The One-Room Schoolhouse Lives On

An interesting story about efforts to keep open a one-room schoolhouse on a remote part of Catalina Island, off the Southern California coast. Last year the school had only three students. Despite that enrollment number, the school has wide community support, with over 100 members in the school's PTA; the island's residents raised over $72,000 to keep the school open next year.

(I am curious to know why it costs the school district $91,000 to operate a school for three students; it would be interesting to see a breakdown of the costs beyond the teacher's salary, materials, and utilities.)

Many of the advantages described from learning in a one-room schoolhouse sound strikingly similar to the benefits found in homeschooling.

Another fascinating story about a one-room schoolhouse in California can be found here. The Eastern Sierra Academy in rural Bridgeport, California, has recently achieved national recognition for the high percentage of students who take and pass Advanced Placement exams and go on to succeed in college.