Beauvais School : a collected and living history

Abstract

The purpose of this project is twofold: (1) to collect, summarize, and narrate the history of the Beauvais School, a historic one-room schoolhouse in the Municipal District of Pincher Creek, and (2) to recreate, in the form of an educational, interactive program, a half-day of school in 1911112 at the Beauvais Schoolhouse (Appendix A). Using original documents from the Beauvais School and District (daily attendance records, the school board minute book and cash book, local newspapers, and pioneer's personal histories), the following topics are examined: the Beauvais family, the Beauvais School District, teacher training, caretaking, the school board, the interior and exterior of the schoolhouse, discipline and mischief, special occasions, morning routines, lunch and recess, textbooks and readers, the multi-grade classroom, attendance and truancy, teacher salaries, transportation to and from school, the school budget, the library, teacher shortages, the inspector, the large school unit, and rural school closures. The examination of these topics resulted in the re-creation of partial school day in the context of 191111912. Participants in this re-creation (designed for elementary school children or family groups) assume the names of actual Beauvais students and progress through the routines and lessons of an early twentieth-century school day. The intent of this research is to allow older generations to re-experience their past, and younger generations to understand the origins of their current community and lifestyle.