This is a very typical example of a slightly modernized one room schoolhouse. In it, children of any school age would attend classes while a single teacher provided lessons for each of the different ability levels. Older children often helped the younger ones with their lessons. In cold weather the best seats were closest to the wood stove in the center of the room, a convenience that indicates a later upgrade.
Dexter Press, West Nyack, N.Y.
The description states:
ONE-ROOM COUNTRY SCHOOL
With desks, books and records intact. Even the dinner pails are lined up in the hall. This is one of 20 buildings around the circle at Harold Warp’s Pioneer Village, Minden, Nebraska, housing 20,000 items, showing America’s progress since 1830. On U. S. 6 and just 14 miles south of U. S. 30 near Kearney, Nebraska.
–More recently, the furniture would more closely resemble the desks just in front of the stove, which gave students a place to put their books and work on their assignments. The benches nearest the window show how a writing surface was attached to the back of the bench to provide workspace for the children in the next row.
This card dates from the 1950s.