GREEN: In just the short time needed to exit a school bus and enter the nearby 131-year-old building at Boettler Park, Green Primary School third-graders are whisked back to 1885 for a special day of education.
The one-day excursion into educational history happens each spring in the renovated 32-by-40-foot Lichtenwalter one-room schoolhouse.
Five retired Green Schools teachers voluntarily provide the magic, turning the schoolhouse into a “time machine,” demonstrating life in a one-room schoolhouse where girls’ desks were on one side of the room and the boys’ were on the other side with an aisle in the middle.
At Lichtenwalter, those old desks are separated by a wood burner that provides a divider as well as warmth on cold winter days.
The youngsters use old McGuffey readers and ink and handmade quill pens for penmanship practice.
A 38-star American flag hangs between photos of Presidents Abraham Lincoln and George Washington above the slate board, which covers the whole wall behind the “schoolmarm” or “school master’s” desk.
Framed artwork of a horse cart, which was that era’s “school bus,” adorns the back wall just above and to the left of the single door.
Students are taught to address instructors as “teacher” after first reference as Mr., Mrs. or Miss with last name.
“The Lichtenwalter School trip does a wonderful job of connecting with our curriculum and allows for our current generation of students to experience what it was like to attend school in 1885,” said Green Primary School Principal Scott Shank, who has spent nine years at the school, including the last three as principal.
On a recent Thursday, third-grade teacher Shelly Denney took her 28 students on a trip back in time at the one-room school.
Third-grader Luciano Cornacchione enjoyed the day of time travel.
“I like that we are going back in time and doing all the things that kids before us were doing and how they took class,” Luciano said. “I think it’s fun to do what they were doing and know how they were learning and did things in their school.”
This year’s field trips for 320 students in 12 classes will end Fridaywith home schoolers experiencing the “bygone years” school day.
One of four one-room schoolhouses built in Green and first known as the Shaffer Schoolhouse or District 13, the brick facility has only one door, 10 large windows and one large overhead light plus several small lights in the ceiling. The structure was erected in 1885 and provided education to hundreds of students from Green and Jackson townships until shuttered in 1912. In 2000, it was designated Green’s first historical local landmark
Originally located on property owned by Robert Boettler near the northeast corner of Mount Pleasant and Massillon roads on what is now part of Akron-Canton Airport, the school was moved several decades ago to Boettler’s farm and turned into an equipment and tool shed.
Carol Baltrinic, who retired in 2003 after 26 years as a Green elementary teacher, was among a group of teachers who wrote the schoolhouse’s curriculum prior to its reopening in 2004.
With 138 years of teaching experience, the current “schoolmarms,” including Baltrinic, and lone “school master” are:
• Sherri Bonk, who retired in 2011 after 26 years as a learning disabilities tutor and instructor.
• Elementary teacher Mary Kocsis, who retired in 2010 with 21 years of service.
• Pat Stiles, who worked as an elementary teacher and technical coordinator for 30 years.
• School master Mike Herhold, a 2009 retiree with 35 years in elementary classrooms.
The four rotate as the lone 1885 teacher during the three weeks of historic study in language arts, math, social studies of the era, geography and indoor/outdoor recess involving games of the bygone era.
“They learn a simulated day in history,” Baltrinic said. “What a great way to learn that history is alive and well.”
At the end of their visit, students ask several questions about the school.
“If they are 1885 questions, we answer them,” Baltrinic said. “If the questions turn to 2016, we have them close their eyes really, really tight and if you try that yourself your body kind of feels like it’s moving. We tell them that’s the schoolhouse moving back.”
During her recent visit, third-grader Jordyn Grewell said with their eyes closed tight just outside the schoolhouse, it felt like they were indeed moving and the school was a time machine taking them back to 1885.
“This is a good experience for kids to be able to see what it was like back in 1885,” she said.
George W. Davis can be reached at: mediaman@sssnet.com