Part I On Rural SC Schoolhouses: The Country School Problem in Early 20th Century SC

 While I start my research on Coleman Ridge and Pryor Colored School, I wanted to post about the state of rural schools during the end of the 19th century and about the educational reform of the early 20th century—specifically on schoolhouse design reform—in SC.
 
 

To state it simply: the schools were in bad shape, both for white and African-American children (more on that in Part II). In the late 19^th to early 20^th century, many politicians, educators, and reformers in the U.S. waged a Progressive education reform campaign to improve the nation's educational system. This timely educational reform movement enabled educators across the country to work towards a cohesive public education experience that would effectively meet the future work force needs of a nation approaching increased industrialization and rising food costs. The school reform movement and corresponding rural school reform sought for changes in curriculums, redistricting, better materials, increased funding, and safer schoolhouse design.[1] The advocacy of schoolhouse design reform grew from what historian William W. Cutler describes as the “depressing, even unhealthful, condition of many public schools. It was unpleasant to work [or study] in buildings without adequate light, heat, air space, or sanitation.”^[2]

In South Carolina, the problem of rural schools was a prominent concern among both educators and the public. An 1897 State article on the Superintendent of Education’s annual report stated that 153 new schoolhouses were built in the 1896-1897 year. There was an overall improvement, according to Superintendent W.D. Mayfield (1890-1898), “in the class of [school]houses erected, but there is still much room for improvement…The houses should be made more comfortable and attractive and should be supplied with more and better furniture and school apparatus.”[3] The “country school problem” was even touted as one of the “most important [problems] of our civilization today.”[4] Curriculums were in need of a change; school materials such as up-to-date text books were not readily available; and the schoolhouses were in such bad condition or were so poorly designed that they were called “veritable fire traps” by one South Carolina architect.[5] Aside from being “fire traps,” the schools were simply not meeting the needs of their growing communities.

The School Improvement Act of 1905 was one of the first acts of South Carolina education legislation to be passed in the twentieth century and solidified the State’s rural school improvement mission. The Act detailed new financial aids available to county school districts through special taxes, fund raising, and profits through selling of old buildings and equipment specifically for the construction of suitable public schoolhouses.[6] According to the next State Superintendent of Education, O.B. Martin (1902-1908), “in enacting the school building law…the General Assembly showed a desire to build up the common schools…Greater appropriations will be made for our public schools as we strengthen our organization and perfect our system.”[7]

Organizations such as The Women’s Association for the Improvement of Rural Schools plus State approved aid provided funds for the much needed addition to or construction of rural schools.[8] State aid for high schools could be withheld if inspectors found the teaching to be inefficient or if the school did not adhere to the regulations of the State High School Board in curriculum or construction.[9] Observance to the regulations was policed by the individual County Superintendents of Education and the State High School Inspector and mandated in the General School Law of South Carolina.[10]

While the educational experience of rural South Carolina children was not improved overnight (especially for African-Americans), the national and rural educational reform movements of the early 20^th century were important catalysts. The United States Commissioner of Education, P. P. Claxton in 1917 stated that the whole of the schoolhouse experience should “be beautiful, clean and wholesome” because the “schoolroom, the schoolhouse and the school grounds constitute the best index to the degree of civilization and to the ideals of the community."[11] The educational reform movement lost much of its steam by the end of WWI, but the lasting effects of the national movement continued on a much smaller scale in rural communities.

List of 19^th and early 20^th century school design resources:

Henry Barnard, School Architecture or Contributions to the Improvement of Schoolhouses in the United States (New York: A.S. Barnes & Company, 1849), Google Books; Edmund March Wheelwright, School Architecture: A General treatise for the use of architects and others (Boston: Rogers and Manson, 1902), Google Books; William George Bruce, School Architecture: A handy manual for the use of architects and school authorities (Milwaukee: Johnson Service Co., 1906), Google Books; Fletcher Bascom Dresslar, American Schoolhouses (Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1911) and Rural Schoolhouses (Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1914), both Google Books; John Dewey and Evelyn Dewey, Schools of To-morrow (New York: The Knickerbocker Press, 1915), Google Books; John Joseph Donovan, School Architecture: Principles and Practices (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1921), Google Books.  

 

Next in Part II: In Part II of the On Rural SC Schoolhouses post, I will talk about the condition of rural African-American schoolhouses in SC at the turn of the 19^th century and how the state was responding to the growing issue of inadequate schoolhouses for rural black communities. I will also talk about the Rosenwald School Building Fund and the experiences of one former SC Rosenwald School student, Georgia Collier Scott.

---

[1] William W. Cutler, III,“Cathedral of Culture: The Schoolhouse in American Educational Thought and Practice since 1820,” History of Education Quarterly 29(1989): 5. School reform, especially design reform, was not a new idea. Earlier 19th century ideas in school design produced such schools as the Quincy plan which was designed for Boston’s Quincy Grammar School in 1847. The design deviated from one of the more common national standards that featured a large central room for use by all students and took the central room and divided it into smaller classrooms—giving teachers a more organized space in which to better instruct and discipline their pupils and enabling students an area of study better suited to concentration than distraction.
[2] Cutler, “Cathedral of Culture," 6-7.

[3] “Education in South Carolina: Annual Report of Superintendent of Education.” The State, December, 31, 1897.
[4] John J. McMahan, “The Country School Problem.” Speech delivered to the State Teacher’s Association, Harris Lithia, South Carolina. July 17, 1899. South Caroliniana Library, Columbia, South Carolina.
[5] Rudolph Edward Lee, “Convenient and Attractive School Buildings,” 7. Rudolph Edward Lee Papers, Clemson Univeristy Special Collection, Clemson University.
[6] O.B. Martin, School Improvement: Law, Designs, and Suggestions for Schoolhouses (Columbia, South Carolina: The State Company, 1905), 12-14.
[7] Martin, School Improvement, 12-14.
[8]Pamphlet issued from the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, April, 1906, The Women’s Association for the Improvement of Rural Schools in South Carolina, South Caroliniana Library, Columbia, South Carolina. They aimed to “conquer the absurd idea that four bare walls and a few straight-back benches constitute a place suitable for any girl or boy of South Carolina to be kept for [several] hours a day.” Women’s [or Woman’s] Association for the Improvement of Rural Schools was started in 1902 by Winthrop College’s President Johnson for the senior class of that year.
[9] Meeting of March 21, 1908, Minutes and Attachments of the State Board of Education, 1905-1911, South Carolina Department of Education, South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina. “No Aid will be given any high school unless said high school is taught in a safe and comfortable building.” High schools, at that time, encompassed grades 8^th to 11^th. Elementary schools went from 1^st to 7^th.  See also for an example: December 14, 1912 Board of Education meeting, report by State High School Inspector, requested Lynchburg, SC school district to take steps “by his district to provide a more adequate building for the school, if the high school appropriation is to be continued.” Minutes and Attachments of the State Board of Education, 1912-1917.
[10] Title XI Sect. 1719 “Duty to Visit Schools, etc.” and Sect. 1722 “Annual Report, etc. of County Superintendent,” General School Law of South Carolina, 1912, Containing Constitutional Provisions Relating to Education, Title [XI] Code of Laws 1912 on Public Instruction, Acts Relating to Education, 1912. Issued by State Department of Education, J. E. Swearingen, State Superintendent. Charlottesville, VA: The Michie Co., State Board of Education, South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina, 14.
[11] P. P. Claxton, United States Commissioner of Education, quoted from Rudolph Edward Lee, “Convenient and Attractive School buildings,” 14.