On six remote, windblown Maine islands, the children are still educated in one-room schools. After two mainland one-room schools closed in 2009, these islands maintain the last taxpayer-funded public one-room elementary schools in the state. But despite very small student populations and sometimes shrinking communities, these remaining schools are not slated to close. Consolidation is impractical, a daily commute is usually impossible, island families are determined to keep their communities viable, and all agree that a school is a central part of a stable, year-round community. You might think that these tiny
schools are an anachronism, offering an old-fashioned approach to education. You’d be wrong. They are among the most technologically savvy schools in the state and offer a culturally rich educational experience. Their teachers collaborate on curriculum, use Critical Friends Group techniques for problem solving, run inter-island book groups via Tandberg, and much more. Certainly there are challenges if you are teaching K–8 in one room, but there can also be many rewards—for the teacher and for
the students.
Author Eva Murray moved to Matinicus in 1987 to teach in the oneroom school, married and raised a family on the island, and has served on the school board and volunteered in the school. She has traveled from island to island in Maine, visited two schools in the Moosehead Lake area just before they were closed, and corresponded with one-room-school teachers in Alaska, Colorado, Montana, and North Dakota, collecting the stories that tell how these small communities promise their handful of children a modern education within the context of a specialized and sometimes isolated lifestyle. The hows and whys will fascinate educators, and the details of island life (or the problem with brown bears on trips in Alaska) will interest everyone.
“Schools are the glue that hold island communities together. Eva Murray provides passionate descriptions of why the islands’ one-room schoolhouses have not only survived, but continued to thrive in theInternet era.” —Philip Conkling, Founder and President, IslandInstitute, and author of Islands in Time: A Natural and Cultural History of the Islands of the Gulf of Maine
“I had the good fortune to educate my children in island schools and served for many years on our school board. And, while North Haven is much bigger (350 year-round) than our neighbor Matinicus, I found that Eva’s beautiful writing accurately captures the challenges and gifts of island life. What a wonderful book!” —Chellie Pingree, Congresswoman, 1st District of Maine
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Views expressed in public programs at the library are those of the presenters, and not necessarily those of the Rockland Public Library.
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