The Classroom

The classroom has changed quite a bit since the 1800’s which is the time period my Good Gus Series is portrayed in Pecos, Texas. The differences between then and now are drastic. In Pecos, Miss Patty was the school teacher in a one room school house. She planned lessons and taught various age groups. All the children worked together. The older children helped tutor the younger children. It was an era of cooperation and extensive learning. Miss Patty stressed reading, writing and arithmetic. It sounds almost cliche’. The children sat at small wooden desks and wrote out all their lessons. In the current times reading is still stressed, but its appalling that so many children graduate illiterate. I am not sure if its too much electronics in the world so the need for reading seems almost obsolete or if the variety of monsters, violence, fairies, fantasy and super heroes makes reading an old fashioned book boring. I have even begun to notice that cursive is no longer taught and with the advent of a computer for every child, writing out and solving math problems, or handwriting an essay is just out of style. The old one room classroom is almost like home schooling. My children attended  public school and I home schooled them as well. I was always affiliated with a school so that if they ever decided to return to the school system, there would be no difficulties. Home schooling is more popular now and is even attached to local public schools. The major difference I found in home schooling was that the lesson plans really focused on classic literate. The interesting part about home schooling was that when you received the books whether they were eighty pages or three hundred and eighty pages the lessons planned covered the entire books cover to cover. When I read my books to classes, I enjoy watching the children’s reactions and seeing the projects they are interested in.  I hope you will consider any one of the Good Gus books for both your child’s home schooling or required reading in their schools.