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Cedar Community: Life the way it should be. The way you want it.

community outreach
YE OLDE SCHOOL
  • 1 "Daniel Wickert" confesses.
  • 2 Touring Heritage House
  • 4 "Marie Wickert", the teacher's pet, passes out papers.
  • 6 Admiring the class pictures.
  • 7 Recitation time in front of the class.
  • 7 "Howard Mayer" rings the school bell.
  • 7 Our borrowed Oak Knoll School students from Holy Trinity.
  • 7 Reciting "The Pledge of Allegiance".
  • 7 Loading the wood burning stove for winter school days.
  • 7 Drinking water must be hauled to school.

Preserving history, one tale at a time:

Years ago, did children really walk to school six miles each day, up hill both ways? Bringing young and old together to sort fact from fiction has been a timeless goal at Cedar Community. Through Ye Olde School and Heritage House Museum, children are able to experience history first-hand and interact with older adults to develop a greater understanding and appreciation of the past.

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Ye Olde School

The perfect setting for intergenerational education came to Cedar Community in 1982, when West Bend’s former Oak Knoll School was donated. An authentic 1917 schoolhouse, Ye Olde School hosts five-hour field trip programs for public, private and home-school classes from throughout SE Wisconsin. Students take on the names and roles of former Oak Knoll students, and if desired, dress in period clothing from pioneer days to the early 1900s. The day includes hauling water & wood to school, connected desks, instruction in proper “deportment”, penmanship lessons with dip pens or slates, outhouse visits and time permitting, a tour of the Heritage House Museum. Enthusiastic adult volunteers share their memories of old school days and life before modern conveniences, often comparing old-fashioned values with today’s daily living.

A costumed schoolmarm hosts this step back in time, immersing children in the life of early Wisconsin settlers. The original version of the pledge of allegiance is taught as recited in 1917, along with lessons giving students firsthand experience of the rules and rhythms of a one-room school. The schoolmarm is puzzled if children aren’t familiar with using “dippers” for school drinking water; a subject called arithmetic; or if they name someone other than Woodrow Wilson as the current president of the United States!

Programs are particularly suitable for elementary students, grades 2-4, along with mixed grade home-school groups, and are offered from mid-September through mid-June. Registration opens on May 1 annually and continues throughout the school year. Adult groups are invited to schedule half-day “early school days reminisce programs” offered in July and August, with an option to have lunch at Cedar Community’s Top of the Ridge Restaurant.

For details, contact schoolmarms Carol Heger and Barbara Howard Zyvoloski at 262.306.4575 or yos@cedarcommunity.org.

The historic one-room school is located at 5505 County Road Z and the Ye Olde School Office is located at 5595 County Road Z, West Bend, WI 53095.

PDF DOWNLOAD: Tips to enhance your trip to Ye Olde School

Visit our Calendar of Events for upcoming dates. For details or tour information, contact yos@cedarcommunity.org.