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Short Stories on the One-Room Rural School
As previously mentioned Alden Nowlan made reference in his later writings to his time as a student in a one-room rural school in the nearby community of Stanley. Another famous Maritime writer wrote a story that drew on her experience as a teacher in a one-room rural school.
Lucy Maud Montgomery studied literature at Dalhousie College in 1895-96. Her 1908 book “Anne of Green Gables” has endured in popularity across the world for 100 years, translated into multiple languages from Finnish to Japanese. As a teenager she taught school for three years in PEI. PEI had lead Nova Scotia by a full twelve years passing its Free Schools Act in 1852. Montgomery saved a full year’s teaching salary to cover tuition and board for her year at Dalhousie. She also sold some short stories and poetry during her 1895-96 stay, receiving $22 from publishers in one week. By both 1840 and 1940 standards for teachers she was earning significant money from her other vocation. She married a church minister and lived mostly unhappily thereafter.
Her story The Bad Boy of Blanktown School appeared in the student newspaper “The Dalhousie Gazette” in 1896. It was reprinted in DalNews June 2008