A teacher and her 30 students, 1912

Angels with dirty faces, circa 1912: A teacher and her students outside a school in Cleveland, Minn., about 80 miles southwest of the Twin Cities. (Photo courtesy mnhs.org)

From the Minneapolis Star Tribune, a quick trip in the Wayback machine to 1912, when the schools were testing liquid soap...

Liquid soap and paper towels won in the preliminary test of toilet articles last winter when Frank E. Reidhead, executive agent of the board of education, sought to learn the best dirt removers for use of school children...

“We want the liquid soap and paper towels,” writes one of the principals. “This combination is more sanitary than the bar soap and linen towels and is more desirable, too, as the water used is cold.

“At first the users of soap and towels in this building were in disgrace or were called dudes, but it was shown that books, papers and sewing materials were cleaner when handled by those who use the soap and towels.”

The term "Dudes" was in use in 1912?

Blogged not so much for the quaint story of the advent of liquid soap but for the photo of the teacher with her 30 students. I'll bet if you had 30 students in a school nowadays, you would be required to have two teachers, an administrator, a custodian, a food service supervisor, a learning media coordinator, a special ed teacher, a social worker, and school nurse. Am I wrong?

Just to make clear - I'm not "dissing" the staffing of modern schools. Rather, I'm in awe of the teachers who taught our parents and grandparents in one-room schools.