The Little Red School House By Lillian Mills Mosseller

        Here is the tap-root of the American educational system.  Our schools are bigger and more impressive today, but some of our biggest businessmen and our great writers, and artists who still live today went to schools like this.  Many of them went eagerly, some reluctantly.  There were no school buses in those days, and children walked many miles to get their book-learning.

        A little schoolhouse is still standing on the property of the Herman Hardisons of Bat Cave, NC.  The late Mr. Hardison went to school here.  Little schools like this are still standing in their faded red coats of paint, in Tennessee, Alabama and in fact, all over the South.

        Why were they painted red?  We asked some of the Red School alumnae.  No one seemed to know.  Why were barns painted red?  Some say red paint was cheaper than any other color.  Schools were painted red so that they could be seen from a distance, one old timer suggested.  Children liked red; it made school more attractive for them and so on and so forth.  We see them from a distance now, and look back with nostalgia at the small classes and the personal interest between teacher and student that helped endear us to those little halls of learning.

Provided by:

NC Division of Non-Public Education
1309 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC  27699-1309
(919) 733-4276
www.ncdnpe.org                                                               Heritage Page

April, 2001