67 - COUNTRY SCHOOL DESK

COUNTRY SCHOOL DESK

14 ½ x 13 ⅜ inches

(Replica of my country school desk)

This desk is identical to the desk in my country school. It had a hole on the upper right side for an ink bottle, a groove for pencils, and a folding seat that attached to ornate cast iron. Because most of the desk tops had deeply carved graffiti initials created by former students, we needed several layers of paper to create a smooth writing surface on the wooden tops. Inkwells were obsolete by the time I was in school, but we discovered they could hold pencils and other things we wanted close at hand. Notice the inkwells were on the right side to discourage students from using their left hand—just one of many challenges that we left-handers faced.

These were the same desks that Mom’s country school had when she taught. When I told Mom how I would rest my foot in the curve of the ornate metal base, she was shocked. When Mom taught country school in the 1940s, the rules were very rigid: children had to sit up straight and keep both feet on the floor. Anything else was prohibited.

Imagine trying to enforce those rules today!