dan’s book, “Travel in Time in Connecticut: https://www.amazon.com/Travel-Time-Connecticut-Timeless-Leadership-ebook/dp/B0CYM3WB22/
*Watch Dan’s YouTube video on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvwVTRgxMgM&t=1s
Listen to Dan’s podcast on this episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7abmnPBe29V8cMND8TMccf?si=nhBhvmTTTgKUq9XOSiFNwg
*See Dan’s Interview with Horace Mann: (Coming soon)
*Learn more about Dan: https://granddaddyssecrets.com/