Mrs. Margie Drake began teaching school in the late 1920’s and continued to teach for 38 years.  She touched the lives of students in small, country schools such as Snow Hill and Asaville.  After these small schools were consolidated to form Wright Elementary School.  She went on to teach at the Belton town school, Marshall Primary.  Mrs. Drake recalled that when she began teaching, she was only paid two dollars a day.  She taught all subjects to twenty-five to thirty-five students in grades one through seven. 
      During these days, Mrs. Drake said that the small, country teacher had to be teacher, janitor, transporter  to and from school at times and later on cook.  Mrs. Drake recalled that on many mornings, she would go throughout the community in her car picking up students that did not walk to school.  She was in charge of making the fire and sweeping the classroom.  She didn’t have to clean the bathrooms.  There were no bathrooms!  They had outdoor toilets and a pipe running from the well with holes in it for them to drink from when pumped.  Before the school was closed, they started fixing lunch at school.  Everybody had a job to do.  The boys would peel the potatoes.  The girls would break the beans and she would fix the bread.  The government did not provide money for the food or books for the school.  The school would raise money for these things by having cakewalks and holding musical events. 

     During this time, students went to school for 7 months out of the year.  Because the school year was scheduled around the family’s farm work schedule, there were very few absences.  The school year usually began right after the fourth of July and continued for about 6 weeks until Mt. Bethel Church Revival.  She always took her class to revival one day.  Then, the students were out of school for about 6 weeks to pick cotton.  They got out in May in order to hoe cotton.

     Mrs. Drake felt that it was important to give homework.  She had them to read, work four or five math problems and study spelling words.  She did not give more than this because the students had work to do on the farm when they got home.

     Even though children had to work, they still enjoyed playing.  They had thirty minutes of recess each day.  They had one basketball goal.  They also played Fox in the War, Dodge Ball and T-Ball (town ball).

     In these days, the students were very good in school.  If she had a problem with a student, she would carry the child home after school to talk with the parents.  The parents would then handle the problem accordingly.  She thinks that student behavior is one thing that has really changed since this time.  She said that children behaved much better when she taught school.

     Mrs. Drake took students on field trips to places such as Anderson to the movies in her car.  She would squeeze all 30 students in the car and happily go on their journey.

     One of Mrs. Drake’s best memories is of teaching a disabled student who attended her school.  She made a special desk for her in the one room schoolhouse.  She carried her to the bathroom and fed her lunch.  She was very proud of how she could work math problems in her head and read “like a top”.  She said that it is important to remember that all students can learn.

     Mrs. Drake is now 90 years old.  She still teaches the eager students like us who come to visit her in her home.  She enjoys visiting and telling students about the schools and times of the past.  Even at 90 years old, she continues to teach!

Interviewed by:  Ben Major and Jonathan Hart.

The picture of Mrs. Drake and her students was taken the last year that Snow Hill School was open.  The following year, the students went to the new community school, Wright Elementary.  Mrs. Drake said that all the small schools in the community were consolidated because it was difficult to get teachers for the rural one room schools.  Teachers had rather teach one grade level in the town schools.  When the rural schools were consolidated into Wright Elementary, teachers were able to teach one grade level instead of grades one through seven.