RM> Make their own ink?  Trip to the settlement?  This seems
 RM> out of place in 1929....
Notice, it said rural American teacher--much of the west was still very much 
a wilderness, trips to the town were very special events and one room schools 
in isolated areas the norm. I travel the back roads of NM quite a bit and 
could show you numerous schools that were abandoned due to district 
consolidation after WWII. These are remote areas. I think we have the longest 
bus run in the nation now. My first school has students that ride 2-2/12 hrs 
one way to school. Many of them drive a car to the bus stop as soon as they 
are old enough to reach the pedals. Never had any problems with homework not 
completed, although I could never figure out how they could write on a 
bouncing bus.
 
CB>PTA Gazette, 1941
 RM> Quills?!  In 1941?!?  Stranger and stranger....
Should be easy enough to check out--ok, when were fountain pens accepted in 
schools? PTA should have a copy of the article anyway. In my student days 
(rural again), nearly all students carried a pen knife for sharpening pencils 
as sharpeners were almost as bad as they are now. I was not allowed to use a 
ball point pen. (Terrible practice said the teachers!) Often, useful tools 
exist long before the educational system allows or accepts them in the 
classroom. 
 
--- Maximus 2.02
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