1918 School Programs at the Rosenwald School

Rosenwald School History

Begun in 1912, Rosenwald schools were built through a partnership between Julius Rosenwald, a Jewish philanthropist and president of Sears, Roebuck & Co., and black educator Booker T. Washington, along with support from the local black and white communities. Between 1913 and 1932, nearly 5,000 new schools were built in 15 states and thousands of students received an education, learned trades and skills, and were awarded better opportunities as a result of this education.

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1918 School Programs

These programs include time in the Dorothy Davidson Rosenwald Schoolhouse and are scheduled from 9:00am to 1:30pm. The base price for these programs is $12. If you select basket weaving as the vocational lesson for the School Day Experience, there is an additional $2.00 supply fee per student.

Educational Scholarship Fund

Financial assistance may be available for qualifying groups. Burritt on the Mountain’s Education Scholarship Fund can be utilized to assist with the cost of field trips and outreach programs. Funds are limited and will be offered on a first-come-first-served basis for Title I and other qualifying schools and organizations in Alabama. Burritt on the Mountain’s Education Scholarship Fund may be used to cover the cost of field trip education programs. Education Scholarship Funds will NOT cover transportation costs, purchases in the welcome center or admission to the site for field trip participants to stay past the educational programming time.

A Child’s Life: Home and School in 1918 (3^rd grade; 9:00 – 1:30)

Learn about the daily lives of rural Alabama schoolchildren in 1918, including home life, chores, and school activities. Students will have the opportunity to see how factors including jobs and income, war, and family events could impact a student’s ability to attend school. Students can compare and contrast lifeways of the past and present after hands-on experience with the chores and school lessons of the time. 

School Day Experience (4^th and 5^th grades; 9:00 – 1:30)

This exciting program allows students to experience a day in the life of a 1918 Rosenwald school. Fourth and Fifth graders will be transformed into 1918 students as they are outfitted in era-appropriate clothes, repack their lunches in baskets and pails, say the era-appropriate Pledge of Allegiance and study reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic. Students also get to experience writing with a nib pen and ink, doing their lessons on slates, learning a vocational training lesson, and playing games of the time period during recess. Teachers select either basket weaving (additional $2.00 supply charge per student applies) or gardening and plants as the vocational training topic for their class. Visiting teachers will receive before and after lesson plans to further their students’ educational experience.

Curator’s Challenge Workshop: Big Ideas and Events 1900-1920 (6^th Grade and above; 9:00 – 1:30)

Become a curator! Students will tackle the challenge of curating and writing their own brief exhibit on a topic related to major social, political, and/or military events of the early 20^th century such as World War I, Progressive Era reforms, and public health changes. Through brief full-class lessons, students will learn how to analyze objects, images, and numerical data like a historian before analyzing their own sets of primary source documents, images, data sets, and objects. Students will work in small teams to discuss, write, and craft their small exhibits before sharing with their classmates. Teachers will have the opportunity to choose from a selection of major themes for the workshop, and each group of students will work with a different set of materials related to that topic. Will your students rise to the challenge?