Old school
There’s no question, we’ve come a long way
Truro The leather straps at the Little White Schoolhouse command a lot of attention today, as they did years ago – albeit for different reasons.
The straps, once used to discipline unruly students, now complement one of the most popular displays at the museum.
“We have about 200 artifacts that reflect the life of a one-room school, “said Bill Canning, president of the Friends of the Little White Schoolhouse Association and curator at the attraction. “The story of the early education of children is upstairs. Downstairs is the story of teacher education, including the old records from the provincial normal college. Our oldest information is from 1868.”
Along with showing visitors around, summer students have been adding information to a database.
“We get about 500 visitors a year,” said Canning. “One of the items of great interest for many is the map on the wall. A lot of people remember seeing one like it in their classroom.”
The map was provided to schools by Neilson’s and featured pictures of chocolate bars in the corners.
“I was surprised by the variety of jobs teachers did,” said Stephen Hennessy, one of the students working at the museum this summer. “They had to clean the chimney, bring in water and coal, and there were a lot of rules they had to follow. There would have been children of different ages in one room; teaching would have been a hard, hard job.”
Hennessy, who is attending St. Mary’s University, grew up in Truro but only visited the museum once before this summer, when he was very young.
“There’s a lot of stuff here you wouldn’t expect,” he said.
Benjamin McNeilly, the second summer student, had never been in the museum before, although he lived in Truro for about three years before heading to university in Winnipeg.
“I didn’t even know it existed and when I came, I didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “It was just ‘Wow!’ when I walked into the classroom. This was the building children studied in years ago and this was the floor children ran across.”
During the summer the museum, located on the NSCC campus at 20 Arthur Street, is open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Winter hours are Tuesdays from 9 a.m. until noon, or by appointment, which can be made by calling Bill Canning at 902-895-5902.