Montana Schools In The Early 1900s Were Nothing Like They Are Today

In fact, if you're (ahem) of a certain age and you grew up in a tiny Treasure State town, you may have gone to school in one, such as the Old Sunnyside Schoolhouse north of Circle.

According to the Montana Women's history website, in the early 1900s, an aspiring teacher could obtain a two-year rural teaching certificate as long as she was a high school graduate, unmarried, and had passed competency exams in various subjects. Rural district trustees assumed students would become miners, wives, or farmers like their parents and therefore needed only a rudimentary education.

Around the year 1917, a female teacher in a rural school could earn $60 - $80 per month. Male teachers were paid about 20% more.

Many rural schools lacked indoor plumbing back then and were heated by wood stoves, so teachers carried water and chopped the firewood.

This photo shows a teacher marking attendance at a Sunday school in Wisdom.

As of 2014, around 60 were still in use, the most in the United States. Of course, that's not saying much considering the number was once closer to 2,600.

And while they're quickly becoming a thing of the past, you'll still find abandoned one-room schoolhouses all over the state.