The St. Charles Shopper Goes Back to School

With the summer almost over and everyone back to school, I thought it might be a good time to visit the Pioneer Sholes School in LeRoy Oaks Forest Preserve.

One-room schoolhouses always fascinate me. It's such a stretch to think that one teacher taught all the grades in one room for a few months a year. Honestly, my children have no idea how good they have it.   

Entertainment that educates on a budget is hard to find. Sholes provides a free tour with a docent who reenacts life as a teacher in a prairie house school and junior docents who act out being students. Also, there are games to play specific to that period and a lecture on what life was like in the little school room. 

Sholes remained open until 1947, which wasn't really that long ago in terms of one-room schoolhouses. If I picture 1947 in my mind, I see downtown Hill Valley from "Back to the Future"–not the scene from a Laura Ingalls Wilder novel that Sholes evokes.

It's hard to appreciate everything modern and realize that, in the not-too-distant past, people were being educated in one-room schoolhouses. When I walk into Lincoln Elementary, it's a much different scene than walking into Sholes with its cramped classroom and two outhouses. Plus, there was only one heating element and only a stone basin that was filled with drinking water from buckets.

Seeing how education has vastly changed in the last 60 years not only makes one appreciate the amazing school system St. Charles has to offer, but it really gives children the opportunity to understand how difficult farm life was. The idea of trudging uphill through many feet of snow to school was a real possibility. My son complains about walking three blocks to school; I think that's good enough reason to visit Sholes and have him take in a history lesson.

I would recommend Sholes Prairie House School for a fantastic Sunday family outing. The surrounding forest preserve makes it a great opportunity to enjoy a picnic, too. 

Sholes School is located in the LeRoy Oaks Forest Preserve on Dean Street, just west of Randall Road. It is open to the public on Sunday's from June 13 to Oct. 3 with free admission. Visit the website for more information.