In the rolling foothills of Alberta, there were at
one time 14 country schools around Caroline, a small
town just east of the Rockies, each school the hub
of its community, where children learned lifelong
lessons of honesty, thrift, respect and citizenship
and neighbours gathered for pie socials and
picnics.
This exhibit tells their story, from 1908 when
the first schoolhouse opened in Caroline until the
last of the country schools closed its doors, | relegated to history by the school buses that
carried children to Caroline’s new, much larger
central school.
A Day At School begins as children are called to
class, O Canada is sung, the flag saluted, the
Lord’s Prayer repeated and roll call taken. Students
take out their primers, the teacher begins the day’s
lesson in reading, writing or arithmetic until
recess, when students gladly spill out to the school
yard to delight in a variety of activities, then
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