GOING TO SCHOOL ON A NO-SCHOOL DAY

What do teachers do when they have a day off from school and they happen across an authentic, restored one-room schoolhouse?  Instinct would urge them to run away!  Run far and run fast!

I find myself with some time to kill on my way to a get-together in Eliot, Maine, so I pass by my destination and continue up the road to explore.  I drive past some nice old houses, a cemetery, and then ...

There's a flag on the side of the road.  The flag is attached to a sign that says, "Open house at one-room school today 11-2."   I glance at my clock.  It's 1:46.  Hmmmmm.  Maybe on my return trip I might stop by and check it out. 

I get to the nearest safe turn-around, which just happens to be the elementary school, and head back where I came from, trying to remember where I saw the flag.  Suddenly I see it, right along the cemetery and down a small side road.  I pull into the dirt lot and park next to three cars.  I have about eight minutes before the little schoolhouse closes for the day (and, as I discover, for another few weeks -- it's only open the last weekend of the month).

What I find is amazing. 

The schoolhouse has pristine, wide-planked floors, several old clocks, desks, books, an old wood-burning stove, and it even has some clothing from the time-period.  On the walls are pictures and articles and artifacts from and about the school.  I am so excited that I snap pictures and even donate some money toward its operational and restoration costs.

When I go back to my own classroom tomorrow, I'll definitely appreciate my modern school conveniences and the conditioned-air ventilation system, but there's something wistfully wonderful about the one-room schoolhouse's simplicity.  If I can't work there, I wish I could live there.  That way I'd never have a day off from school.

I mean, let's be serious: You can take the teacher out of the classroom, but you can't take the classroom out of the teacher.