If you lived in the 1800s, you would wake up very early, and do lots of chores before school.  If you were a girl, you would help out your mom around the house, and if you were a boy, you would probably help your dad with the farm.  Your mom would never work outside the house, because her only job was to raise her family.  Some possible jobs your dad might have had back then could have been a blacksmith, a printer, a postmaster, or a stone carver. If you were a girl, you would go to school everyday, but if you were a boy, you would only go if your dad didn’t need help on the farm.  

     No one ever complained about going to school, it was an honor to be sent to school.  If you didn’t like your school marm or schoolmaster, you needed to learn to like them, because some kids would have to live with him/her.  Part of his or her pay was a place to stay and get to eat three meals a day, so the only guaranteed way to be sure they got that part of their pay was to send them to live with a family.  Sometimes the school marm or master was only about fourteen, because the only requirement for that job was that they had to have passed all eight grades.  An average school day would be from about 9:00-4:00.  There were many rules.  

     Some of the rules were, obey your elders, speak only when spoken to, idleness is sinful, busy hands maketh a quiet mouth, cleanliness is next to godliness, stand thy body tall to recite, hold thy tongue while others speak, honor thy mother and father, give thanks for life’s blessings, and children shall be seen and not heard.  The pledge of allegiance was even different; I pledge allegiance to my flag, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, with liberty and justice for all.  

     There would be one full hour for lunch, and two recesses.  You would write all your schoolwork on a slate until your penmanship was almost perfect, then you could write with ink.  You would go to school with all your brothers and sisters and neighbors.  There was only one school per town, and every grade was in one room.  

     You would walk home to a one room house .  That one room would be your family room, living room, dining room, and your parent’s bedroom, You would most likely sleep in a loft on top of that one room in your house.