Black School shut down: Is this accidental? (fwd)

http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/06/02/one.room.schoolhouse.ap/index.html

Miss Ruby's one-room school in South
                  Carolina closes after almost a century

                  June 2, 2000
                  Web posted at: 1:57 p.m. EDT (1757 GMT)

                  PAWLEYS ISLAND, South Carolina
                  (AP) -- After Friday, young girls and
                  boys will no longer come to Miss
                  Ruby's School for classes.

                  The one-room schoolhouse, where
                  generations of black children have been
                  educated, will shut its doors
                  permanently as a result of budget and
                  maintenance problems. The 35 students
                  in preschool through fourth grade will
                  be sent to other schools.

                  "Everything must come to an end," said Bertha Smith, a
graduate who became
                  one of two volunteer teachers at the school. "It's
done a lot for me and for the
                  people in the community. Miss Ruby especially -- she
taught me and I consider
                  her to be my mentor."

                  For 53 years, until her death in 1992, Ruby Middleton
Forsythe was
                  headmistress of Holy Cross-Faith Memorial School, as
it is formally called.
                  Founded in 1903 by the Episcopal Church, the school
moved to its current
                  gray-blue clapboard building in 1932. At the turn of
the century, the church ran
                  19 day schools for black South Carolinians.

                                               "I really don't think the
community
                                               realizes what it is
losing," said Carolyn
                                               Wallace, who graduated
from the school
                                               in 1951 and became
headmistress after
                                               Miss Ruby's death.

                                               In the 1980s, Newsweek
magazine
                                               named Miss Ruby an
American hero.
                                               She had taught
generations of students
                                               in as many as 11 grades
at the school,
                                               which is sheltered under
oaks off a busy
                                               highway about 25 miles
southwest of
                                               Myrtle Beach.

                  "Small girls, small boys, come into Miss Ruby's
school," the children would sing.
                  "Small girls, small boys, come to learn the golden
rule."

                  Miss Ruby's philosophy was not to charge tuition. In
recent years, students have
                  paid a modest fee, perhaps a few hundred dollars per
year, based on their
                  parents' ability to pay. That meant the school had to
raise about $30,000 a year
                  from donations, bake sales and similar fund-raisers.
Wallace is the only paid
                  employee.

                  "My reaction is bittersweet, recognizing
                  time is progress and that we have had
                  here for 97 years a successful
                  institution," said Norman Deas, a 1950
                  graduate who volunteered to teach after
                  retiring from a federal job.

                  "I'm getting more than I'm giving," he
                  said. "These young people are really
                  amazing. It's hard to cut loose from
                  them once you're attached to them."

                  Nine-year-old Lavern Dozier, sad at
                  being one of the last graduates, said he
                  enjoyed helping the younger students at their desks
across the room.

                  "I helped them write their ABCs correctly and I helped
them with their numbers,"
                  he said.

                  In 1997 there were about 1,600 one-room schools
nationwide. That probably has
                  not changed much as public schools close and some
religious and private
                  schools open, said Mark Dewlap, an education professor
at Winthrop University
                  and an expert on one-room schoolhouses.

                  Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights
reserved. This material may
                          not be published, broadcast,

--

Mine Aysen Doyran
PhD Student
Department of Political Science
SUNY at Albany
Nelson A. Rockefeller College
135 Western Ave.; Milne 102
Albany, NY 12222


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