School c. 1900 @museum.de

M: Back then, teacher's instructions were clear: sit still, back straight, feet firmly on the floor and above all: no fidgeting or whispering.

F: School life was no bed of roses for earlier generations! The benches with their folding seats were hard, and sometimes up to 50 children were taught in a single room: all ages from year one to year eight.

M: The little ones sat at the front, the older ones further back. Slates, or a few precious exercise books, lay on the tables. The groove in the front of the desktop held slate pencils and pens, and the metal flap concealed an inkwell.

F: But if you ended up with ink blots or smudges during writing exercises, there was hell to pay! Rules were strict, and the teachers had no qualms about resorting to the cane. Boys were beaten on the backside, girls on the fingertips.

M: The village schoolteacher was a figure both feared and respected, and one that had a decisive influence on village life. It was only after the First World War led to a critical shortage of teachers that women were allowed to take up the teaching profession.

F: Unmarried women, that is. Anyone who opted for a profession and a degree of independence was expected to remain single. "Miss" invariably wore austere dresses in dark colours and was meant to devote her whole life to educating children. In small village schools, one teacher taught every single subject – from history and geography to arithmetic, reading, nature studies, writing and drawing. Religious education was provided by the priest or pastor, and the church organist – the cantor – gave music lessons.

M: Of course, some subjects were taught separately, depending on gender: Where girls were given lessons in needlework, including embroidery, darning and sewing, boys learned all about fruit tree cultivation and the manual trades.

F: Attendance at the village school was designed to prepare the youngsters for a life in farming and teach them the essential skills.

At the end of the 19th century, eight villages in the area around Bürgel had their own small village schools.

In 1912, a new primary school – now the local comprehensive school – opened on the southern outskirts of town. It had no less than eight classrooms available for the different years!

M: An unprecedented luxury!