One-Room Schools In Washington State - Washington State Digital ...

By Ron ScuttThe warm spring sun shines brightlyon the students of StehekinElementary. Lunch recess is in progressfor the valley's 1 I students enrolled ingrades I -8. Nine boys and two girls arehuddled around a large sand box, fillingit with water so their hastily builtbarges can carry cargo to sand islandspiled high in the center of the box.Chatter, laughter and loud exclamationsall bubble and burst from thesechildren busily building their ownisolated community surrounded by highmountain walls and approachable primarilyby a water access.The community of Stehekin sits atthe head of 55-mile-long Lake Chelan,amidst the Cascade Mountains ofNorth Central Washington.Stehekin Elementary was built in1921 by valley residents. Trees werecleared from the site; logs were peeled,notched and erected to form walls andrafters; and blocks of cedar were splitinto shakes and put on the roof. LeotaYokum was the first teacher; she helpedsplit the shakes.Building the school was a communityproject. For the first several years theschool had no ceiling; there was openspace from the floor to the peak of theroof. A potbellied stove that sat in themiddle of the floor was kept constantlyblazing to provide warmth for thestudents and teacher.Sixty years have passed since then,Stehekin Elementary~nd with the exception of periodsduring World War II and the early1950s, the school has been incontinuous operation. A wood stovestill provides heat for bodily warmth,and also for warming sandwiches eatenduring lunch.Ron Scutt has been teaching atStehekin Elementary for the past sixyears. Presently his wife, Kim, is theteacher's aide. Both Ron and Kim feelthere are tremendous academic andsocial strengths to be gained in a oneroomschool experience. They say of allthe advantages inherent in a smallschool, two stand out as possessing themost positive lifetime potential.First is the potential for contact formore than one year between studentand teacher. In this situation there is noroom for failure. The teacher mustmature to the point where he or shetruly cares for each child. Students cansee and feel their abilities to think andreason growing along with theirphysical development. A feeling of loveand patience must pervade all teacherstudentassociations. Within this atmospherereal education can be accomplished.Secondly, the students are notsurrounded continually by children ofonly their own ages. Younger studentsare able to model themselves after olderstudents. There is a mix of physical developmentand intellectual capabilitiesthat is reflective of the associationsamong people in the adult world theywill enter. Ron feels other schooldistricts should otTer the one-roomexperience as an alternative for parentsand children.Recess is over; upon entering theschool one finds the students taking outtheir books about King Arthur. Eachfollows along while Ron and Kim readabout the knights of the Round Table.Students take turns reading thedialogue of different characters. Allthe students in grades 2-8 take part inthe oral reading.As one looks around at the walls ofthe room it can be seen that thestudents are working with colorfulartistic mediums to create pictures ofnature, cursive alphabets, geometricdrawings and scenes of the Lewis andClark expedition.The Stehekin community is madeup of approximately 80 full-timeresidents. Community members take anactive part in presenting the school'scurriculum. Many individuals with specialskills come to the school to workwith the students. During the year thestudents made a quilt to be presented toTom Pitts, graduating eighth-grader, athis. graduation.The school day is over, and thestudents climb on their bikes to ridehome. The school is quiet again,awaiting the return of the Stehekinchildren for another school day.Photos by Michael J. Barnhart- 14 -