One of the most important dates on the calendar of every small town is the start of the new school year. The ringing of the school bell these days may be symbolic and electronic, but it is nevertheless the conscious reminder for school kids to get busy continuing their education, and the subconscious reminder for the rest of us to get back into the routine of doing whatever it is we do. Education is serious business that requires discipline, like every other worthwhile thing in life. It also requires commitment and support. In days gone by, the ringing of the bell didn't always get that much attention. Before the dawn of the last century, there was no system of free public education in Emanuel County. In the late 1800’s several attempts were made by progressive citizens to establish and support schools. These efforts were successful out in the county, but there was little progress made in town. In the 1870’s, The Swainsboro Masonic Academy for Men and Women was established on the site where the Police Department now stands. The Academy was one of the few schools in the area that offered instruction in the grades beyond what we now know as middle school. The average cost for a student to attend the Masonic school was around 35 to 40 dollars per term. That was very expensive back then and enrollment was low, but it did prove that "higher education" was something that people wanted and needed. Meanwhile, the one-room, one-teacher schools out in the county were thriving, and they, at least, were fortifying youngsters with the skills in reading, writing and arithmetic. When most of the population in the county lived in widely separated farming communities, there were as many as 80 small schools (and some larger and very fine schools) in operation all over Emanuel County before a centralized, countywide school system was ever established.
In those early days, agriculture was the lifeblood of the county, and the school terms were decided largely by the growing seasons and harvest times. Life on the farm required hard work by many hands, and that included all of the children in the family. Education was not always the highest priority. Usually, the school year would begin when the weather and the seasons dictated and then break for a while to allow for gathering crops. In those times, the school year may have been as short as 4 months or last as long as 6 months. In 1901, voters in Swainsboro overwhelmingly voted to support a bond for $12,000.00 to build the first Swainsboro High School. It was located on Lewis Street where the primary school was in the 1940s and 50s. Since that first school building was constructed more than 120 years ago, this county has made sure that education has steadily moved forward in a determined march. Thanks to some true giants in the local story of education and to the loyal support of the tax-paying public, the education of generations of students has come to occupy a place of the highest priority. We may wonder at times, with the rising costs of everything, if we will always be able to continue that commitment. Those are the times when the old school bell rings the loudest to remind us of the legacy of those one-room classrooms, and the lesson that when the school bell rings, we all need to listen.
