OCTOBER is Family History Month

DID YOU KNOW:
October is
FAMILY HISTORY MONTH
Share Yours!!!
I challenge each reader, to find out more about the rich personal histories within your own individual families..delve into the often hidden treasures held within your family stories.

ONE ROOM SCHOOL
My mother told me stories,
Of the one room school;
Where all the grades were taught together,
As they went by the same rules.
To this school is where she would go,
With other children from all around;
Traveling there in rain, sleet or snow,
These children could be found.
Each grade had their own lessons,
That they were all to learn;
While keeping warm by an old black stove,
That in the corner burned.
My mother had high praises
For the teacher who taught them there,
Because, it was her own dear mother,
Who gave them special care.
My mother said that in this place,
She learned so very much;
Like arithmmetic and writing,
Basic reading skills and such.
I love to hear these stories,
Over and over again,
For passing them on down the line,
Our legacy never ends.
Copyright 2008 Patricia Neely-Dorsey


poem from Reflections of a Mississippi Magnolia-A Life in Poems
www.patricianeelydorsey.webs.com

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This poem comes from one of the many "family stories" that my mother has repeated to me over the years. She was the beneficiary of very early "early childhood education" She says that her mother was the teacher at a one room school outside of Mantee, MS. Her mother (my grandmother- Julia Clay Kilgore) would take her younger pre- school age children to work (school) with her, where they were exposed to all of the lessons and conversations of the older children. My mother says that she was very young at this time
(3 and 4 yrs old). She says that she remembers her father (my grandfather-Alton Odessa Kigore) dropping her Mom and the kids off at the school in his car and going on to his one room school in Woodland, MS where he was the teacher/principal. When she was five years old, the family moved to West Point,MS and she attended M.I. College( Ministirial Institute and College) grade school program from
grades 1-4. She then attended Mary Holmes College School from fifth grade thru two years of college. She married my Dad and then went on to graduate from Tennessee State University with a Bachelor's degreein Elementary Education.