The One-Room School in the Twenty-First Century

Summary:

Veteran producer Neenah Ellis travels to rural communities in the US to visit some of the last remaining one-room schools.

Website:

http://theoneroomschool.org

Additional Credits and Funding:

Funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and
The Arts and Humanities Commission of Montgomery County Maryland
Original music by Howard Levy
Mixed by Flawn Williams

Tones:

Contemplative, Light-hearted, Sound Rich

Language:

English

Description:

Neenah Ellis travels to seven states to visit public schools where one teacher manages multiple grades in a single room. It's both a step back in time and a look to the future of American education.

One-room schools were once ubiquitous in the US - at the end of WW1 there were 200,000 of them. Today only about 300 remain and they're disappearing fast.

Children typically do well in one-room schools - where the class sizes are small, the teacher gets to know the kids well and there is a strong bond with the community.

This program features schools in Montana, Nebraska, Maine, New Hampshire and California, where one-room schools still serve rural residents - and Hawaii, where the last one-room school recently closed. You'll hear teachers and students, parents, administrators and local townspeople talk about their schools. The kids are fresh and funny, the teachers strong-willed and forthright.

This program was produced in full-stereo and takes you to all these locations in sound: you'll hear the winds in Death Valley, frogs in the taro patches of Maui, a town meeting in New Hampshire, winter storms on the Atlantic island of Monhegan, spring meadowlarks in Nebraska.

Howard Levy, one of the world's most respected harmonica players, composed and performed the music.




Neenah Ellis has a long and varied career as a public radio producer. She worked for NPR in the 70s and 80s where she won the prestigious Columbia-DuPont and Peabody Awards. She is the author of the New York Times best-seller "If I Live to be 100:Lessons from the Centenarians" which is based on her "Morning Edition" series "One Hundred Years of Stories" and she is currently the curator of a public listening series in Washington DC called "Hear Now."

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