Deep Roots

For the last six years I’ve and off while I have waited known the day would come for him to get home. I have when my baby would board cried each time one of my the school bus and head off kids started kindergarten. I to kindergarten. For the am not sure if it’s the recoglast six months it has been nition of time that’s gone on my mind more frequent- by, or watching my little ly as I remind myself that ones become independent, he is more than ready to go to school. DEEP ROOTS or maybe it’s a combination that gets me.

For the last six weeks I By Whitney Nesse For 13 years, my primary have been praying about role has been a stay-atwhat is next for me as I move into a home mother. It has been one of the new season of life with all five of our most physically and emotionally gruelchildren in school full time. ing tasks I have ever had — and it has For the last six days, I have been trying to fuel my son’s excitement for also been the most wonderful and fulfilling. school by making sure he eats all of In no way, shape or form is my job as his food, like a kindergartener or gets a mother now over; it is just taking on dressed on his own, like a kindergar- an entirely new look as another school tener. year begins. I do not doubt that my The day finally came. Jordy excitedly boarded the school bus with his brother, smiling from ear to ear. He could not wait to get to school. days will quickly fill. With harvest season just around the corner, there will not be a lack of things to do. I have already started a list of tasks I want to complete while the kids are at

For the last six hours I have cried on school: bring in another crop of hay, haul manure, organize the barn, build a new goat pen — and this is only a start.

What I am grieving however, is that I no longer have a little buddy to ride along with me in the tractor, no one to drink secret Coke-a-Cola’s with, no one to be my sidekick during chores or to watch gates or keep me company. For the first time in 13 years, I will spend my work days alone. Of course there will always be sick days when my kids are home or days that I care for my nieces and nephews or neighbors; but for the most part I will be alone. That thought is more than a little intimidating for me. Loneliness is one of my greatest fears.

I can recall days longing to have a mere five minutes to myself without a constant tag-along; and now, I would turn the clock back in an instant just to experience five minutes with my kids as toddlers. How quickly the tables have turned. So many times, when my kids were completely dependent on me, older and wiser mothers would encourage me to love every minute of having little ones because they grow up quickly. As a sleepdeprived, 30-year-old mother of five small children, time moved about as fast as molasses in January. Now, as a well-rested, nearly 37-year-old mother of five fairly self-sufficient kids and pre-teens, I understand what they were saying.

As I allow myself to grieve growing out of what had become so familiar … life with a little one glued to my side, I am looking forward to the next season of raising children. Although I am still unsure of where the Lord will guide me next, I will choose to recognize there is a season for everything. No matter how grueling many of the days gone by were, I am grateful for the opportunity to have had 13 years at home with my children.

Whitney Nesse is a sixth-generation livestock farmer who is deeply rooted in her faith and family. She writes from her central Minnesota farm. v

Yesterday’s country school focused more on civics, government

LAND MINDS, from pg. 2

Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; weekends from 2 to 4 p.m. Yes, it is air conditioned and heated too. “Our season extends through September. Some families make this a special ‘Country School’ outing here at the museum. They even bring sack lunches for this a four-hour learning adventure. And for the eighth graders and grandparents, we even provide eighthgrade tests to check their educational progress”, chuckled Raasch.

But that pipe organ amazed me. Raasch said pipe organs were frequent in these one-room country schools. “They were light weight and transported conveniently across the prairies in covered wagons. And a pump organ doesn’t require electricity … just strong legs of the person doing the pumping. This one is very functional. It has beautiful base notes. We play it regularly, so it’s a real delight. It was taken out of the building at one time because the teacher couldn’t play and it was a natural home for mice. So it got stored away for a period of time until the building and its contents were moved onto this site here in Odebolt.”

Yes, this was indeed ‘simultaneous learning’. With the teacher at the front of classroom, and teaching a subject to just maybe only one student, the entire school was “tuned in” each and every day. Raasch added, “One student commented, ‘I heard eight years of math here, so I learned it pretty well.’”

How does education today compare with teaching in these one-room country schools of earlier generations? “The country school students had lots more civics and county and government information,” Raasch responded. “One question on our eighth grade tests was, ‘Who are our county supervisors?’ I doubt students today could answer that question. Yes, civics and patriotism were always stressed. And that included the daily Pledge of Allegiance … weather permitting, always outdoors at the base of the flag pole. So this was teaching every student regardless.”

An eye-catching marble statue of Hansel and Gretta stands out front of the Odebolt museum. Raasch explained, “It was designed by a medical doctor — who in his retirement went back to his first love of being an artist. And his grandchildren were the models for Hansel and Gretta. The little girl is pulling on her brother’s suspenders while he knelt down looking at a frog in a little pond. She was wanting to get to school; he was more interested in that little frog.”

Raasch closed with this reminder of the annual Iowa Country School Preservation Contest: “This brings people from Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and elsewhere. One year, one of our speakers came from Montana; two from Austrialia. Last year, we hosted it here in Odebolt. We had great weather — so a full day of presentations about preserving country schools and other historical buildings and artifacts in our rural communities.“

Yes, very likely, several states across America have restored one-room country schools on display. My first eight years of schooling was Brookfield #4, a one-room country school in Worth County, Iowa. And indeed, this visit to the remarkable Country School Museum in Odebolt, Iowa was a significant trip down memory lane for this aging Norwegian.

Dick Hagen is the staff writer emeritus of The Land. He may be reached at rdhagen35@gmail.com. v

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