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The Federal School Program - Helping 4th Graders Re-Live History
Can you imagine a school with no lockers, computers, or even electricity? This old time reality is what Haverford Township fourth grade students experience when they visit the Federal School each spring.
The Federal School Program is a living history experience run by the Haverford Township Historical Society in partnership with the school district. Starting in April of each year, every fourth grade class spends a day in our historic one room school house studying the fourth grade curriculum as it might have been in the year 1849. Two guides, attired as school masters or school mistresses, lead the class through the day.

Students are encouraged to dress in period attire - girls in long skirts with hair in braids, and perhaps a bonnet, and boys with pants rolled up knickers style, with vest and a cap. They start the day to the sound of the school bell (a hand bell, of course) and are seated in the tiny one room school according to size, the smallest in the front, representing the youngest students, and the biggest in the back, representing the oldest.

Over the course of the day students learn the history of the Federal School, which was built in 1797 as a private or subscription school, and became a public school in 1849. They hand sew their own copy books to be used for handwriting exercises. Handwriting, which was extremely important before the advent of typewriters and computers, is practiced with nib pens (descendents of quill pens) and India ink. An elaborate style of cursive, called script, is copied from hornbook samplers, and ink spills are not an uncommon event.

Students use slates and chalk for their cyphering exercises, which is what we call math. They read aloud from McGuffy's Readers, memorize and recite either the first twelve presidents or a saying from Poor Richard's Almanac, and end the day with an old fashioned spelling bee, often the highlight of the day. There were many rules for proper behavior for students in a one room school house, and students delight in learning about the many punishments for breaking those rules. These include the liberal use of the hickory stick, "pegging"- which is nailing the offending party's hair to the wall while he or she stands on tip-toe, and hanging by overalls or suspenders from coat hooks (the origin of "off the hook"). The students' favorite punishment, though, is not one related to behavior at all. It is the wearing of the infamous dunce cap, which resulted from poor academic performance.

The popularity of the Federal School Program extends beyond the local school district. In addition to Haverford Township schools, Rosetree Media and Ridley Park fourth graders, as well as some private school groups take advantage of our unique, one room school house experience. This is testament to the quality of our program, of which we are extremely proud.

Table manners follow the Welsh Quaker tradition.
table manners
Butter is churned outside the cabin using a crockery churn and wooden dasher.
table manners
Table manners follow the Welsh Quaker tradition.
table manners
cast iron pot of rendered fat used for soap making.
table manners
students preparing noon day meal in the summer kitchen.
working in kitchen
Student helping to prepare cornbread in the cabin.
table manners
student keeps watch over chicken soup in cast iron pot and corn bread in reflector oven.
open hearth cooking
it can take a long time before the butter breaks, and many hands
churning butter
students use a two man saw to saw wood for daily use in cast iron stove, cabin hearth and outside fire circle.
sawing wood
students at the summer kitchen use a "modern" butter churn with gears and paddles.
butter
simple, or lye soap is made every day.
soap
Students dip candles every day, and take a pair home as a souvenir.
dipping candles
Students watch as lye water and fat are combined to make simple soap.
group table