I recently read The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig. The Whistling Season is narrated by Paul, a seventh grade student in a rural school in Montana. The story details the events following the sudden departure of the school teacher, and her subsequent replacement by the brother of the mail-order housekeeper hired by Paul's father. "Can't cook, but doesn't bite" is the intriguing job-wanted ad that appeared in the local newspaper. The housekeeper stayed true to the ad, but arrived in the company of her "brother." The gentleman proved to be an enlightening school teacher, especially in Paul's eyes. Having read nearly all of the books available to him, Paul was quite bored with school. The new teacher improvised a "gifted program" for Paul by having him study Latin. I thought the ending of the story to be somewhat contrived, and it did not seem bring a logical conclusion of the story.
The story did, however, bring back many memories for me. I attended rural schools from 1st through 3rd grade. Many activities were done with the entire school, or with several classes together. I always enjoyed the variety of activities always in progress. As a teacher, I greatly miss the flexibility that teachers had in that setting. Educators are now tied to standards and testing to a degree that it is now difficult to allow students to pursue any individual interests with any depth.
Sidenote: Yesterday I spent some time helping friends (second grader and fourth grader) with a church project. They were given $4 and had to use the money and their talents to raise money for Heifer International. Check out what they do--it is a very exciting project.