Each morning, Principal Pat Moore rings the bell at Old Union School and greets the 36 students there.
"Hello, Molly," she says to one.
"Are you feeling better?" she asks another.
The children are assembling to prepare for their day.
"Help us learn," Moore prays in the fellowship hall after children have told her their prayer requests. "Help us to get along with one another. We thank you for the beautiful weather. It's just right for playing outside."
The scenery around Old Union Missionary Baptist Church, where Old Union School is held in rural southcentral Warren County, is lush. Horses run through the field beside the school. A cemetery sits on one side of the church.
Children attend classes in rooms decorated with Bible verses, their names and typical teaching aids, such as colorful pictures of the alphabet. There's a computer lab. There's a library with books about the Bible.
Recess finds the little children playing "Mother May I" with their teachers and first-grade aide Martha Wheeler, who was the only senior at the school last year.
Martha came to the school two years ago because she was "having trouble" at Greenwood High School, she said. She had made two B's but wanted all A's. She was shy about asking for help at Greenwood and was putting a lot of pressure on herself to learn things on her own after school.
She talked to her mom about what she should do. Old Union seemed like the perfect answer. There are six full-time teachers and three others who teach classes.
Martha said she found learning at Old Union a breeze.
"They cared about putting the material out there so you understood it," she said.
Now, Martha's sister, Christina Wheeler, is attending the school, which was started seven years ago. She's one of several high-schoolers who take classes in the church basement. Christina's classmates are typical teens.
"We were wondering why when women get pregnant they cut their hair off," one girl asked teacher Jennifer Glass, who is expecting her first baby.
"I got mine cut before I found out," Glass said.
The girls discussed hairstyles during their bathroom break.
"I'm going to wear mine like this until I'm 100," one said.
Upstairs in a classroom, Margie Pierce's second- and third-grade students were writing and reading essays about what they did this summer.
One went to Mexico. One rode her bike. On Wednesday, they learned about Christopher Columbus.
Kaitlin Talley, a second-grader, said she most enjoys learning about history and "tracing the world."
"I'd like to go to Hawaii," she said.
During recess, Kaitlin spun hula hoops. Most of the other girls took turns with her.
Most of the boys played basketball, complete with a second-grade referee. Levi Etienne and Chris Shoulders played a heated game of badminton.
Pierce talked about her love for her second- and third-grade class.
"This is my favorite age group," she said
It's only her second year at the school. She previously taught at a 350-student Christian school in Virginia, and said she's glad Moore wants to keep Old Union small so students can get more one-on-one attention.
"When you've got a big class, there are always students who need more help," she said. "A lot of public school teachers will tell you I've got a picnic here."
While teaching may be less stressful, students still are challenged so they will be prepared for college.
Monica Smith, a junior whose mother, Tenito Smith, teaches at the school, is taking Spanish, geometry and several other classes while classmates study other subjects.
It's not much different than the way things were when there was a one-room Old Union School in the early 1900s.
"When I wanted one grade, I'd ring a little bell and they'd come to the front and I'd teach that class," said 98-year-old Ruby Daniel of Bowling Green, who taught at the original Old Union School in 1927 and 1928. "The other students learned a lot just listening to their lessons if they didn't have anything else to do right then."
Daniel is excited that there's a new Old Union School and has donated money to its cause. She thinks small rural schools are good for children.
"Everybody knows each other," she said.
At Old Union, they also know about Christ.
"My husband is a missionary Baptist preacher and we like what the school has to offer," said Patty Brown, whose daughter, Tiffany, is in first grade. |
Clinton Lewis/Daily News Old Union School Principal Pat Moore holds the door open for second- and third-graders J.T. Poe, 7 (left), and Nathan McCollom, 8, as they return to class from lunch Tuesday afternoon. Retired from the Bowling Green School system, Moore teaches first grade in the mornings and handles school business in the afternoons. |
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