Figure 1.--Here we see an unidentified rural school in June 1941. The only information we have besides the date is that one of the boys is Anton Lindsoe. Notice that about half of the boys aere dressed like city boys. These boys are coming to school on bikes. That is siomething that was not common earlier, in part because many rural roads were not improved.

The school experience at the turn of the 20th century continued to be different in rural and urban schools. The majority of the population still lived i ruralm areas. This was largely because rural and urban life was so separate. It was not all that easy for people to get into town. Even if farm families only lived a few miles out of town getting there required the laborious process of hitching up the buckboard or waggon and a slow trip into town. Most farmers lived longer distance from the town. Rural and urban school kids want to separate schools meaning their friends were also rural or urban. And their life experiences were very different. The isolation meant that it was very difficult for farm kids to advance acadenmicaaly beyond the 8-year primary program offered at most rural schools. The first major step reducing the isolation of rural America was made by industrialisy Henry Ford who introduced the Model-T Ford. It was a car that farmers could aford and made trips into the city much more viable. Rural schools continued to be important in the 1910s-20s. It was in 1920 that America finally made the transition to a majority urban population. This began to change in the 1930s as school districts for budgetary reasions began closing small rural schools. These rural schools were expensive to operate, espcially schools with only a few students. States as aesult began bussing the children. m into consolidated schools in towns. This only began in the 30s, but was carried out in a mjor way during the 1940s. Almost all rural schools had been closed by 1950. A major impact of this was for the first time to give rural kids access to secondary schools for the first time. It was once possible to identigy rural children by how they dressed, but by 1950 this was no longer possible.

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Created: 2:24 AM 12/16/2023
Last updated: 2:24 AM 12/16/2023