Manitowoc County WI Archives History - Schools .....Extra Curricular Common School Activities 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com October 26, 2007, 10:56 pm

EXTRA CURRICULAR COMMON SCHOOL ACTIVITIES

    Much of the pioneer social life centered around the district school. That
was really their community center and was very, very often the scene of true
democracy in action. The annual school meetings were always well attended and
momentous questions affecting the district were voted upon and settled. Old
school records reveal the facts that these annual school meetings were held the
last Monday in September up to 1875, the last Monday in August up to 1882, the
first Monday in July up to about 1930, and the second Monday of July after that
date.

    Spelling "bees" and literary society meetings were popular in many county
school districts. Inter-school spelling bees were the cause of much rivalry
among the young men and women of the districts involved. Literary and debating
societies discussed such matters as roads, the need for high schools, and other
contemporary matters. The spelling bee idea was continued in the 1900's when
town and county contests were held under the leadership of the county
superintendents. The literary and debating ideas resulted in the later graded
school declamatory contests. Several times each year the residents of the
district would assemble at the school to enjoy seasonal programs and the closing
day picnic. The latter was often made a very festive affair which old-timers
still recall with pleasure.

    The turn of the century found a great deal of interest in "singing" schools
conducted by teachers and participated in by the young men and women of the
district and surrounding communities. The older district residents formed
horticultural, historical, and audubon societies. Farmers' institutes became
popular and largely attended by the rural residents during the winter months.
Hunting and fishing associations to save and protect wild life were beginning. A
Manitowoc County Order of the Wisconsin Experiment Association composed of
leading county farmers and teachers was organized about 1910. From these farm
movements there developed under the direction of Supt. C. W. Meisnest the
township school fair. At these fairs the pupils proudly displayed their best
school work and garden crops and competed for the prizes and honors awarded the
winners. By 1930, these school and town fairs had run their course, for with the
coming of the automobile the social value of the school and town hall was
rapidly declining.

    County contests in spelling, adding, and writing, begun in the spring of
1903 by Supt. F. C. Christiansen, spread rapidly to town and inter-school
contests. Regular town contests were held in each town each spring and the
winners sent to the county contests held on the morning of the county graduation
day. At the height of its popularity, contests were held in oral spelling,
language, adding, combinations, music memory, and in a triangular contest. Later
on these contests were changed into achievement tests for the several grades
enrolled in the rural schools. The popularity of these contests lasted until
1938 when they were abandoned.

    The typical community by 1938 included all of the area within a natural
shopping, business, church, and high school center. The fine roads with modern
conveyances were making the little district schoolhouse less and less important
as a community center. To meet this enlarged community relationship, the county
schools began holding music festivals, pageants, and gatherings. The historical
pageants of 1939 and of 1948, as well as the successful music festivals held
throughout the county, are examples of the extra auricular activities carried on
by rural teachers and pupils.

   .The problem of providing warm noon lunches for pupils attending the one-room
rural school has been attacked several times. It has long been recognized that
cold, and often-times frozen noon lunches, were detrimental to the good health
of children. Longer school terms, more intensive courses of study, and higher
standards of living have resulted in movements to provide nutritional noon meals
for rural children. The first concerted action towards this goal was begun just
prior to the 1920's. Many school districts purchased oil stoves on which warm
lunches could be prepared or on which pint jars of food prepared by the mothers
at home in the morning could be heated before noon. This movement died down
about'1930, but was again revived in 1945 when the federal government
contributed food and money for carrying on a recognized and acceptable school
lunch program.

    Manitowoc county has made a few attempts to organize P. T. A. organizations
but on the whole the movement has failed. The finest examples of successful
parent-teachers' organizations are in Centerville district No. 4 and in Two
Rivers city. In the cities, kindergarten clubs and parent organizations function
in connection with the schools.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

1848 - 1948

CENTENNIAL HISTORY
of the
Manitowoc County School Districts and Public School System

EDITED BY JOS. J. RAPPEL, COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS 1948 


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