Even budding homesteader wheat farmers wish to educate their children, and such was the case in the hinterlands of Saskatchewan in 1911. To keep the one-room-school in Rochdale County operating they needed at least 10 children attending. Because of this Clara started school at a much earlier age than most children. The teacher, Aletha Sparling, boarded with the Lawton family, and therefore rode the six miles each way back and forth to school in the horse and buggy with Lloyd, Floyd, and Clara each school day. Coyotes ran in packs and the children were hardly ever allowed out of sight of either home or school while on foot lest they be attacked.
Aletha Sparling was married but never had children, so it was rather natural, her living with the Lawton family, to treat little Clara with some favoritism. They were in contact with each other for some years after the school experience.
Nearly all the children attending school went barefoot. Shoes were saved for the winter, but school was not open in the bitter winter months. Only one girl and the teacher wore shoes on any sort of a regular basis. Obviously with only one room all of the classes were held in the same room. With this situation younger children got some of the benefit of learning from the older children’s lessons.
As winter was too cold, summer was too hot and tornado prone, so school held sessions only in spring and fall. My father, Lloyd, got what was considered a 6th grade education from this one-room school, and never did I remotely consider him uneducated through his life so this system wasn’t so bad after all.
This photo, taken in 1916, is of Lloyd age 11, Clara 5, and Floyd 9 during these formative school years.
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