Strong, a Mussul Unsquit village

Strong had as many as eight district schools to provide rural education, but children within a couple miles of the village attended the Village School. This building was vacated, and later sold to the Grange, when a larger school building was built high on the riverbank in 1900.

In 1892 the Strong Village Schools published this booklet outlining the course of instruction and school regulations. To preface those items Supervisor of Schools, George W. Webster, reported on the state of the schools, in which he made the following timeless statement on education:

"How much benefit our scholars derive from their school work depends on how we carry on the work just begun. In order to secure satisfactory results, three important points must be considered.
"First: We should have school officers in whom we can place entire confidence; otherwise every effort, whether of merit or not, will meet with dissatisfaction.
"Second: We should employ competent teachers whose characteristics qualify them for the work, and who understand the physical and mental laws of the children under their instruction. Education demands intelligence from the teacher at every stage of conduct, intelligent consideration of the relative value of various kinds of knowledge; intelligent application of principles; and intelligent investigation of the causes of success or failure. Therefore let us secure good teachers and thereby remove the necessity of frequent changes, which always produce bad results.
"Third: We should have hearty co-operation of parents. If the parents are not interested good results can not be attained. Parents should visit the school and use their influence to secure regular attendance. Absence and tardiness are serious obstructions to school work.
"Therefore see that your scholars are in school during school hours, take an active interest in all school matters, be ever dilligent in promoting the welfare of your scholars that you may rejoice in their success and prosperity."

The booklet was sent to all families of scholars and was paid for by several pages of merchant advertisements.

The slate tablet was used with chalk to do homework, practice penmanship, math tables and spelling without using paper, which was not always readily available.

This slate tablet was used by Ida E. Allen (1887-1982) when she attended Strong Village School and was later passed on to her niece, Alma E. Richards (1908-1970).