"The Raber Barnstorming-for-Education Story"

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The Evansville Courier & Press...

featured a story about a couple that are retired teachers with their barn posting the college degrees that their family has earned. This was not to brag, but to promote education. The barn has the logos of six colleges (all from Indiana!) with how many degrees listed below each logo (17 degrees in total). It is unique and very cool!!! Here is a link to the news story with photo of the barn: http://www.courierpress.com/news/2011/feb/08/barnstorming-for-education/

He had been a Principal at our little southern Indiana school in Selvin (Warrick County) for just one or two years near the time of "The Great Consolidation" in 1962 of many very small schools across rural Indiana. Ed Raber later served as the Principal for Tecumseh High School in Lynville. His wife Valada was the English teacher at Selvin right after college and until our school closed; later, she mostly taught at Rockport, Indiana. Us silly boys all had a "crush" on the young, beautiful Mrs. Raber, but some of us learned a little grammar, anyway. [Mrs. Raber (still beautiful), if you read this, just remember that I am getting old and have forgotten most that you taught me!]

The "Raber barnstorming-for-education" story reminded me of how there were many even smaller schools in our area before they consolidated them into Selvin Grade School & High School... these were the one-room schools for all grades. In grade school at Selvin, the first 6 grades were in only three rooms with one teacher for two grades. I did fairly well in school, mostly because instead of studying for my class (I did all of that at home), I listened to the teacher for the other grade. I kind of took each grade twice!

Many of these little schools are forgotten in history, but for just one, two or three generations back, many of our ancestors that managed to go to school attended these one-room schools.

- Written by JGWest