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One room school seeking students |
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January 21, 2018 |
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| Teacher
Rebecca Corey |
Rebecca Corey began her career as a teacher in
an urban school in Tacoma, Washington, but over
time, she found she had a natural affinity for
the little one-room school house, and over the
course of her career she always found students
who did better, and actually thrived, in such a
setting.
Now, a little more than a decade after
"retiring," Corey is ready to once again welcome
such students to her little one-room school
house, the Orthodox Country School, in space
given her for the purpose by Father Gregory
Horton at Holy Myrrhbearers Orthodox Church,
1957 Pleasant Valley Loop, Bonners Ferry.
Rebecca earned her bachelor's degree in
education at the University of Puget Sound in
Tacoma, and she taught in Tacoma for five years
before leaving to teach at smaller rural
schools. In the early 1980s, she went to work in
a one-room Winton School near Leavenworth,
Washington, where she found, she said an ideal
fit.
"I never liked cities," she said. "I liked the
smaller, more personal setting where I could
work one-on-one with my students and give them
more personal time, and where I could work with
the same students year after year, start to
finish. That was the biggest blessing, the
continuity. To be able to foresee problems and
forestall problems and issues. To me, the small
classroom affords the most wholesome teaching
environment."
She taught in a small, one-room school in
Montana, then one in Emmett, Idaho, where she
retired. Now, starting a private school of her
own, Corey says she will open the door once she
has her first student, and will expand as her
student body grows.
She is accepting students ages five to 12, even
four years old if the child is ready, and will
initially offer classes from 8 a.m. to noon,
Monday through Thursday, expanding to a full day
when the needs of her students demand it.
Rebecca is the first to agree that the small,
one room school isn't for all students; many,
she said, thrive in the busy halls and
classrooms of the large urban school or the
hometown public school where they have a lot of
options. She also said she's not looking for the
students who rebel, who are disruptive or who
don't want to learn.
"Some children do well in a big, bustling
school," she said. "Some do better in a smaller,
more focused setting."
Some students, she said, learn more slowly than
others, but she said she's never met a student
who wants to learn who couldn't be taught.
"I don't care how slowly a child learns," she
said, "just that they want to learn. With proper
guidance, they will catch up."
She said her classes will focus on the
fundamentals; reading, writing, arithmetic,
offered in a wholesome, Christian environment,
where academics, not indoctrination, will make
up the students' days.
Her rate structure, starting out, is simple; $4
per hour, with discounts for families with more
than one child to enroll. The idea, she said, is
to keep it affordable, to give a good option for
parents who think their children will benefit
from more "teacher time."
To find out more, call Rebecca at (208)
267-9609. |
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