Teachers often lived with other families or their own while they taught. Some teachers had up to 45 students, which may not seem like a lot until one considers one teacher was hired to teach all 45 kids, with many in varying grades. Teachers were often not allowed to teach after they married, as schools considered it a burden. School still happened even in the cold, and teacher Patience Bagley recounts how three children were driven by their oldest sister on a buggy and horse everyday, but when the weather was bad, the two younger siblings would be left home while the sister walked to school. Mrs. Bagely's wages were $30-35 a month in 1945 and her sister who had taught at a small school previously was paid $25. Another teacher, Gertrude Curfman, says that when preparing to be a teacher she attended a 6 week class in the summer of 1892 for review of subjects, methods, and management for teaching. At the end of this class there was an exam given, and based on your grade was the certificate you were granted: 3rd grade was good for one year, 2nd grade was good for two years, and first grade was good for three years. By the 1960s teaching had become more professional with a college degree, or at least college credits, required. Along with this professionalization came teacher strikes, and many teachers left for different professions as they felt there were too many activities required impeding on actual education. 
 

Most teachers were young women newly graduated from high school, aged 16-18. Female teachers only taught for 2-3 years and then married in the spring and retired. Teaching was not seen as a long term career but a way to make a little money before getting married. The men who taught were seen as more authoritative and brought in to “settle down” rowdy children when female teachers could not. Men were still expected to be pillars of the community but were held to lesser standards than the women, such as being able to square dance. Teachers would drive horses and buggies, but in cold weather, they would use a lamp and a heated soapstone for warmth as they had to traverse over snow covered fields and fences. The majority of students walked to school, or in some rare cases, were taken to school by their teachers. 

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To learn more about individual teacher stories, click on the link: Georgia Thompson Birkenholz