‘Old school’ education = one room + one teacher

By Joan Janzen

LEADER - A glimpse into ‘old school’ history is open to the public just nine miles south of Leader on Highway 21. Travellers can drop in at St. John’s one-room school and check out the classroom’s interior, which includes original desks and chalkboards. The building is typical of all wood-frame rectangular one and two-room schools built during that era.

Travellers can drop in and get a glimpse of some ‘old school’ history inside St. John’s one-room school, located nine miles south of Leader on Highway 21. PHOTO BY JOAN JANZEN

PHOTO BY JOAN JANZEN

PHOTO BY JOAN JANZEN

Records show the school was completed in 1925. It is situated beside a miniature replica of St. John’s Lutheran Church, which had previously served as a school with as many as fifty-three students in attendance. These schools were not as common as public schools, and St. John’s School was the only parochial school of the Missouri Synod in Saskatchewan.

Most of the teachers were pastors who served the congregation, up until 1942 when the school became a Protestant Separate School under the Leader School Division. The students arrived with horses, bicycles or on foot. When the school closed in 1965, it only had five students, who were then bused to school in Mendham. This was the last one-room school in the district.

An old news clipping reported that Sidonia Peters was one of the first students enrolled at the school, and her son, Douglas Wenzel, was one of the last pupils enrolled. Almost thirty years ago, the school was recognized as an official Heritage Site.