Earlier this month the Guthrie County Historical Village (GCHV) and Museum celebrated their 50th anniversary with an open house. About 50 visitors from all across Guthrie County and beyond came to enjoy the exhibits and take in refreshments as part of the celebration. One of the buildings at the complex in Panora is a one room schoolhouse. GCHV Foundation Board Member Rod Stanley talks about an important feature in the schoolhouse.   

“One of the things I want to point out if you ever come up to Panora to look at the one room school is there’s a bench up towards the front, it’s called the Recitation Bench. The Recitation Bench was very interesting because every student would be given homework, but they would have to then come up to the (bench) and they would have to memorize things and recite those things to the whole group. Then they would get immediate feedback, whether they were good, bad, or whatever the case might be. The Recitation Bench (and) memorization was a very important part of the educational process in those one-room schools.”

To hear more about the schoolhouse and upcoming events at the museum, listen to Stanley on today’s Let’s Talk Guthrie County program.