Our lives have become so complex, that we could use some simplicity, Lt. Governor David Toland told Roger Pruitt, as they stood in the center of the Historic Oak Grove one room school house - a place where simplicity and rich history intertwine.
Pruitt, treasurer/project coordinator for the Oak Grove School Historical Society, has worked more than a decade on renovation and restoration of the old school house built in 1877 to get it listed on the state and national historical registry, all to preserve the past for the benefit of future generations.
Toland visited the school house that sits on the Osage Trail, to learn more about Pruitt’s vision, along with Kansas Department of Commerce Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer Romaine Redman, Kansas State Representative Dan Goddard, Greenbush Southeast Kansas Educational Service Center Chief Operating Officer Stacie Clarkson and USD 503 Superintendent Lori Perkins.
Area residents who once attended the school were there too, to share more with the visitors about the school’s history.
The plan is for the school house to provide a place teachers can bring their students to get hands-on experience of what school used to be like, while learning the rich history of the area, all tied to curriculum aligned with academic state standards of today. Pruitt said there is a program that has been offered by the Kansas Historical Society for about 40 years called Rural School Days, and they have provided the materials for the classes to be taught at Oak Grove, though it will be tailored to fit the specific history here. Students will sit right in this historical site and learn the history of the state and Southeast Kansas.
“The whole idea is when fourth and fifth grade students learn about Kansas history for the first time, they can come out on this field trip program and have a great time,” Pruitt said.
They’ve had a few trial runs with groups of children. They put the pump on the well and had bucket races and played other pioneer games. In “class” they got to do things like write on slate boards, learn who the president was in 1877, how many stars were on the U..S. flag, and so much more.
“They had a blast,” Pruitt’s wife Julie said.
Pruitt said they are in hopes of creating a pool of retired teachers who would be willing to take turns volunteering to lead the activities, dressed in period dress.
Toland said it sounds like it would be very educational and fun.
Other events to involve the general community could be planned at the school as well, as has happened in the last several years.
Goddard said the school house took him back to his childhood when his mother taught in a school just like Oak Grove.
“It was one room and she taught eight grades,” Goddard recalled. “She had to come in early in the morning in the winter in northern Wisconsin to start the fire to warm up the school room and make sure there was hay out there for kids that came in with horses.”
Toland said many of the old school houses in Kansas that still exist have been relocated and preserved in some way, though not to the capacity of Oak Grove School, which still sits on its original location. He asked Pruitt the secret ingredient. All the former students present said the secret ingredient is Pruitt and his passion and determination. Pruitt humbly stated he has had a lot of community help, and the real secret ingredient is the history of the school and the historical goldmine of the area where it sits.
One of Pruitt’s parallel efforts includes working with Southeast Kansas Tourism to establish an Osage Trail Historic Byway in this region.
Pruitt shared the general history of the school house, the Osage Indians here prior to the Civil War, the pioneers in this area, the ties to Laura Ingalls Wilder and more.
Clarkson said her hope is Greenbush can help Pruitt with the operational side of the school house, and all the logistics involved in coordinating with schools and getting the word out, as she finds Oak Grove to provide a great learning opportunity for students. She said they used to have a one room school house on their campus, but it had deteriorated to the point it would not have been cost effective to save it.
“So before it was torn down, I had (Roger) get out whatever they wanted to bring it over here,” Clarkson said. “It just made sense to share.”
Toland complimented Pruitt on his efforts, especially to carefully preserve articles of interest in the restoration of the school house, from the old curtain rod which allowed the teacher to hang a curtain across the front of the stage for plays to the original lantern hooks and lanterns hanging from the ceiling. An old chalkboard from 1916 was preserved, along with one of the board members' dated signatures that was revealed on a board behind it. Toland ran his hand across the top of one of the original school desks, in which Pruitt’s own father had carved his initials when he attended school there as a boy. And there is the pipe that ran through the ceiling from which the rope once hung that attached to the school bell atop the school. The bell, which could not be returned to the roof top during renovations, is temporarily housed in the Parsons Historical Museum. The plan is to put a belfry on top of a planned outdoor activity pavilion, so visiting children will still get a chance to ring the old school bell.
Before that is built though, Pruitt told Toland they have to raise enough money to be able to build restrooms on site and provide a handicap accessible ramp for entry to the school house. The rural water district just put in a new pipeline, allowing the school to receive a water meter. His sincere hope is they can raise the approximate $150,000 for the bathrooms and have them built before 2027, when the school turns 150-years-old.
“There’s not a screen to be found, or any of the things that make life complicated for kids nowadays, and have taken the fun out of being a child,” Toland said as he looked around the school. He encouraged Pruitt to apply for a Tourism Attraction Development Grant this year to help him realize his dream.
Their plan to make learning fun is what will help that history stick in the minds of the children, Toland said.
Perkins said the old one-room school house is a historical treasure for schools in Southeast Kansas and she is hoping Pruitt’s plans come to fruition.
“It really sounds like a lot of fun,” Perkins said. “I would love to come back and do something like this once I am retired. Come back and be a teacher for the day, doing something like this. That would be great. And I think our kids would love it.”
