The Seaford Historical Society must be commended for inviting
Natalie Naylor, professor emeritus from Hofstra University, to present her well-prepared
slide program on “One-Room School Houses on Long Island” Thursday evening,
October 6, 2016.
In 1657, the Town of Huntington designated its first school
teacher, but he had no building. As for
a school building, the first seems to be the Voorlezer’s House in Staten
Island, a one-room school house in the Richmondtown Museum site. From 1787, we
have the Clinton School in East Hampton.
An 1826 school house from Manhasset Valley has been moved to the Old Bethpage
Village Restoration.
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That Manhasset Valley school house raised a question which
Professor Naylor answered. I wondered
when school districts received numbers, as both Seaford and Manhasset bear
#6. She explained that the numbering by
towns began in 1821. In the Town of Hempstead, the Hempstead village schools
are District 1, Uniondale District 2, Westbury District 3, Seaford District
6. In the Town of North Hempstead,
Manhasset is District 6.
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Members of the audience pointed out that we were meeting in a
room that had been built for two classrooms, grades 1-4 and 5-8. The museum is
the third school house in Seaford, the first being on Merrick Road.
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For most of the 1800’s, schools for grades 1-8 were called
Common Schools. In New York State, they charged fees until about 1857. The 1860’s saw the change from male to female
staffing, and the salaries dropped.
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Some of us recall the statement the students had to sign when
finishing a Regents examination in the 1950’s, to the effect that we had at
least five recitations were week. That
expression was a hold-over from multi-grade rooms, where students often had to
memorize their work and then recite it to the teacher at her desk.
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Professor Naylor distributed a very helpful description of each slide in her presentation, together with the addresses of Long Island schoolhouses, and an extensive bibliography. Many thanks!
