Project Description and Background Paper, 1992

Containers:

Box 1, Folder 1

Scope and content:

This monograph provides a short history of education in the state of Virginia, the Shenandoah Valley, and in particular, Rockingham County, Va. Compares and contrasts the types of education available for affluent and less affluent families, in the form of private and public education. Reviews how private education began through tutoring and academies and quotes from the writings of Major R. Grattan (d. 1849), of Rockingham County. Briefly records the history of public education, beginning with Thomas Jefferson and including the efforts of Henry Ruffner who first proposed a state-wide public school system based on districts (1845; similar plan adopted in 1870). Mentions education of Afro-Americans and segregation. Records school figures (buildings, numbers of students), various rules of attendance and typical curricula for the five districts of Rockingham County beginning in the 1870s through the 1950s. Compares education in urban and rural settings with mention of types of school buildings (including the use of one-room schools), and changes towards consolidation. Accompanies interviews of two ladies and their reminiscences of educational opportunities growing up during the 1920s, one as a member of a prominent family and the other who later became a school teacher and supervisor in the Rockingham County school system. The project summary, based on the interviews, determined that while private education was viewed as being more favorable than public education, they were in many ways comparable.

Access and use