[soft piano music]
- What's interesting as
I think back on the years that I spent in a country school
is that they were much more
than places where children learned academics.
That was important.
We learned our academics and we learned them well.
But the country school children themselves
formed what I would today call a learning community.
We didn't talk about it at the time.
We worked together.
Young and old working together.
Those who learned well and those who learned less well
working together.
Teacher and parents working together.
It was a group of people
who all wanted this school to succeed.
The kids that graduated from these country schools
almost all of them were farm kids
and when they went back to the farm
they knew what community meant
because they had experienced it for eight years
in the country school.
And thus, they were the foundation
for the development of what community really meant
in the rural areas.
Beyond that connection,
the country school was the center,
social center, academic center for the entire community.
And not only was it the social center
where everybody went to the Christmas program
and all the other events that went on at this school,
but the school gave the community an identity.
And when the schools closed,
a little bit of that identity was lost.
In fact, quite a bit of that identity was lost.
And the idea of a community of learners working together
as an example of what a larger community might be
and how it would interact
and how people would help each other
and people would care for each other
and people would know each other
and know each other well.
A little bit of that was lost, as well.
*
- Jerry Apps: One-Room School
was funded in part by
Ron and Colleen Weyers,
Joel and Carol Gainer,
Greg and Carol Griffin,
Morgan's Shoes,
Wisconsin History Fund,
with support from
the National Endowment for the Humanities,
and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.
[school bell rings]
[chalk on blackboard]
- I want to start in 1938
because in that year, I was a little four-year-old
and I would stand out by the country road
that went by our place and I'd wait for the kids to come
that were on their way to school.
And one young lad I remember well.
His name was Mike Korleski,
and he would stop and he would chat with me
and I thought that was absolutely fantastic.
Add another year and I'm now, I'm just five years old.
I have twin brothers
and I think my mother was more than happy to get rid of me.
And so now, I'm standing out by the road
because this time
I'm not waiting just to talk with the kids
I will be walking with them.
Unfortunately, I wasn't one to ever comb my hair,
I had more hair in those days.
And my mother said, "If you're going to go to school
you gotta comb your hair."
So I combed my hair and I had a cap,
pretty much like I'm wearing right now,
And so I put on my cap, my hat, and I waited for Mike--
and there were other kids-- to come
and I walked along with them to school.
I mean, it was a fantastic event
because we had about a mile along the country road
and we would listen to the birds
and we look for a rabbit and all that sort of thing
and then we got to the top of Miller's Hill,
which down at the bottom of the hill was the school.
And what was common
was for the teacher to ring the bell at 8:30
because we had to get to school by 9 o'clock.
And I have never forgotten
that sound of the school bell that first day
when I'm on my way to school.
[school bell rings] Ding dong, ding dong.
And it has a little valley there
and you could hear it echoing down the valley, ding dong.
I mean, I was--
Well, what could be better than to be able to go to school?
And I would hear that school bell.
And now Mike said, "Well, we better hustle on
because we gotta get there before 9 o'clock."
And we-- Finally, we got to the school,
pulled open the big ol' school door,
Mike said, "Now here's what you do.
"You go right in here now,
I'll introduce you to Ms. Piechowski."
That was our teacher.
Old, old woman, 18 years old,
just out of Normal School. [chuckles]
But to me, she was an old woman.
Black hair, beautiful young woman.
And she says, "Hi, Jerry,
so glad that you can be a part of this school."
"There'll be one more kid in your class," she said,
"Norman Hudziak, he's going to be in the class with you."
The first thing that I noticed
was the smell of the freshly oiled floor,
I've never forgotten that smell
because the school board would have done that
in cleaning the school in preparation for the fall term.
And now I meet some of the other kids.
Clair Jenks is there.
Clair is probably in fourth, fifth grade
and Clair was-- well, he took it upon himself
to initiate the first graders,
I didn't realize that at the time.
And I need to back up a little bit and say that
at home if you wanted a drink of water,
we didn't have indoor plumbing,
never had plumbing as long as I was home.
If you wanted a drink of water, you went to the water pail
that sat by the sink and there was a dipper
and you took a drink of water.
I was thirsty and I was looking for a water pail.
There wasn't any water pail.
And Clair said, "Well, now, if you want a drink of water,
here's what you do."
And I saw this water cooler.
I'd never seen such a thing as that,
just a beautiful water cooler.
I walked over there and I says, "How do you work that thing?"
He said, "Ah, let me show you."
He said, "You see that little thing in the middle?" - I see that.
- "Get your nose close as you can to that
and I'll push the button and you'll see how it works."
And so I leaned over
anticipating to get a drink of water
and what I got was a shot of water in my nose.
And I was sputtering away,
and Ms. Piechowski didn't see this.
This was not something that was a good thing to do,
obviously, but that was something that Clair Jenks did.
Now, I'm sitting in my little seat
way in the front of the school.
The early grades were in the front of the school.
The older kids were in the back.
Bigger seats, smaller seats in the front.
And I'm looking around the school to see what I see.
I was always curious.
And up on the wall right in front of me,
is a blackboard that stretches across
the whole front end of the schoolroom.
And on either side of that schoolroom
was a picture of Lincoln
and a picture of Washington
and to the left were maps,
if you pulled them down like a shade
and there you would see the United States
or you could see the world.
It was wonderful.
Especially later, I learned
if you pulled them down and let go real quick,
it'd go [snapping] and it'd go whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop,
but you didn't want the teacher around when you did that.
And on the other side of the room was this huge clock.
Ms. Piechowski pointed out to us
that we want you to be quiet at times in this school
and we want you to be so quiet
that all you will hear
is this old clock.
Tick tock, tick tock.
In the back of the school is our library.
Three, maybe four shelves of books.
That was it, but it was wonderful.
One of the first exercises that Ms. Piechowski did,
as I think back to it, it was a stroke of genius.
She was teaching us how to read, Norman and me.
And she laid out on the floor a highway
and she gave each of us a little car,
never had a little car before,
we're to drive this car along this road
and about every two, three inches there was the word,
"and", "the", "but", et cetera.
And you'd get to that and she'd say,
"Well, you can't drive on until you know that word."
Within, I don't know, couple months
I could read basic stuff, Dick and Jane .
The little Dick and Jane books.
See Jane run.
See Dick do something.
[laughs]
I was one of those weird kids, I think,
as I got to know a lot of other kids.
I loved school from the moment
I walked through the door and I have never gotten over it.
The idea of learning something new, to me,
is still just absolutely fantastic.
And each day in school, I was learning something new.
This is not a good thing that I'm about to tell now
and if the teacher had caught me...
Then I would have gotten into trouble.
Today I would've been expelled.
I was out in the pump house
where we kept the wood for the wood stove.
I'm picking up some kindling wood
because the teacher said, "Now you all have these duties
to do and as a first-grader, you can carry
some kindling wood in for the stove."
And so I'm out in the woodshed
and Clair Jenks comes along
and he takes my cap off my head.
Now, I had one cap, it was my favorite cap
and I don't care who this kid is,
he's now got my cap, he stands there,
[mock laughing]
and I pick up a piece of kindling,
I whop him over the head.
He falls to his knees,
tears coming down his face.
I said don't do that again.
I thought he was going to tell the teacher what had happened,
He didn't.
He didn't and we became good friends after that.
You don't do that today.
And I don't advocate that sort of treatment for a bully.
But at the time it seemed appropriate.
Coming home from school, we'd often talk about the day.
"Well," I said, "Clair Jenks needs help
because he just pulled the dirtiest trick on me."
And my pa said, "Ya' know, Clair's like that."
[laughing]
And that's about all there was to it.
I didn't tell him that
I whopped him over the head with a stick.
My mother would not have appreciated me
whopping anybody over the head with anything.
But I solved the problem in my own way.
Nobody messes with my hat.
[recess bell rings]
Arriving at school, I carried a lunch bucket,
as all of us did.
The lunch bucket I had was a lard pail,
five-pound lard pail.
My mother cleaned it out.
When we'd arrive at school--
and let's say this is August or September, the fall--
put our lunch bucket on the shelf
in the entryway to the school.
And then, promptly at 9 o'clock,
we would all assemble around the flagpole
because we would lift the flag up the pole.
An eighth-grader had that duty
and I need to take some time in a bit and talk about duties
because there was a progression of duties.
You started out in first grade with cleaning erasers,
nobody remembers how you do that,
you take two erasers and you pound 'em together,
and big cloud of dust and you sneeze
and you have all kinds of problems.
And that was first graders' job.
And then, you graduated.
By the time you were in second, third grade
you had graduated to sweeping out the outhouses,
quite a mid-management kind of proposition
that you were required to do.
And you felt pretty good about it
because no longer did you have to suffer
the dust of the erasers.
And then about fourth grade, third grade,
you carried in wood and that's another very important duty.
The teacher had you believing that each one of those duties,
as you progressed up the ladder,
was more significant and important.
And it was true and you carried in water in the same way.
So we had all these duties,
by the time you got to eighth grade
your duty, highest level duty of all,
you tried to work hard to get to that point
was putting up the flag and taking it down in the afternoon.
And so we're now all gathered around the flagpole,
little eighth-grader, big smile on her face,
runs the flag up the pole
and we say the Pledge of Allegiance .
We do that every morning.
Now, if she had allowed
the flag to touch the ground
at any point in that whole experience
back to erasers.
[laughing]
We all file into the schoolroom.
We're quiet. We learned how to be quiet.
Bring the first-graders up front and they would recite,
was the word used, and we would work our way through
all of the classes.
Want to say a word about the teachers
because I gained a lot from these teachers.
A different one every year;
I don't know why they came and went,
except some of them got married.
Early 1900s, we started what are called "Normal Schools,"
two-year schools for instruction in country school teaching.
So let's say they graduated from high school
when they were 17;
Well, they were 18, 19 when they were out there teaching.
The teachers tended to live with the farmers in the community.
Sometimes they would go from farm to farm in the early days.
In my experience, they tended to live with McKinley Jenks
who lived less than a quarter-mile from the school.
And she walked to school, of course.
She didn't have a car and walked through the woods
from Mac Jenks' place to the school.
Arriving before the students, generally at 7:30, 8 o'clock.
And the first thing she would have to do
would be to start the fire in the stove.
The teachers were the janitors, interestingly enough.
They enlisted the students to help
with the janitorial work, of course,
but they were responsible for starting the fire
the first thing in the morning.
And if it was 35 below zero outside, my gosh,
that school was just deathly cold.
She'd get the fire going.
Hoping by 9 o'clock it would be somewhat warm
so that we could learn what needed to learned that day.
And she also was in charge of teaching us
the games that we played outside,
she generally umpired the softball games.
So, now she's the janitor and the recreation director
and, of course, in charge of teaching all of us.
If you fall down and skin your knee, she was the school nurse.
Would find some tape and Mercurochrome--
nobody knows what that is anymore
but the teacher was the glue, the key
that kept it all together.
They were remarkable people.
Think about this:
they had to know first-grade material,
eighth-grade material.
They led spelling bees.
They introduced us to the literature,
if we could call it that, on the bookshelves,
taught us how to read, taught us how to do long division,
then geography.
We had, really, a pretty decent geography experience.
We had history.
We studied Wisconsin history.
One of the interesting things about my school,
when I started some of the kids could barely speak English.
Those from Polish families.
English was their second language.
They didn't know that.
The Norwegian kids, some of them came.
They couldn't speak hardly a word of English.
They spoke Norwegian.
The German kids, what do you do as a teacher?
My gosh! You can't understand the kid.
They survived all that.
There was tremendous respect for the teacher.
Whatever she said was law.
Whether it was right or wrong, we did it.
And why?
Because if we disobeyed the teacher, generally speaking,
before we got home our parents knew
and we caught holy whatever for disobeying.
That's the connection the community provided
in the support of the teacher.
Now it was not fear.
You'd say, "Well, you were afraid of the teacher."
No, that was not it.
We're not afraid of the teacher.
We were respectful of the teacher.
And it was not a dour,
everybody was sad, looking at their feet.
No, at appropriate times, we hooted and laughed.
And, of course, why wouldn't we?
Just as today, some-- we call them slow learners--
They just had difficulty learning,
and there weren't any special teachers to work with them.
There was just one teacher.
But if she was wise--
and they were, every one of them that I knew--
she would assign this little guy or gal
who was having trouble reading.
Say I was in seventh grade, she'd say,
"Jerry, would you spend a little time with Mabel."
And then I would sit down with Mabel
and I would say, "Now read this line to me."
And she would stumble along, and I would say,
"Now, this is how I would read it."
That really works.
Little Mabel, we played softball together.
Probably every kid knew each other very well,
knew their families,
knew their dogs, horses, and the whole schmear.
So little Mabel is learning how to read.
Doing that, by the time I was in eighth grade,
I said, "I think I want to be a teacher."
Never got over it; I taught for 37 years.
As much as we liked the schoolroom,
to tell you the truth,
we couldn't wait to get out of the place,
and so recess and lunchtime, we were outside.
For my two brothers and me, my mother always packed our lunch.
And it would usually be a jelly sandwich
and maybe a cookie and something else.
Some of the kids came to school
with sandwiches with lard spread on a piece of bread.
That was their lunch.
'Cause one of the things we learned
without realizing we were learning
was that not everybody has similar circumstances.
Some of us are a lot poorer than the others.
None of us had much, but some of these kids had nothing.
So what we would do,
"Have one of my cookies,"
"Here's a sandwich that I don't need."
That was lunch.
Well, it's part of the community I think is so important
that we were learning about in school.
Those who needed something, we should help them.
You wouldn't let a little kid
sit off to the side and eat a lard sandwich
when you're chomping
on a big ol' jelly sandwich and homemade chocolate cookie.
There were a couple families like that,
they just had nothing.
Those lessons not in books
were so important in those country schools.
>> HI, I'M JON MISKOWSKI,
DIRECTOR OF
WISCONSIN PUBLIC TELEVISION.
WE'RE WATCHING "JERRY APPS:
ONE-ROOM SCHOOL."
THIS IS JERRY APPS.
>> YES, IT IS.
>> IT'S A WONDERFUL PROGRAM PUT
TOGETHER TO REALLY SHARE THIS
REALLY IMPORTANT STORY.
A LOT OF US KNOW OF
ONE-ROOM SCHOOLS.
WE KNOW ABOUT THIS REALLY
INTERESTING EXPERIENCE OF THE
TEACHERS AND THE MANY GRADES
THEY HAD TO TEACH.
>> WELL, YES.
AND THERE WASN'T SUCH A THING
AS KINDERGARTEN.
BUT FROM 1ST THROUGH 8TH GRADE,
THAT WAS THE RESPONSIBILITY
OF THE TEACHER.
AND CAN YOU IMAGINE THAT SHE HAD
TO KNOW ALL OF WHAT EIGHT GRADES
WOULD NEED TO KNOW ALONG THE
WAY, AND AT THE SAME TIME THAT
SCHOOL, IN ADDITION TO ALL
THE ACADEMICS THAT SHE WAS
RESPONSIBLE FOR.
THAT SCHOOL WAS THE CENTER OF
THE COMMUNITY.
IT WAS THE SOCIAL CENTER.
IT GAVE THE SCHOOL AN IDENTITY.
IT WAS A VERY SPECIAL PLACE IN
RURAL COMMUNITIES ALL ACROSS
THIS COUNTRY.
>> SO THIS IS REALLY AN
OPPORTUNITY FOR MANY PEOPLE TO
REMEMBER THEIR OWN EXPERIENCE AT
A ONE ROOM SCHOOL.
>> EXACTLY.
>> BUT ALSO TO SHARE THAT WITH
THE COMMUNITY.
WHEN YOU MAKE A PLEDGE
OF $6 A MONTH, WE HAVE
THE DVD OF THIS PROGRAM.
WE ALSO HAVE ANOTHER DVD IN
THERE ABOUT TELLING YOUR STORY.
IT'S AN OPPORTUNITY FOR YOU TO
SUPPORT WISCONSIN PUBLIC
TELEVISION AND TO SHARE THIS
STORY WITH FOLKS IN YOUR FAMILY.
THE PHONE NUMBER TO CALL IS
1-800-236-3636.
>> HI.
I'M AIMEE GRANGER HERE AT
WISCONSIN PUBLIC TELEVISION.
WE ARE ALL SO THRILLED TO HAVE
JERRY APPS RIGHT HERE WITH US
THIS EVENING, AND WE'RE THRILLED
TO HAVE LOTS OF WONDERFUL WAYS
TO SAY THANK YOU WHEN YOU PLEDGE
YOUR SUPPORT THIS EVENING.
THERE'S QUITE A LIST.
I'M GOING TO GET THROUGH IT
QUICKLY HERE.
SO IF YOU CALL TO SUPPORT US AT
$6 PER MONTH, LET US THANK YOU
WITH THE PROGRAM DVD OF
TONIGHT'S PROGRAM, "ONE-ROOM
SCHOOL," AS WELL AS THE JERRY
APPS TELLING YOUR STORY DVD THAT
COMES WITH EACH OF THESE DVDS.
THEN AT $8 PER MONTH WE'LL THANK
YOU WITH THE BOOK WRITTEN BY
JERRY'S DAUGHTER SUSAN.
IT'S A WONDERFUL COMPILATION OF
A LOT OF THE RESEARCH THEY DID
WITH HER DAD.
AT $10 A MONTH IT'S THE TWO
DVDs AND THE BOOK.
AT $12 PER MONTH IN SUPPORT
WE'LL THANK YOU WITH THIS
WONDERFUL PRINT.
IT'S SIGNED BY THE ARTIST AND BY
JERRY.
AND THEN FINALLY AS A SUSTAINER
AT $15 A MONTH WE HAVE
EVERYTHING ON OUR TABLE.
IT'S DVDs, THE BOOK,
THE PRINT.
GIVE US A CALL AT
1-800-236-3636.
>> WELL, THANK YOU, AIMEE.
I'M KERMAN ECKES.
I'M ON THE STAFF HERE AT
WISCONSIN PUBLIC TELEVISION.
THANK YOU IF YOU'VE ALREADY
CALLED TO BECOME A MEMBER DURING
THIS VERY IMPORTANT BREAK,
DURING JERRY APPS'
ONE-ROOM SCHOOL HOUSE.
THIS IS A WONDERFUL STORY
BROUGHT BY A WONDERFUL
STORYTELLER.
WE'VE SEEN JERRY APPS ON
WISCONSIN PUBLIC TELEVISION
BEFORE AND WE HAVE LOVED THE
STORIES HE'S BROUGHT TO US.
THE WAY THAT HE TALKS ABOUT
DIFFERENT GENERATIONS THAT DRAWS
A CONNECTION
BETWEEN THE GENERATIONS.
ONE THING I'VE LOVED THAT I
HEARD IN THE OPENING TO THE SHOW
HE TALKED ABOUT WHAT MAKES UP
A COMMUNITY AND HOW THE ONE-ROOM
SCHOOL BECAME THE FOCAL POINT
OF THE COMMUNITY
AND THAT COMMUNITY.
IT WAS THE KIDS THAT WERE
INVOLVED, IT WAS THE TEACHER
THAT WAS INVOLVED, THE PARENTS.
IT BECAME THE SOCIAL CENTER OF
THAT COMMUNITY.
YOU KNOW, WISCONSIN PUBLIC
TELEVISION KIND OF WORKS LIKE
THAT.
WE'RE BASED IN OUR COMMUNITY.
WE GO OUT AND LOOK FOR STORIES
THAT ARE HERE IN OUR COMMUNITY.
WE CERTAINLY ARE ABLE TO DO THAT
BECAUSE OF SUPPORT FROM OUR
COMMUNITY, PEOPLE LIKE
YOURSELVES, PEOPLE THAT WATCH US
365 DAYS A YEAR.
SO PLEASE SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR
WISCONSIN PUBLIC TELEVISION BY
GOING TO THE PHONE AND DIALING
1-800-236-3636.
>> WELL, THE PHONS ARE RINGING
OFF THE HOOK.
IF YOU'RE TRYING TO GET THROUGH,
PLEASE BE PATIENT.
OUR VOLUNTEERS ARE TAKING CALLS
AS QUICKLY AS THEY CAN.
AND WHEN YOU CALL, LET US THANK
YOU WITH SOME WONDERFUL GIFTS,
WONDERFUL ITEMS THAT JERRY HAS
WORKED ON OVER THE YEARS.
SO AT $6 PER MONTH, LET US SAY
THANK YOU WITH A COPY OF THE
PROGRAM YOU'RE WATCHING THIS
EVENING, "ONE-ROOM SCHOOL,"
ALONG WITH THE COMPANION DVD
ABOUT STORYTELLING THAT JOHN AND
JERRY ARE GOING TO TALK MORE
ABOUT IN A LITTLE BIT.
AT $8 A MONTH LET US SAY THANK
YOU WITH A COPY OF THIS BOOK.
THIS IS GEARED TOWARD
YOUNGER READERS.
IT TALKS ABOUT WHAT
ONE-ROOM SCHOOLS WERE LIKE
AND IT'S A GREAT PERSPECTIVE
FOR THE YOUNGER GENERATION.
AT $10 A MONTH, LET US THANK YOU
WITH BOTH THE DVD OF TONIGHT'S
PROGRAM, AS WELL AS THE TELLING
YOUR STORY DVD AND THE BOOK.
AT $12 PER MONTH WE HAVE A
BEAUTIFUL, SIGNED DIGITAL PRINT,
SIGNED BOTH BY THE ARTIST
AND BY JERRY HIMSELF,
A WONDERFUL COLLECTOR'S ITEM.
FINALLY, LET US THANK YOU
WHEN YOU DONATE $15 PER MONTH
THIS EVENING WITH PROGRAM DVDs,
THE RELATED BOOK, THE PRINT,
ALL AS A PACKAGE
WHEN YOU CALL US THIS EVENING
AT 1-800-236-3636.
>> IT'S GREAT TO HEAR THE GREAT
RESPONSE TO THIS NEW PROGRAM
FROM JERRY APPS.
YOU KNOW, ONE THING
THAT'S REALLY WONDERFUL ABOUT
THIS PROGRAM IS THIS REALLY
CELEBRATION OF THE TEACHER
AS WELL.
>> EXACTLY.
>> AND WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT
WHAT PUBLIC TELEVISION IS ABOUT,
I THINK IF WE COULD DEFINE IT
AND BOIL IT DOWN,
IT'S REALLY FINDING AND SHARING
GREAT TEACHERS.
>> THAT'S A PART OF IT,
FOR SURE.
>> AND ONE OF THE THINGS THAT I
KNOW YOU'VE DONE A LOT OF WORK,
IS ENCOURAGING PEOPLE TO SHARE
THEIR STORIES.
SO WE'VE BEEN COLLABORATING
ABOUT A DVD THAT YOU'VE HEARD
A REFERENCE TO
THAT'S GOING TO BE IN THE DVDs.
YOU WANT TO TELL FOLKS
ABOUT THAT?
THEY'RE SEEING
A LITTLE VIDEO OF IT NOW.
>> A FEW WEEKS AGO, AGAIN,
AT THE WILD ROSE LIBRARY,
WE GATHERED 25 PEOPLE AND
I DID AN ABBREVIATED WORKSHOP
ON STORYTELLING THAT I'VE
DONE NOW FOR MANY, MANY YEARS.
WE HAD A WONDERFUL RESPONSE,
WONDERFUL STORIES, A CHANCE FOR
PEOPLE TO SHARE THEIR OWN
EXPERIENCES, IN THIS CASE WITH
ONE-ROOM COUNTRY SCHOOLS
OR WHATEVER KIND OF
ELEMENTARY EDUCATION THEY HAD.
IT WAS A GREAT DAY.
>> SO OUR FOLKS HAVE CAPTURED
THAT AND ALONG WITH THE SHOW
THAT YOU'RE WATCHING, WE HAVE
THIS INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEO.
WHAT DID PEOPLE
USE TO CALL THEM?
INSTRUCTIONAL TELEVISION,
INSPIRATIONAL TELEVISION.
TO HELP YOU...
>> EASY, JON.
>> TO HELP YOU GET INSPIRED
BY JERRY'S WORK
TO SHARE YOUR STORY.
THE PHONE NUMBER TO CALL AND
PLEDGE IS 1-800-236-3636.
>> WE CAN HEAR THE PHONES
RINGING WITH INSPIRATION.
SO MANY OF YOU ARE INSPIRED
TO GIVE BECAUSE YOU'RE ENJOYING
THIS PROGRAM THIS EVENING.
SO PLEASE GIVE US A CALL.
WHEN YOU DO, LET US THANK YOU.
AT $6 A MONTH
WE'D LOVE TO THANK YOU
WITH A COPY OF THIS PROGRAM
THIS EVENING ONE ROOM SCHOOL,
AS WELL AS THE COMPANION DVD
THAT JERRY AND JON
WERE SPEAKING ABOUT.
AT $8 PER MONTH LET US THANK YOU
WITH A COPY OF THE BOOK WRITTEN
BY JERRY'S DAUGHTER SUSAN.
KERMAN IS GOING TO SPEAK MORE
ABOUT WHAT THAT BOOK IS
AND TALK ABOUT WHAT'S INSIDE
OF THAT TREASURE.
AND THEN AT $10 PER MONTH,
LET US THANK YOU WITH TWO DVDs.
THAT'S ONE-ROOM SCHOOL
AND TELLING YOUR STORY
AS WELL AS THE BOOK.
AT $12 A MONTH WE HAVE
THIS BEAUTIFUL PRINT,
SPECIALLY COMMISSIONED ARTWORK
FOR THIS PROGRAM
SIGNED BY JERRY AND THE ARTIST.
AND THEN AT $15 PER MONTH
WE HAVE THE DVDs OF ONE-ROOM
SCHOOL AND THE COMPANION, THE
RELATED BOOK, THE PRINT AND THEN
COPIES OF A FARM STORY AND FARM
WINTER WHEN YOU CALL US AT
1-800-236-3636.
>> IT'S GREAT TO HEAR
THE PHONES RINGING.
ONE PART OF THE STORY
THAT'S COMING UP IS ABOUT
PUBLIC BROADCASTING'S
REALLY IMPORTANT ROLE
IN WISCONSIN SCHOOLS.
>> IT WAS.
I'M GIVING MY AGE AWAY NOW, BUT
I STARTED AS A 1ST GRADER IN A
ONE ROOM COUNTRY SCHOOL IN 1939.
AND ONE OF THE MARVELOUS THINGS
THAT I REMEMBER FROM THOSE EARLY
YEARS, WE DIDN'T HAVE
ELECTRICITY AT THE SCHOOL.
BUT WE HAD A BATTERY-OPERATED
RADIO.
AND WE TUNED IN TO
THE WISCONSIN SCHOOL OF THE AIR.
AND I FOUND THAT TO BE
UNBELIEVABLY INTERESTING.
AND WE ALL, ALL OF US
LOOKED FORWARD TO THAT.
EVERY WEEK WE KNEW THAT WE WERE
GOING TO HEAR RANGER MAC AND
LEARN HOW TO SING AND DRAW
OVER THE AIR FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE!
>> IT'S PRETTY AMAZING TO HAVE
THE AUDACITY TO TEACH ART AND
DRAWING ON THE RADIO.
>> EXACTLY.
>> BUT IT WORKED.
IT REALLY DID.
>> AND THAT LEGACY CONTINUES ON
WISCONSIN PUBLIC TELEVISION
WITH THE WORK THAT WE DO
WITH WISCONSIN SCHOOLS,
DELIVERED IN MUCH DIFFERENT
WAYS, BUT IT REALLY IS
ONE OF OUR FOUNDING PRINCIPLES
THAT CONTINUES
BECAUSE OF YOUR SUPPORT.
SO THE PROGRAM
IS GOING TO CONTINUE.
JOIN US LATER WITH YOUR CALL.
[child singing "Away in a Manger"]
Our teacher would start us planning
for the annual Christmas Program.
And that program, for her,
was one of the major challenges of the year
because there were instances
where if the program was not deemed a success
and was not well-accepted by the community,
she may not have her contract renewed
and she knew that.
So she would select the pieces that we were to recite
and the little plays that we were to do
and we would begin practicing in the afternoon,
say a half an hour in November, and
by the time we got to December it was the whole afternoon.
She was intent that we would know what we were doing
but you worked your way up from a first grader
saying maybe a couple of lines and welcoming people
to by the time you were in eighth grade
you had major roles, like Joseph.
That was a major role
if you're in the nativity scene as Joseph.
We had a regular stage in our school.
Right after Thanksgiving, as we were preparing for the program,
the school board would bring the planks down,
nail 'em onto sawhorses,
and they were a couple feet off the floor
and that was the stage
and the brown curtains in front.
You could pull the curtains open.
That was a really big deal.
Our teacher had several interesting challenges
because we were such a mixture of kids.
One of the families that had moved into the community
had an uncanny proficiency in cussing.
They could swear better than anybody in the neighborhood.
We were astounded,
my brothers and I and the other kids of our age,
at how eloquent these young kids were
in their ability to cuss.
Now the teacher was having a problem
with this particular child
because he insisted on cussing in school
and of course that was a big "no-no."
He didn't know the difference
because at home that's what was common language.
And so she saw the Christmas program
as an opportunity to change this kid's direction.
He was maybe in fourth grade,
black hair, skinny little guy
and he would talk in a near whisper
and she wanted him to say just this one sentence,
"Jesus Christ was born on Christmas day."
And he would stand up on the stage
and he would say it in a near whisper
and she would say, "You've gotta speak louder, George,"
People gotta hear you say that."
[imitating George's whisper] "Jesus Christ was born on Christmas day."
You couldn't hear past the third row
what he was mumbling.
And so now on the night of the Christmas program
when the schoolroom was filled with parents
and cousins and aunts and uncles and bachelor farmers
and the whole schmear,
he's on the stage with the nativity scene.
And now with a booming voice
that you could hear to the outside
he said,
"Jesus Kee-rist was born on Christmas day."
The entire schoolroom burst into laughter.
The teacher was so embarrassed
she was ready to crawl under her desk.
It was one of those memorable moments that,
well, no one ever forgot.
On another night, the teacher that particular year
was proficient with piano-- not all of them were.
And we had a piano that sat up to the front of the schoolroom.
An old upright piano.
And mice had built a nest in the piano,
unknown to any of us.
The Christmas program consisted of a series of recitations.
We call them "saying our pieces."
Little things we memorized, there were little skits,
foolish little skits that we participated in.
And then, the nativity scene was the highlight
with Joseph on the stage wearing his dad's bathrobe
and Mary standing next to him,
clothed in a sheet with a bath towel on her head
and the naked baby Jesus in a little pile of straw,
a doll on the stage
and the teacher announced to all of us,
"This is a solemn moment.
"There will be no giggling.
"There will be no laughing.
"There will be no smiling.
"There will be nothing.
"You will sit quietly in reverence
of what you're going to see on the stage."
And Joseph came out and Mary came out
and they're standing there and all is well.
And we commenced to sing "Away in the Manger,"
teacher at the piano.
And then, the little mouse resting in the piano,
he did not care for "Away in the Manger"
or anything else and so he crawled out of the piano
and he stuck his little head over the side.
And those of us in the front row began to giggle,
violating the rule that the teacher had set.
And we noticed the back of her neck getting red.
And then the mouse crawled down the piano
and crawled up onto the stage.
And now the audience began to see the mouse.
A mouse without any sense of reverence
for the program that was taking place,
a mouse who was not listening to "Away in the Manger,"
that we were singing so wonderfully well.
And then the teacher stopped playing
and she looked around and she too began to laugh
and the whole audience was in-- just hooted in laughter
and it was the funniest thing that ever happened
and so, finally, teacher went back to the piano,
Joseph and Mary resumed their places 'round the baby Jesus
and we continued singing
* Away in the Manger * No place for his head
with reverence and quiet,
exactly as the teacher had suggested.
And then, after the Christmas program
Santa Claus-- There was always a Santa Claus.
One of the teacher's jobs was to select somebody
in the community to be the Santa Clause.
He would come into the schoolroom yelling,
"Merry Christmas."
He would first run around the schoolhouse
shaking bells.
Oh, my gosh!
"Santa has arrived!" the teacher would say,
and us older kids would roll our eyes.
And Santa would come in
stomping his boots and run up to the teacher
and give her a big kiss.
Her face would get all red and everybody would clap and cheer.
It was part of the deal.
And then there was a big sack that Santa carried on his back
of presents and so the teacher had a present
for each of the kids, some little thing.
I mean it was a big deal.
It was always the Friday night before Christmas.
That's when the program was held.
You hoped for some praise from your parents
and praise for German folks was not all that forthcoming.
It was the other way around.
If you screwed up,
you would hear about it no matter what you were doing.
But if you did something really well,
the best you could expect would be
maybe a head shake, something like that.
We just accepted that but individually you felt good.
We were actors of the first order
and I say that not jokingly because
that experience that we all had
as shy little country kids who had very little
in the way of connecting with other people,
the opportunity to stand on the stage
and sing, say your piece, be a part of a play,
whatever it was,
was something for me personally
that I've never forgotten.
How valuable it was to be able to say something
in front of a group
without keeling over, fainting,
or having stage fright or whatever happens.
Every kid that went to a country school
had an opportunity, eight opportunities, really,
each year, to do something, if not a lot of things,
in front of a live audience.
[old radio music]
- WHA radio announcer: Hello, boys and girls.
I can just remember way back last May
when I said goodbye to all of you
and hope that you were all
going to have a grand time during the summer.
Here we are back again
and with all our old friends from last year,
we have a lot of new friends in our radio class today.
- Way back in 1939 when I was in first grade,
I noticed as a little five-year-old
that there was this radio on the teacher's desk.
It was a Philco radio and there were two batteries.
The school had no electricity.
Of course, nobody had electricity.
We didn't have electricity at home either.
But at 9:30 in the morning,
this radio became the center of the universe
for all the kids in the school.
Let's say it's about 25 after 9 on a Monday morning
and we are patiently waiting for the teacher,
who is the only one who could touch the radio.
No kid would dare go near the radio.
She snaps on the radio.
There's a little static
and then promptly at 9:30-- and I've never forgotten this--
this voice, this deep voice comes on the air,
[speaking in deep dramatic tone] "This is WLBL of your state station
"in Auburndale, Wisconsin
"and today we are once more featuring Ranger Mac
with his special program on nature."
Oh, my gosh.
- Ranger Mac: Hello boys and girls,
we're standing at the threshold of another year.
Ranger Mac wishes that each day of the year ahead
may bring you many and many fine joyous things.
That no matter what else goes on in the world
your days may be full of the joys that rightfully belong
to the youth time of life.
- And we all at the edge of our chairs
are patiently listening for but a 15-minute program--
that's all the longer it was--
but it would be on every week
and Ranger Mac would tell us about things in nature
that were new to us.
I mean, we're farm kids!
I mean, we pretty much thought we knew
what nature was all about.
We walked to school and back.
We walked with our dads when we were hunting and fishing.
But Ranger Mac would help us see something
in nature that we didn't see.
He also encouraged us to put together a conservation corner,
a nature corner in our school.
And we had a sandbox
and we would stuck little artificial trees in there
and we would bring little toy animals from home
and we would have our little nature center.
My most wonderful memories go back,
when I was just a scrawny little kid,
listening to the radio along with
some 50,000 other little kids all over the state of Wisconsin,
tied together by radio.
Because we clearly were isolated.
I mean, we were out there in the boonies, clearly.
And through radio now, we were brought together
with a topic that was fantastic: nature.
My gosh, nature.
Now, cynically,
it was a break in what we were regularly doing--
[laughing]
It was different, I mean, it really was different--
and the idea that we were a part of something much bigger.
*
- WLBL radio announcer: The Wisconsin School of the Air presents
Journeys in Music Land with Professor E.B. Gordon.
- Professor Gordon: Good afternoon, boys and girls.
You know, something very nice has happened to us
here at the radio station today.
What do you suppose?
We have 50 children from the Carter School up at Markesan
visiting us.
- Well, Tuesday morning or Wednesday morning,
I don't know which day it was
but we would have, again,
[imitating deep voice] "WLBL Auburndale,
"Today we have an opportunity
"to once more participate with Pop Gordon
and the program is Let's Sing ."
Well, how preposterous to think about the fact
that somebody in Madison,
in a wee little studio with a pianist
would play songs that we,
in the little country schools all over Wisconsin--
I think beyond--
had the opportunity to sing along with him
and can you imagine what it would have been like
if you could have traveled from one school to another
and hear-- again, thousands of country kids--
all singing the same song at the very same time.
I mean, when you think about that, it's quite amazing
'cause we're talking about the '30s and the '40s
and the idea of social networks, nobody knew the language
even at that time.
So Professor Gordon did a wonderful thing.
There were little song books that he would also send out.
And then, once a year, he invited representatives
from each country school to come to Madison,
go to the Stock Pavilion and there would be
several thousand kids sitting in the Stock Pavilion
with a sawdust floor and Prof. Gordon is on the stage
and he's leading all of these kids
in the songs that they had sung.
And, of course, now they are together doing it.
And it was a poignant moment because now for the first time
the teacher, Pop Gordon,
would have the opportunity to see his students
and the students would see their teacher in person.
- James Schwalbach: And that brings us
to our little fun period for today.
But up first, let's see if we have everything all ready.
We want to have a large sheet of paper,
just as large as you can get on your desk
and then to work with: either crayons or watercolors.
Since we have such a big sheet of paper,
I want you to use every single bit of it.
Make your drawing so big
that you use up all of the space on the paper.
- And then, James Schwalbach's program was Let's Draw .
Now, this is almost absurd.
How can you draw something
when somebody's telling you something on the radio
for heaven's sakes?
He had a wonderful approach to doing this.
We all were taught, "Never ever color outside of the lines."
"Oh," the teacher would say,
"Now here's this thing to color
but don't go outside the line."
And Jim Schwalbach didn't give a rip about lines.
Here's an example of what he would do.
[imitating with deep voice] He would say, "Now today,
"put your heads down on your desks.
"And just think about what I'm going to tell you now.
"Imagine that you are in an aeroplane ,"
and that's how they pronounced it in those days
"...And you are flying from Wisconsin all the way to Norway
"across the ocean
"and you're arriving in a city called Bergen
"and you get off the plane
"and you find this mountain place
"and you hear music
"and the place is Edvard Greig's place in Norway,
the composer, the Norwegian composer."
["Morning Mood" Peer Gynt Suite ] And at that moment,
Jim Schwalbach puts on the Victrola,
the 78 record, one of Edvard Greig's pieces
and the kids listen to this music and he says,
"You're going down to his studio.
You're going to meet Edvard Greig.
You're hearing his music."
I mean, we're thinking, "Whoa, what is this all about?"
And then he says, "Okay."
Turns off the music,
"Lift up your heads.
"You've got a piece of paper in front of you now.
Draw what you just heard."
That is the most creative thing I ever heard anybody do.
"Draw what you just heard." How do you draw music?
But we all did.
It broke so many rules.
I'm sure the teacher was rolling her eyes.
"Don't worry about any lines.
"Don't worry about anything.
But draw what you heard."
Oh, my gosh!
But Prof. Gordon and Schwalbach,
they introduced us to the arts
in a way that we didn't even realize
we were being introduced to the arts.
And people criticize the country school
for its lack of breadth in curriculum.
And The School of the Air added a fantastic dimension
to that breadth.
And people say, "Well, all you studied in the country school
was reading, writing, and arithmetic."
We did study those,
but we also studied geography and we studied science
and we studied all kinds of things that went way beyond
reading, writing, and arithmetic.
And music, nature, and art were provided by WHA Radio.
>> HI, I'M JON MISKOWSKI OF
WISCONSIN PUBLIC TELEVISION.
AND HERE WITH JERRY APPS.
AND WANT TO ENCOURAGE YOU TO
GET TO THE PHONE RIGHT NOW WITH
YOUR PLEDGE, 1-800-236-3636.
WE HAVE A VARIETY OF THANK YOU
GIFTS, INCLUDING FOR A GIFT OF $
6 A MONTH, A DVD OF THE PROGRAM
YOU'RE WATCHING
ALONG WITH OUR SPECIAL DVD
"TELLING YOUR STORY."
BUT IT'S A CHALLENGE BREAK
AND YOUR DOLLARS ARE DOUBLED
IF YOU CALL RIGHT NOW
DURING THESE FEW MINUTES
WHILE WE'RE TALKING TO YOU.
CURRENT MEMBERS OF WISCONSIN
PUBLIC TELEVISION HAVE MADE A
GIFT ABOVE AND BEYOND THEIR
ANNUAL DONATION TO ENCOURAGE YOU
TO GIVE TO DOUBLE THE GIFTS
OF NEW MEMBERS OF
WISCONSIN PUBLIC TELEVISION.
SO WE'RE HOPING FOR
60 CALLS AND MORE.
SO WHY DON'T YOU GET US STARTED
WITH YOUR PHONE CALL AND YOUR
PLEDGE TO 1-800-236-3636.
WE HAVE THE BOOKS AND THE DVDs
AND THE VOLUNTEERS
CAN HELP YOU WITH THAT.
THOSE PICTURES OF POP GORDON
AT THE STOCK PAVILION
ARE JUST AMAZING.
>> AREN'T THEY, THOUGH.
MY GOSH?
IT'S SO POIGNANT.
HERE FOR THE FIRST TIME
THE TEACHER CAN SEE HIS STUDENTS
AND THE STUDENTS
CAN SEE THEIR TEACHER.
I THINK THAT'S QUITE AMAZING.
BECAUSE ALL YEAR ROUND
IT'S ALL BEEN OVER THE RADIO.
AND NOW IT'S THERE IN PERSON.
>> HE'S QUITE A CHARACTER.
>> I KNEW HIM.
>> YOU KNOW, ONE THING, FOLKS
WHO ARE ON THIS CAMPUS MIGHT NOT
KNOW IS THAT GORDON COMMONS
IS POP GORDON, NAMED AFTER HIM.
WHAT AN INCREDIBLE REACH
FOR THE STATE.
WHAT AN INCREDIBLE AMAZING IDEA.
SO REALLY GLAD
TO SHARE THAT STORY WITH YOU.
WE'LL TALK MORE WITH JERRY
TONIGHT.
BUT LOOK AT THIS RESPONSE.
GIVE US A CALL WITH YOUR PLEDGE
TO 1-800-236-3636.
>> WHAT AN EXCITING NIGHT TO BE
HERE IN THE STUDIO WITH JERRY.
WHAT AN EXCITING TIME
TO SHOW YOUR SUPPORT DURING
THIS CHALLENGE TIME, WHERE YOU
CAN DOUBLE YOUR IMPACT.
WHEN YOU DO, GIVE US A CALL,
SUPPORT US AT $6 A MONTH AND
LET US THANK YOU WITH THE DVD
OF THE PROGRAM YOU'RE WATCHING
THIS EVENING ALONG WITH
THAT BONUS WORKSHOP DVD.
AT $8 A MONTH, LET US THANK YOU
WITH THIS WONDERFUL BOOK.
WE'RE GOING TO TALK A LITTLE BIT
MORE ABOUT IT LATER.
SUSAN, JERRY'S DAUGHTER WROTE
THIS BOOK FOR YOUNGER AUDIENCES
AS A GREAT WAY TO SHARE
THE STORY OF ONE-ROOM SCHOOLS
WITH YOUNGER GENERATIONS,
KIDS IN YOUR LIFE.
AT $10 PER MONTH, WE'LL THANK
YOU WITH THE DVDs AND THE BOOK,
ONE-ROOM SCHOOLS,
THE WORKSHOP DVD
AND THE ONE-ROOM SCHOOLS BOOK.
AT $12 PER MONTH WE HAVE
THIS GORGEOUS, SIGNED PRINT.
IT'S A WOOD CUT PRINT SIGNED
BY BOTH JERRY AND THE ARTIST.
AND THEN, WE HAVE
THIS INCREDIBLE PACKAGE.
AT $15 LET US THANK YOU WITH
THE DVD, SOME VINTAGE DVDs
OF JERRY'S PREVIOUS WORK,
THE WOOD CUT.
GIVE US A CALL
AT 1-800-236-3636.
>> AIMEE MENTIONED THE WORKSHOP
DVD AS ONE OF THE THANK YOU
GIFTS THAT WE CAN SEND YOUR WAY.
THIS WAS A WONDERFUL EVENT.
IT'S A CLASS THAT JERRY TEACHES.
WE WERE ABLE TO TAKE OUR CAMERAS
THERE UP TO WILD ROSE.
WHILE JERRY TAUGHT AND PEOPLE
PRACTICED WRITING THEIR STORIES
AND TELLING THEIR STORIES.
THAT'S ONE OF THE WONDERFUL
THANK YOUS YOU CAN GET WHEN
YOU CALL AND JOIN US AS A MEMBER
OF WISCONSIN PUBLIC TELEVISION.
IT'S A GREAT WAY FOR YOU TO TELL
THE STORIES OF YOUR LIFE, TO
SHARE THE STORIES OF YOUR LIFE,
THE THINGS THAT WERE IMPORTANT
TO YOU THAT HAD A HUGE IMPACT
ON YOU AND PASS THAT DOWN
TO OTHER GENERATIONS.
THAT'S SOMETHING THAT'S VERY,
VERY IMPORTANT TO JERRY.
THAT'S WHY HE DOES SO MANY
DIFFERENT STORIES WITH US HERE
AT WISCONSIN PUBLIC TELEVISION.
AND WE CERTAINLY KNOW THAT YOU,
OUR VIEWERS, VALUE JERRY APPS
AND ALL THE PROGRAMS WE BRING
YOU HERE ON WISCONSIN PUBLIC
TELEVISION.
WE CAN TELL BECAUSE OF ALL OF
THE SUPPORT FROM PEOPLE WHO JOIN
US DURING BREAKS LIKE THIS ONE.
SO PLEASE, IF YOU'D LIKE TO
SUPPORT US HERE AT WISCONSIN
PUBLIC TELEVISION, GO TO THE
PHONE AND DIAL 1-800-236-3636.
>> WELL, WE KNOW A FEW FOLKS
CAME TO THAT SESSION
IN WILD ROSE FROM RIVER FALLS.
>> FROM RIVER FALLS.
TWO YOUNG MEN
CAME FROM RIVER FALLS.
>> WISCONSIN IS KIND OF
A WIDE STATE.
THAT'S A BIT OF A DRIVE.
>> IT WAS A DRIVE.
I WAS SO PLEASED TO SEE THEM.
THEY WERE THE YOUNGER PEOPLE
IN THE GROUP.
WE HAD A STUDENT
WHO WAS 97 YEARS OLD WRITING
AND TELLING HER STORIES.
WE'VE GOT YOUNG MEN TELLING
THEIR STORIES AND A 97-YEAR-OLD
WOMAN TELLING HER STORY AND
EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN.
>> AS WE SAID, IT WAS GREAT
TO WATCH PEOPLE WATCH THE SHOW
IN WILD ROSE
AND REALLY SHARE THEIR STORIES.
BUT ONE THING THAT YOU HIGHLIGHT
IN THIS ABOUT THE ROLE
OF THE OLDER KIDS TO TEACH.
>> YES.
AS WE WERE IN 5TH, 6TH, 7TH
GRADE, THEN WE WERE EXPECTED
TO HELP THE YOUNGER KIDS
WITH READING AND WITH MATH
AND WHEREVER
THEY WERE HAVING A PROBLEM.
I SPENT 38 YEARS TEACHING
AS A CAREER.
AND I GOT MY START WORKING WITH
YOUNGER KIDS IN THE ONE-ROOM
COUNTRY SCHOOL.
>> AND YOUR DAUGHTER IS A
TEACHER AND WROTE THE BOOK
ON ONE-ROOM SCHOOLS.
IT'S A WONDERFUL STORY TO SHARE.
REMEMBER, THIS IS
A CHALLENGE BREAK.
YOUR DOLLARS ARE DOUBLED WHEN
YOU CALL 1-800-236-3636.
JOIN US RIGHT NOW.
>> I WAS JUST TAKING A LOOK
AT ONE-ROOM SCHOOLS.
THIS IS THE BOOK
THAT WE HAVE FOR YOU.
THAT'S IF YOU JOIN US AT THE $8
A MONTH SUSTAINER LEVEL.
AND IT'S BY SUSAN APPS-BODILLY.
THAT IS JERRY'S DAUGHTER.
ONE ROOM SCHOOLS: STORIES FROM
THE DAYS OF ONE ROOM,
ONE TEACHER, EIGHT GRADES.
THIS IS A PERFECT BOOK I THINK
IF YOU WANT TO SHARE THIS WITH
YOUR KIDS OR YOUR GRANDKIDS.
IT'S FILLED WITH
ALL SORTS OF IMAGES,
DISCUSSION ABOUT
THINKING LIKE A HISTORIAN,
WHAT THAT MEANT
IN A ONE-ROOM SCHOOL.
WHAT HAPPENED TO
THE ONE-ROOM SCHOOLS?
HERE'S A CHAPTER
ON THE LUNCH HOUR.
YOU'LL SEE SOME
OF THE SAME IMAGES YOU'VE SEEN
IN THE DOCUMENTARY TONIGHT,
PLUS MANY, MANY, MANY OTHERS.
BUT IT'S A GREAT WAY FOR YOU TO
SHARE INFORMATION, AGAIN, ABOUT
WHAT ONE-ROOM SCHOOLS WERE LIKE.
HELP EDUCATE THAT YOUNGER
GENERATION AS TO WHAT THEY WERE
AND HOW THE ONE-ROOM SCHOOL
FUNCTIONED AND HOW KIDS LEARNED
AT THAT TIME.
SO THAT'S A GREAT THING THAT WE
HAVE TO THANK YOU WITH IF YOU
JOIN US THIS EVENING AS A MEMBER
OF WISCONSIN PUBLIC TELEVISION.
BUT IT ALL STARTS BY YOU GOING
TO THE PHONE AND DIALING
1-800-236-3636.
>> I THINK THAT CALL IS TAKING
US RIGHT TO ABOUT 50 CALLS,
ON OUR WAY TO 60 AND BEYOND.
IT'S GREAT TO HEAR
THIS REALLY WONDERFUL RESPONSE.
ONE OF THE LEVELS THAT IS
AVAILABLE TO YOU, WITH A GIFT OF
$15 A MONTH WE HAVE SORT OF
THE BOXED SET WITHOUT A BOX.
I DON'T THINK WE HAVE A BOX
FOR IT. [JERRY LAUGHS]
FARM STORY, THE ORIGINAL SHOW
THAT WE PRODUCED WITH YOU.
YOU WANT TO TELL FOLKS WHAT THAT
WAS ABOUT?
>> WELL, IT'S ALL MY GROWING-UP
YEARS ON THE FARM, WHAT IT WAS
LIKE WHEN YOU WERE A LITTLE GUY
AND YOU HAD NO ELECTRICITY,
AND THE HOUSE WASN'T INSULATED.
HEATED THE PLACE WITH WOOD
STOVES
AND FROZE TO DEATH
IN THE WINTERTIME,
WALKED TO SCHOOL,
AND ALL THE REST OF IT.
>> WALKED BOTH WAYS?
>> IT WAS UP HILL, TOO,
AND EVERY DAY WAS WINTER.
>> SPEAKING OF WINTER, FARM
WINTER, ABOUT WHAT YOU SAY IS
REALLY WHAT MAKES US DIFFERENT
IS SURVIVING THESE WINTERS.
>> THAT'S RIGHT.
>> INCLUDING A REALLY
EXTRAORDINARY CHRISTMAS STORY
THAT'S IN THAT PROGRAM
AND ONE-ROOM SCHOOL.
SO THAT GIFT OF $15 A MONTH
HAS ALL THREE DVDs.
IF YOU'VE ALREADY SEEN THOSE,
WHAT A WONDERFUL DVD
TO SHARE WITH OTHERS.
SO GIVE US A CALL,
1-800-236-3636.
WE'RE GETTING VERY CLOSE
TO OUR GOAL.
>> WE'RE SO CLOSE.
FIVE TO GO.
PLEASE BE ONE OF THOSE CALLERS.
AND GIVE US A CALL RIGHT NOW.
AND WHEN YOU DO, LET US THANK
YOU WITH SOME GREAT GIFTS.
IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS
ABOUT THESE GIFTS OR PACKAGES,
PLEASE FEEL FREE TO ASK
THESE VOLUNTEERS.
THEY CAN WALK YOU THROUGH SOME
OF THE OPTIONS AND YOU CAN ALSO
TAKE A LOOK ONLINE AT wpt.org
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE GIVING
LEVELS AND THANK YOU GIFTS.
JUST TO RECAP, AT $6 PER MONTH,
LET US THANK YOU WITH A COPY
OF ONE-ROOM SCHOOLS
AND THE COMPANION WORKSHOP DVD.
AT $8 PER MONTH, LET US THANK
YOU WITH THE BOOK THAT
KERMAN TALKED A BIT MORE ABOUT.
A REALLY WONDERFUL GIFT FOR
THE YOUNG PEOPLE IN YOUR LIFE.
AT $10 A MONTH, LET US THANK YOU
WITH ALL OF THOSE ITEMS,
THE TWO DVDs AND THE BOOK.
AND AT $12 A MONTH IT'S THE
SIGNED DIGITAL PRINT
THAT WE'VE TALKED ABOUT.
AT $15 PER MONTH, JON JUST
DISCUSSED THIS ENTIRE BUNDLE OF
WONDERFUL JERRY APPS' ITEMS WHEN
YOU GIVE US A CALL AT
1-800-236-3636.
>> AND PEOPLE CERTAINLY HAVE
BEEN CALLING US THIS EVENING.
WE ARE UP TO 58-- WITH THAT
TELEPHONE CALL, THAT'S 59.
SO WE HAD SET A GOAL OF 60
PEOPLE TO JOIN US DURING THIS
CHALLENGE BREAK.
IF YOU'VE BEEN HAVING TROUBLE
GETTING THROUGH, MAYBE YOU'LL BE
PUT ON HOLD, ONE OF OUR
VOLUNTEERS WILL GET TO YOU
AS SOON AS THEY CAN BECAUSE
WE'VE BEEN SO BUSY THIS EVENING.
BUT AS LONG AS YOU'RE ON THE
LINE, WE WILL COUNT YOUR CALL
AS PART OF
OUR MEMBERSHIP CHALLENGE.
AND, AGAIN, THAT MEANS THAT YOUR
DONATION TO WISCONSIN PUBLIC
TELEVISION WILL BE MATCHED.
IT WILL BE DOUBLED.
SO IT'S A FANTASTIC TIME FOR YOU
TO SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR
WISCONSIN PUBLIC TELEVISION.
SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR PROGRAMS
LIKE THE STORIES THAT JERRY
BRINGS US AND ALL OF THE SHOWS
THAT WE BRING YOU HERE AT
WISCONSIN PUBLIC TELEVISION.
THINK OF SOME OF THE OTHER
WISCONSIN-BASED SHOWS THAT WE
HAVE: "WISCONSIN FROM THE AIR",
"HOMETOWN STORIES", "HERE
AND NOW," "WISCONSIN LIFE."
THEY'RE ALL MADE POSSIBLE
BECAUSE OF YOUR SUPPORT.
AND THAT ALL STARTS WITH A PHONE
CALL AT 1-800-236-3636.
>> WHEN YOU GO ONLINE AT
wpt.org, YOU CAN GO ONLINE AND
GIVE, WE'VE JUST INTRODUCED
COMING OUT OF THE WORK THAT YOU
DID A COUPLE WEEKS AGO WITH THE
TELLING YOUR STORY, WE HAVE JUST
LAUNCHED A STORYTELLING
COLLECTIVE TOOL AND SITE ON OUR
WEBSITE THAT YOU CAN VISIT,
wpt.org, AND YOU CAN POKE
AROUND A LITTLE BIT AND INCLUDE
SOME OF JERRY'S INSPIRATION.
YOU WANT TO TELL THEM ABOUT THE
SESSION THAT YOU DID?
>> WELL, WE -- AS I MENTIONED,
THE AGES WERE FROM 20s ON UP
TO THE 90s.
BUT I GOT PEOPLE THINKING ABOUT
THEIR MEMORIES, OF WHAT IT WAS
LIKE IN THE ONE-ROOM SCHOOL OR
WHEREVER THEY WERE IN ELEMENTARY
SCHOOL AND THEN TO THINK OF A
STORY THAT WAS RELATED TO THAT
EXPERIENCE.
THEN I HAD THEM STAND UP IN
FRONT OF THE WHOLE GROUP AND
READ THEIR STORY.
AND IT WAS A WONDERFUL
EXPERIENCE BECAUSE MANY OF THESE
PEOPLE HAD NEVER DONE ANYTHING
LIKE THAT BEFORE.
AND HERE WE ARE,
SHARING THE STORY.
I DON'T THINK THEY WERE THINKING
ABOUT MAYBE SOMEDAY THIS IS
GOING TO BE ON THE INTERNET
OR ON TELEVISION.
BUT ANYWAY,
THEY DID A WONDERFUL JOB.
>> AND IT COULD BE.
YOU KNOW, WE REALLY ARE ONE OF
WISCONSIN'S STORYTELLERS AND WE
ENCOURAGE YOU TO THINK ABOUT
YOUR STORIES.
IN THIS CASE, WE'RE COLLECTING
STORIES OF ONE-ROOM SCHOOLS AND
ALSO EARLY SCHOOL STORIES.
AND IT'S REALLY A WONDERFUL
COMPANION TO THE WORK THAT JERRY
HAS SHARED WITH US ON WISCONSIN
PUBLIC TELEVISION.
SO THANKS FOR OUR FOLKS WHO DID
THIS GREAT WORK.
I KNOW WHEN YOU PLEDGE AND GET
THE DVD, YOU'LL ENJOY SEEING
THAT AND HOPEFULLY THAT BRINGS
SOME INSPIRATION FOR YOU
AS WELL.
THE PHONE NUMBER TO CALL IS
1-800-236-3636.
>> WELL, THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU
WHO MADE THIS CHALLENGE
SUCH A WONDERFUL SUCCESS.
WE'VE REACHED 67 CHALLENGE
GRANTS THIS EVENING.
SO THANK YOU FOR THAT.
CONTINUE TO CALL.
AND WHEN YOU DO, LET US THANK
YOU WITH A VARIETY OF WONDERFUL
THANK YOU GIFTS
AT VARIOUS LEVELS.
YOU CAN ASK OUR VOLUNTEERS MORE
ABOUT THAT OR CHECK IT OUT
ONLINE AT 1-800-236-3636.
>> THANKS, JERRY.
IT'S REALLY GREAT TO HEAR
THE RESPONSE.
>> YES, WONDERFUL!
>> WE HAVE ANOTHER PART
THAT HAS SOME --
I BELIEVE, SOME SOFTBALL IN IT.
>> IT DOES.
AND ONE OF THE FAVORITE THINGS
THAT WE DID STARTING AS SOON AS
THE SNOW MELTED IN THE SPRING
WAS TO PLAY SOFTBALL.
AND OUR SCHOOL PLAYED
THE NEIGHBORING SCHOOLS.
NOW, ONE OF THE THINGS ABOUT OUR
SCHOOL THAT MADE IT SPECIAL
IS THAT OUR DIAMOND WAS --
CONSISTED OF THREE TREES.
FIRST BASE WAS A BOX ELDER TREE.
SECOND BASE WAS
A BLACK OAK TREE.
THIRD BASE WAS A WHITE OAK TREE.
YOU NEVER SLID INTO A BASE,
AT LEAST NOT MORE THAN ONCE.
AND WHEN OTHER SCHOOLS CAME TO
PLAY, THEY JUST COULD NOT
BELIEVE THAT YOU COULD DO
A SOFTBALL GAME IN THE WOODS.
>> WELL, THAT'S COMING UP IN
JERRY APPS' ONE-ROOM SCHOOL.
THANKS FOR JOINING US.
[clock ticking]
What kid did not look forward to recess?
In fact, we would sit there
and about quarter after 10,
you could see a bunch of little heads
looking at that big Regulator clock
[tick tock, tick tock] and wondering,
"Oh, my gosh. It's still 15 minutes."
[chuckles]
Recess was a big deal.
I don't think of a game that we didn't all play
together .
One of our favorite games, we called it Anti-I-Over,
where you have two teams, one on each side of a building,
and the building was usually the pump house
because the school was too tall.
So the idea was
you had a rubber ball
and you threw it over the building in such a way
that it had to bounce on the roof on the other side
and if someone caught it, and they usually did,
then they would run around to the other side
and touch one of us with the ball or throw the ball at us
and then that person joined the other side
and that was Anti-I-Over.
And that was just great, great fun.
We played a lot of other games, too.
We played Kick the Can.
That's language you still use today
kick the can down the road.
Well, it was a game that we played
and it was a kind of hide and seek thing.
The person that was it would count off to 25
and everybody went and hid and then you went looking for them
and if you were too far away looking for somebody
another kid would come up and kick the can.
The teacher was by and large out there playing with us
and showing us how to do these games
from the time that we were little tikes.
There were many.
Drop the Handkerchief was another one.
Run, Sheep, Run was another one.
In the winter, we played Fox and Geese,
and snowball fights, and all that kind of stuff.
However, once we got to March, softball took over.
We did not play what we called hardball.
And why?
Because well, we couldn't afford it, I guess, to have a baseball,
but nobody had a glove.
We didn't know about gloves.
You could catch a softball with your bare hands
but a hardball that was another thing.
So there wasn't any baseball.
At any given year, we'd have probably a dozen maybe
that were playing softball.
And a six and six would work, but not very well.
So that's what we did Work Up.
Work Up was one of those games where
let's say that you said, "Well, today's my turn to be batter."
And as long as you were able to hit the ball
and run around the bases, you stayed as the batter.
As soon as you were out, then you moved on.
So everybody moved around.
If you were out in the outfield, left field,
you move to center field.
Then you'd be in right field.
Then you moved to shortstop, and so on.
So everybody got a chance to play every position
and everybody got a chance to bat and pitch,
and all the rest of it.
It was a wonderful way
to learn how to play every position.
If you're in first grade and you want to play ball,
you could play ball and somebody would show you how to do it.
And they'd show you how to hold a bat, how to swing the bat.
And you didn't have to run all the way to first base.
Halfway was good enough.
And also you got as many strikes as it took to hit the ball.
Now, the ball diamond itself,
first base you encountered
a box elder tree that was about 15 feet tall, scrawny.
Once you got to first base,
which was quite an achievement
'cause it was a fair hike and it was uphill
to get to first base.
Now, to go to second base, you had to go further uphill.
And second base was a black oak tree of some considerable size.
And if you thought you were going to slide into second base
like you maybe had read about in the paper someplace,
well you're not going to slide into second base
without killing yourself.
So you would hustle toward second base
and then quietly come up to it and hold on to it
because you were off base, not when you stepped off base,
but when you were no longer holding on to the tree,
that was a little special rule that we had.
Now once you got to second base
the idea was that you ought to have it
a little bit easier the rest of the way around the bases.
So third base was a white oak tree
and it was right against the pump house
and that was downhill now,
and the distance wasn't as great.
And then, third base, home was even further downhill,
as it should be.
If you can get to third base, you oughtn't have to run uphill.
You can run back downhill.
And if you knew how to hit the ball, and some of us did,
you'd hit it so that it would only fly about 8, 10 feet high
because otherwise it would end up in one of these trees
and if you hit it about 10 feet high
it might get over the fence, out on the road.
And that was a home run and that was a really big deal.
We played on that diamond all spring on up through May.
And we played with the neighbor schools on occasion.
And our teacher, Faith Jenks, at the time,
was a friend of the teacher at the Dopp School,
which was the other side of Wild Rose.
And the Dopp School had never been here before,
to this place, to this Chain O' Lake School.
They had never seen our ballpark--
oh, "park" is the wrong word-- our ball diamond.
And so they came over here in the teacher's car.
And the teacher got out and she took one look and said,
"We cannot play on this ball diamond.
We cannot play in the woods."
And Faith Jenks just sort of rolled her eyes
and didn't say anything.
She said finally, "Do you want to play ball or not?"
I forgot to point out that the Dopp team came...
the catcher came with a great big mitt.
I mean, the thing was as big as a watermelon.
My gosh, the first baseman
also had a glove and that was part of the discussion
because Faith said,
"We cannot play with a team that has gloves.
We don't have gloves."
And, of course, the Dopp teacher said,
"We don't play in the woods."
So, the compromise was:
playing in the woods; the gloves stayed.
So, Jim Kolka is the pitcher.
I'm on first base.
Dave Kolka is on second base.
My brother Donald is out in the outfield.
My brother Darrel is out in the outfield.
Mildred Swendryznski, maybe she was catching.
She's a good player.
And the first player they put up to the plate
was this enormous kid.
I mean, the kid must have been five and a half feet tall,
maybe taller than that.
I bet the kid weighed 150 pounds.
He's a big kid, great big ol' farm kid.
He grabbed up the bat, we only had one bat,
he grabbed up the bat like it was a piece of kindling wood
and I could see, standing on first base,
there was poor Jim and he's beginning to perspire,
I can see that and I say, "Jim, throw your screwball."
And Jim winds up and he pitches his screwball.
And it went right over the plate.
And this enormous player, he whacks this ball.
I mean he hit it as hard as he could.
And one of the advantages of Jim's screwball
is almost always the ball shot straight up in the air.
It did not go straight ahead like it should.
It shot straight up in the air and it ended up in second base.
Remember, second base is the black oak tree.
It's way up in second base.
And the big husky guy runs all the way around
because the tree, the ball is stuck up in the tree.
And we're all standing there
as a great quiet came over the game.
Dave Kolka had been in this circumstance before.
And he stood under the tree, looking up.
And all of a sudden there was a little sound
and the ball comes drifting down and he catches it.
And our teacher, Faith, says, "Out!"
And the Dopp teacher is just furious.
And our teacher reminds her, "I forgot to tell 'ya,
but that's the rule of the tree."
Well, the game continued the rest of the afternoon
and we ended up smoking 'em, something like 10 to five
'cause they couldn't figure out
how to play ball in the woods.
[school bell rings]
We are on the grounds of the old Chain O' Lake School
that I attended from 1939 to 1947.
And it was in 1947 that I was in eighth grade
and I had polio in January of that year
and I was out of school for a couple of months.
My eighth-grade teacher at the time
brought lessons out to the farm so I could keep up.
I was going to stay with the rest of the eighth graders,
but I was the only one in eighth grade at the time.
But she did a wonderful thing
in bringing the lessons out every day
because all eighth-graders throughout Waushara County
had to take an eighth-grade examination
before they were allowed to graduate
and thus be admitted to high school.
And so I was worried sick about taking these examinations
because had what I'd been studying at home been enough
for me to pass tests
in every subject that was offered at the school?
And so, the day came when I with, I don't know--
There must have been a couple hundred other eighth graders
from around the county
gathered at the Wautoma Normal School.
The test began in the morning at 9 o'clock.
At noon, we had an hour off
and I had a little sack lunch with me
that my mother had prepared.
And we were forbidden to talk with each other during lunch
because we couldn't share what we were doing.
That would be cheating.
So we all sat there quietly, eating our lunches,
and then it's back to taking tests again.
And we did that until 4 o'clock in the afternoon.
I'm exhausted and my dad comes to pick me up.
And he's not too happy
because he's wasted a day planting corn
and I still didn't know if I'd passed.
And a few days later, in the mail,
came a copy of the test results.
Yes, I passed. [chuckles]
There's nobody happier than my folks that I had passed--
My gosh, my kid made it --
because I really wasn't in very good shape to take those exams.
So, we were ready then
for the after school, end of the school year picnic,
which is right here
on this very grounds where we're sitting.
All of the families who had kids in school all came.
It was potluck.
Everybody brought something to eat.
And so, we had this great big meal
and we had ice cream afterwards.
And then, the teacher gave a little speech.
And she said, "I want to thank all of you parents
"for all of the help you did
in helping your children during the year."
And then she said,
"Jerry Apps has passed the eighth-grade examination
and he is now eligible to go to high school."
I've talked with
a lot of former teachers at country schools.
And as difficult it was to be a teacher at a place like this,
every one of those teachers said,
"Those were some of my very best years as teachers."
They knew that they were making a major contribution
to this community.
And you could tell,
with a big smile on the face at the end of the year
that they had succeeded in doing that.
And after we finished the big meal,
all of the fathers and this was a tradition
that went back as far as the school was in existence
I suspect.
The fathers all played softball with the kids
and it's just great fun.
And one of the things, as I reflect on that,
it's one of the few times I'd ever seen my dad play
anything.
Farmers didn't take time to play in those days,
except at this school picnic,
which was wonderful.
Then a couple weeks later,
at the courthouse in Wautoma,
where criminals were charged,
we all sat. [chuckles]
200, I guess, of us, who were going to graduate?
'Cause that's where the graduation was to take place.
And Arthur Dietz was the Superintendent of Schools.
And he gave a little speech on how wonderful it was
that we had all successfully passed eighth grade.
Tell the truth, it was a big deal
because there were a lot of people in my generation
and certainly in my folks' generation
who had never graduated from eighth grade.
So, this was a big deal to graduate from eighth grade.
And we all then walked across
and in front of where the judge would sit
and Arthur Dietz gave us each a diploma,
which had my name on it!
Wasn't just a blank sheet of paper.
It had my name on it.
I have it hanging on my wall today.
It's a huge thing.
Twice as large as the certificate
I got from graduating from the University.
Twice as large.
Then, after the graduation, went home.
And my dad went into the bedroom
and he came out with a little present,
something all wrapped up
and he said, "I want you to have this."
And I unwrapped it
and it was a Little Ben pocket watch,
a one dollar pocket watch from my dad,
the first watch I had ever had, gold colored.
I wish I had it today.
It was the most wonderful thing that you could ever imagine.
It symbolized the fact that
my dad had not graduated from eighth grade
and now I had.
And for him, that was very important
because of his generation most of them
wanted their children to do better than they had done.
And this was a symbol of that.
It's one of those things where you almost break down and cry
because I really wasn't expecting much of anything.
[soft piano music]
But as I look back at the whole experience,
it was a wonderful education.
I have no complaints whatsoever.
I learned how to read, I learned how to write,
I learned how to sing over the air,
I learned some in-depth information about nature,
I learned something about art,
and maybe above all,
I learned how to get along with little kids and big kids,
and Polish kids and Norwegian kids and German kids,
and some who couldn't hardly speak English.
We all got along with each other fantastically.
We had our little miffs, but by and large,
I found that one of the most interesting experiences
as I look back now from my other further education,
how much I was learning that was not in the books.
The idea of working together, of helping each other,
of sharing with each other,
of paying attention to the teacher and respecting her,
but realizing that she can't do it all.
I learned how--
I think most of the kids,
we learned how to learn by ourselves
and that's an invaluable lesson.
And I have a picture of the kids all lined up
in front of this very school on the steps.
And three of the kids have Ph.D. degrees.
I don't know of any of them that didn't do well
in whatever profession or job they sought.
And above all,
we formed a community of kids,
working together with the teacher, with the parents,
as a kind of a microcosm of the larger community.
There's no better place to learn what community is
than attending a one-room country school
>> THANKS FOR YOUR CALLS.
THANKS FOR YOUR PLEDGE
OF SUPPORT.
THE PHONE NUMBER IS
1-800-236-3636.
WE HAVE LOTS OF GREAT THANK YOU
GIFTS, INCLUDING THE BOOKS AND
THE DVDs.
BUT REALLY WONDERFUL STORY, SORT
OF AT THE HEART OF THE STORY
ARE THESE, MOSTLY, YOUNG WOMEN.
>> WELL, YEAH.
IN FACT,
WHEN I STARTED SCHOOL, 1939, MY
1ST GRADE TEACHER, I THOUGHT SHE
WAS AN OLD, OLD WOMAN.
SHE WAS 18 YEARS OLD.
SHE'D JUST FINISHED TWO YEARS AT
A NORMAL SCHOOL.
THAT'S THE WAY THAT COUNTRY
SCHOOL TEACHERS WERE EDUCATED.
CAN YOU IMAGINE THAT?
18 YEARS OLD, NO ELECTRICITY, NO
INDOOR PLUMBING, NO ANYTHING AND
RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL EIGHT GRADES
AND ALL THE KIDS.
I MEAN, WHAT AN UNDERTAKING
THESE YOUNG WOMEN FACED.
WHEN I TALK TO THEM TODAY--
AND I'VE TALKED TO
A LOT OF TEACHERS
WHO TAUGHT IN ONE-ROOM SCHOOLS--
TO A PERSON, THEY SAID
THAT WAS ONE OF THE
MOST WONDERFUL EXPERIENCES THAT
WE HAD IN OUR TEACHING CAREER.
>> IT'S A REALLY GREAT TRIBUTE
TO THEIR WORK.
AND YOU MENTIONED THERE AT THE
END LIKE THE SUCCESS OF JUST IN
YOUR CLASS, THREE PH.D.s.
>> YEAH.
AND WE HAD A RESEARCHER COME OUT
THERE AND SPEAK TO US, TO THE
PARENTS, AND SAID THESE KIDS ARE
ALL GOING TO BE SOCIAL MISFITS.
>> MAYBE YOU'RE A LITTLE BIT
OF THAT.
>> EXACTLY. [CHUCKLES]
>> ALL RIGHT.
SO THE PHONE NUMBER TO CALL IS
1-800-236-3636.
>> SO THANK YOU TO SO MANY OF
YOU WHO ARE SHOWING YOUR
APPRECIATION FOR THIS WONDERFUL
WORK BY JERRY AND THE PROGRAMS
THAT WE PROVIDE HERE AT WPT.
WE TO WANT THANK JERRY FOR
GIVING US HIS TIME TO CREATE
PROGRAMS LIKE THIS WE CAN
ALL ENJOY AGAIN AND AGAIN.
IF YOU'D LIKE TO RECEIVE A COPY
OF THESE DVDs FOR YOURSELF OR
AS A GIFT, IT'S A GREAT NIGHT TO
CALL AND SHOW YOUR SUPPORT.
AT $6 A MONTH, LET US THANK YOU
WITH A COPY OF ONE-ROOM SCHOOLS
AND THE COMPANION WORKSHOP DVD.
AT $8 PER MONTH, LET US THANK
YOU WITH THAT WONDERFUL BOOK
THAT WE'VE BEEN
TALKING ABOUT ALL EVENING
BY JERRY'S DAUGHTER, SUSAN APPS.
AT $10 PER MONTH WE'LL THANK YOU
WITH ALL OF THE ITEMS.
THAT'S ONE-ROOM SCHOOLS,
THE WORKSHOP DVD,
AND THE BOOK.
AT $12 A MONTH,
IT'S A VERY SPECIAL SIGNED PRINT
A DIGITIZED PRINT OF A WOOD CUT
SIGNED BY JERRY
AND BY THE ARTIST.
AT $15 A MONTH, WE HAVE
A FANTASTIC PACKAGE OF DVDs,
THE BOOK, THE PRINT.
PLEASE GIVE US A CALL AT
1-800-236-3636.
>> WELL, THANK YOU, AIMEE.
IN ADDITION TO ALL OF THE
WONDERFUL THANK YOU GIFTS THAT
WE CAN BRING YOUR WAY, THERE ARE
MANY OTHER BENEFITS TO YOU
BECOMING A MEMBER OF WISCONSIN
PUBLIC TELEVISION.
ONE OF THE FIRST ONES THAT YOU
CAN GET FOR ANY DONATION
AT THE $35 LEVEL OR ABOVE,
WE'LL SEND YOU "AIRWAVES."
THIS IS OUR MONTHLY PROGRAMMING
GUIDE.
IT'S A GREAT WAY TO KEEP TRACK
OF YOUR FAVORITE SHOWS.
WE HAVE GRIDS THAT SHOW
ALL THREE OF OUR STATIONS,
WHAT'S ON.
SO IT'S A GREAT WAY FOR YOU TO
KEEP TRACK OF YOUR VIEWING HERE
AT WISCONSIN PUBLIC TELEVISION.
WE ALSO HAVE
AN ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP SURVEY
THAT COMES YOUR WAY.
YOU HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO JOIN
IN A SWEEPSTAKES ONCE A YEAR.
AND YOU HAVE ACCESS TO PASSPORT.
PASSPORT COMES WITH ANY MEMBER
THAT COMES IN
AT A SUSTAINING LEVEL
OR FOR A ONE-TIME DONATION
OF $60 OR ABOVE.
IT'S AN ONLINE LIBRARY
OF PBS FAVORITES.
SO IT'S A GREAT WAY
FOR YOU TO GO BACK
I'VE USED IT TO GO BACK.
MAYBE I'VE MISSED A SHOW OR
THERE'S SOMETHING I ENJOYED SO
MUCH I WANTED TO WATCH IT AGAIN.
I WAS ABLE TO WATCH THAT
ON PASSPORT.
SO WE HAVE MANY WAYS TO THANK
YOU AND ENCOURAGE YOU TO BECOME
A MEMBER OF WISCONSIN PUBLIC
TELEVISION.
NOW WE NEED YOU TO GO TO THE
PHONE AND DIAL 1-800-236-3636.
>> THANKS.
IT'S GREAT TO HEAR
THE PHONES RING.
NOW, JERRY, YOU AND RUTH
ARE VERY GENEROUS SUPPORTERS
AND WE APPRECIATE THAT.
>> YES.
IN FACT, PUBLIC TELEVISION HAS
BEEN IN OUR LIVES AS LONG AS
THERE'S BEEN PUBLIC TELEVISION.
AND WE BOTH,
WE ENJOY A LOT OF
PROGRAMS ON PUBLIC TELEVISION.
ESPECIALLY THE "NEWSHOUR."
I SPEND EVERY EVENING
WITH THE "NEWSHOUR."
THAT, TO ME, IS
THE PREMIERE NEWS ON THE AIR.
BOTH RUTH AND I WATCH THAT
EVERY NIGHT.
>> APPRECIATE THAT.
APPRECIATE YOUR SUPPORT.
YOU ALSO TALKED ABOUT HOW KEN
BURNS IS A GREAT INSPIRATION.
>> WELL, KEN BURNS, OF COURSE,
IS A HISTORIAN.
I TRY TO BE A HISTORIAN.
BUT THE KEN BURNS WORK
IS ABSOLUTELY PHENOMENAL.
EVERY TIME ONE OF HIS PROGRAMS
COMES ALONG, IT'S SOMETHING
WE'RE GOING TO WATCH.
I TRY TO DO RESEARCH
FOR MY WORK.
HE DOES A WHALE OF A LOT OF
RESEARCH AND I APPRECIATE THAT.
I WISH I HAD THE KIND OF MONEY
HE HAS TO DO RESEARCH,
BUT THAT'S ANOTHER ISSUE.
>> AND THE NEXT BIG, BIG SERIES
FROM KEN BURNS
IS ABOUT COUNTRY MUSIC.
THAT'S A FEW YEARS DOWN THE
ROAD, BUT IT'S REALLY ALL THOSE
ARE POSSIBLE BECAUSE OF YOUR
SUPPORT, OF FOLKS CONTRIBUTING
THEIR DOLLARS.
IF YOU NEVER CONTRIBUTED, JUST
THINK WHAT A WONDERFUL SERVICE
THIS IS, WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU
AND WHAT IT MEANS TO OUR STATE.
GIVE US A CALL
AT 1-800-236-3636.
>> THAT'S RIGHT.
IF YOU ARE BECOMING A NEW MEMBER
THIS EVENING, WE THANK YOU.
IF YOU ARE A MEMBER FOR MANY
YEARS, WE THANK YOU.
IT'S A GREAT TIME
TO GIVE TO WPT.
AT $6 PER MONTH, WE HAVE A COPY
OF ONE-ROOM SCHOOL ALONG WITH
THE COMPANION DVD OF JERRY'S
WORKSHOP THAT HE RECENTLY DID
LOCALLY HERE.
AT $8 PER MONTH IT'S SUSAN APPS'
FANTASTIC BOOK FOR YOUNGER
GENERATIONS TO TALK ABOUT
THE HISTORY OF ONE-ROOM SCHOOLS.
AT $10 PER MONTH IT'S ALL OF
THOSE ITEMS, THE ONE-ROOM SCHOOL
DVD, THE COMPANION WORKSHOP DVD
AND THE BOOK.
AT $12 A MONTH, LET'S TALK ABOUT
THIS GORGEOUS DIGITAL PRINT
OF A WOOD CUT
CREATED BY JOHN ZIMM,
A LOCAL ARTIST THAT'S DONE A LOT
OF THE BEAUTIFUL ARTWORK YOU'VE
SEEN ON JERRY APPS' COVERS.
IT'S GORGEOUS.
IT'S 8 1/2" BY 11" DIGITAL PRINT
WITH SOME NICE MARGINS SO
YOU CAN FRAME IT FOR YOURSELF.
GIVE US A CALL AT
1-800-236-3636.
>> WELL, ONCE AGAIN THANK YOU
IF YOU'VE ALREADY JOINED US
AS A MEMBER
OF WISCONSIN PUBLIC TELEVISION.
WE'RE VERY BUSY, BUT WE HAVE
PLENTY OF PEOPLE HERE THAT WILL
TAKE YOUR CALL AND HELP YOU
BECOME A MEMBER OF WISCONSIN
PUBLIC TELEVISION.
IF YOU DIAL THE NUMBER
ON YOUR SCREEN, 1-800-236-3636.
YOU KNOW, JERRY AND JON WERE
JUST TALKING ABOUT KEN BURNS AND
THE IMPACT THAT KEN BURNS
HAS HAD AND THE SUPPORT THAT
HE'S HAD FROM OUR VIEWERS HERE
AT WISCONSIN PUBLIC TELEVISION.
WE'VE CERTAINLY SEEN THAT SAME
KIND OF SUPPORT
FOR JERRY APPS HERE.
IT'S BECAUSE OF PEOPLE LIKE YOU
THAT GO TO THEIR PHONES AND SAY
HISTORY PROGRAMMING IS SOMETHING
THAT I VALUE ON WISCONSIN PUBLIC
TELEVISION.
THINK OF ALL OF THE OTHER
PROGRAMMING WE BRING YOU AS
WELL, WHETHER IT'S ENTERTAINMENT
OR HOW-TO'S,
OR EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMING.
THERE'S SOMETHING FOR EVERYBODY
ON WISCONSIN PUBLIC TELEVISION.
WE'RE ABLE TO DO IT
BECAUSE OF YOU.
SO PLEASE GO TO THOSE PHONES
AND GIVE US A CALL AT
1-800-236-3636.
>> EVERYBODY SHOULD WATCH IT.
YOU CAN DO THAT
BY WATCHING HERE AT WPT
OR YOU CAN SHOW YOUR SUPPORT
THIS EVENING AND RECEIVE
A COPY OF THIS DVD
FOR YOURSELF OR AS A GIFT.
WE HAVE LOTS OF WONDERFUL THANK
YOU GIFTS THIS EVENING.
AT $6 PER MONTH LET US THANK YOU
WITH A COPY OF ONE-ROOM SCHOOL
ALONG WITH THE COMPANION
WORKSHOP DVD.
AT $8 A MONTH WE'LL THANK YOU
WITH A BOOK BY JERRY'S DAUGHTER,
SUSAN APPS.
IT'S GEARED TOWARD YOUNGER
READERS TO TALK ABOUT THE
HISTORY OF ONE-ROOM SCHOOLS.
AND AT $10 A MONTH, WE'LL THANK
YOU WITH ALL THREE ITEMS,
THE ONE ROOM SCHOOLS DVD,
THE COMPANION WORKSHOP DVD,
AND THE BOOK I JUST MENTIONED.
AT $12 WE HAVE THIS BEAUTIFUL
DIGITAL WOOD CUT ART
BY JOHN ZIMM
SIGNED BY BOTH JOHN AND JERRY.
THEN AT $15 THERE'S LOTS OF GOOD
DVDs, THE BOOK AND THE PRINT
AS OUR WAY OF SAYING THANKS.
GIVE US A CALL AT
1-800-236-3636.
>> THANK YOU, AIMEE.
WELL, WE KNOW THERE ARE MANY,
MANY REASONS WHY JERRY'S STORIES
RESONATE WITH PEOPLE.
MAYBE IT'S BECAUSE YOU GREW UP
IN A RURAL AREA OR WENT TO A
ONE-ROOM SCHOOLHOUSE OR MAYBE
YOU'RE JUST COMMITTED TO
THAT IDEA OF WORKING TOGETHER.
THAT'S CERTAINLY A THEME WE SEE
OVER AND OVER
IN ALL OF THE STORIES
THAT JERRY TELLS.
HE TALKS ABOUT THE COMMUNITY
COMING TOGETHER, IN A ONE-ROOM
SCHOOL, THE KIDS AND THE TEACHER
AND THE PARENTS, BECOMES PART OF
THE SOCIAL FABRIC
OF THAT COMMUNITY.
WE'RE CERTAINLY A COMMUNITY HERE
AT WISCONSIN PUBLIC TELEVISION
AND WE RELY HEAVILY ON THE
SUPPORT WE RECEIVE FROM VIEWERS
JUST LIKE YOU, PEOPLE WHO SAY I
VALUE WISCONSIN PUBLIC
TELEVISION, THE PROGRAMS I SEE
ON WISCONSIN PUBLIC TELEVISION.
WE'RE HERE 365 DAYS A YEAR FOR
YOU, FOR YOUR FAMILY, FOR YOUR
COMMUNITY.
AND WE'RE ABLE TO DO THAT
BECAUSE OF YOU, PEOPLE MAKE A
COMMITMENT TO WISCONSIN PUBLIC
TELEVISION, A FINANCIAL
COMMITMENT.
THEY CAN GO ONLINE AND DO THAT,
wpt.org, OR DIAL THE NUMBER ON
YOUR SCREEN, TALK TO ONE OF OUR
VOLUNTEERS.
BUT PLEASE JOIN US HERE AT
WISCONSIN PUBLIC TELEVISION AS A
MEMBER OF PUBLIC TELEVISION.
AGAIN, IT ALL BEGINS BY DIALING
THE NUMBER ON YOUR SCREEN,
1-800-236-3636.
>> WELL, JERRY,
I WANT TO THANK YOU FOR
YOUR SHARING THESE STORIES.
>> YOU'RE WELCOME.
>> STORIES OF GROWING UP ON THE
FARM, RURAL WISCONSIN ARE
REALLY IMPORTANT TO OUR STATE.
FOLKS WHO
NOT EVERYBODY, UNLESS YOU LIVED
THROUGH IT, NECESSARILY
UNDERSTANDS HOW PERVASIVE
FARMING WAS.
>> WELL, IT'S OUR HISTORY.
AND I FEEL VERY STRONGLY THAT
THE FAMILY FARM OF THE SIZE ON
WHICH I GREW UP WAS ALL OVER
THIS COUNTRY, ALMOST ALL OVER
THIS COUNTRY.
AND IT'S SOMETHING THAT IN MANY
WAYS PROVIDED THE VALUES AND
BELIEFS FOR THE ANCESTORS OF
THOSE WHO GREW UP
ON THESE FARMS.
WHAT IT IS THAT WE VALUE IN THIS
COUNTRY, IF WE WANT TO REALLY
EXAMINE IT, AS I HAVE, CAN BE
TRACED BACK TO THOSE WHO GREW UP
ON THESE LITTLE FARMS, GOING WAY
BACK TO WHEN THEY WERE FIRST
SETTLED.
>> AND AT THE SAME TIME I DON'T
THINK YOU DO ANYTHING TO
ROMANTICIZE THAT.
>> I DON'T.
ONCE YOU READ MY BOOKS,
ESPECIALLY, YOU'LL DISCOVER THAT
THERE ARE GOOD TIMES AND THERE
ARE BAD TIMES.
IT'S NOT -- THE GOOD OLD DAYS
WERE NOT ALWAYS GOOD OLD DAYS.
>> AND DID YOU WONDER
WHY YOUR FAMILY LANDED ON
THAT SANDY SOIL?
>> BECAUSE THEY COULDN'T AFFORD
ANYTHING ELSE, JON.
THAT WAS OFTEN THE CASE.
THEY REALLY COULDN'T AFFORD A
FARM HERE IN SOUTHERN WISCONSIN,
WHERE THE LAND WAS MUCH MORE
VALUABLE AND MUCH, MUCH MORE
PROFITABLE.
NO, OUR FARM WAS SANDY,
IT WAS STONY, IT WAS HILLY.
IT WAS AWFUL.
BUT IT WAS WONDERFUL IN A WAY
THAT WE LEARNED ABOUT
A LOT OF THINGS.
>> WELL, THANKS FOR SHARING
THOSE STORIES.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR
CONTRIBUTIONS, ALLOWING US TO DO
THIS REALLY IMPORTANT WORK.
THE PHONE NUMBER TO CALL WITH
YOUR PLEDGE IS 1-800-236-3636.
I was at the meeting
when they closed our school in 1955.
I was in college then.
And there was a researcher who came out
and he said, "With a consolidated school,
"your kids will be able to
"learn and participate in physical education
just not available out here."
And there was an old guy in the back
and he held up his hand and he said,
"Let me tell you
"what my kids do
"on a typical day.
"They're up in the morning at 5:30.
"They're out in the barn
"helping me milk the cows,
"throw down hay,
"throw down silage,
"carry in straw,
"feed the chickens,
"bring in water from the pump.
"After a big breakfast,
"they change clothes
"and they walk
"a mile and a half to school.
"And in the afternoon
"the same thing.
"They walk a mile and a half back.
"And they're out in the barn,
"throwing down hay,
"milking the cows,
"feeding the calves.
"I don't think they need
any more physical education."
[chuckles]
[soft guitar music]
- Jerry Apps: One-Room School
was funded in part by
Ron and Colleen Weyers,
Joel and Carol Gainer,
Greg and Carol Griffin,
Morgan's Shoes,
Wisconsin History Fund,
with support
from the National Endowment for the Humanities,
and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.