Center Third-Graders Take A Field Trip To The Past

History came to life for Center Elementary School third-graders with a visit to the Mayfield Township Historical Society house on SOM Center Road.

"We give them a little taste of everything," said historical society member Patsy Mills.

The tour goes back as far as 1805 with a log cabin recreated in the basement of the historical house. "We teach them about life in a log cabin – your kitchen, utensils, sleeping facilities," Mills said.

That task belonged to Joanne Smalakula, who showed students what life was like in 1805 through items such as wooden bowls ("they didn't have dishes"), a fur blanket and a fireplace made of stones from the Chagrin River.

"At 7 or 8 o'clock at night that's it, you went to bed because you have to get up at 5 in the morning to feed the chickens and milk the cows," Smalakula said.

She added that you couldn't just go to the store to pick up food or supplies – the nearest store was in Ashtabula and was a two-day trip.

Al Muhle, society president, demonstrated how printing used to be done using a press from 1887 and handed out bookmarks made in front of the students.

Shirley Shatten, a former teacher, explained what school was like in 1890, starting by having girls and boys sit on opposite sides of the classroom. She said families living in the Mayfield area back then were mostly farmers and didn't have a lot of money.

"They didn't have paper, they didn't have pencils. They used the chalkboard to save money," Shatten said. "Writing was the most important subject. They spent a lot of time on cursives."

Current Center School teacher Jamie Putinski said she's taken classes to the historical house for five years and it's their favorite field trip.

"The kids learn so much from the historical society members. They are so well behaved when they're here because they're so enthralled with what they're learning about," she said.

She said students usually are especially interested in the schoolhouse. "They understand it so much, it's their life," she said.

Putinski added that the lessons about the lives of Mayfield-area families in the late 1800s and early 1900s are a great complement to classroom instruction.

"This fits the standards that we teach perfectly," she said.