Inside a one teacher school: an introduction to the collection of the One Teacher School Museum at Kelvin Grove: One Teacher School Museum Studies: No. 2

The One Teacher School Museum committee in March 1975 secured the original Loganholme state school building when it became available for removal. The century-old building was moved to a site at the Kelvin Grove College of Advanced Education. Its opening by the Governor-General, Sir Zelman Cowan, was a fitting celebration of the centenary of the passing of the 1875 Education Act in the colony of Queensland - often referred to as the free, compulsory and secular act. The one teacher school museum project was developed through the enthusiasm, initially, of Ted O'Rourke, a lecturer at Kelvin Grove, who was the major instigator of the project and was responsible for obtaining the donation of many items in the current museum from schools and the wider community. Some years later, when Kelvin Grove CAE had been amalgamated into the Brisbane College of Advanced Education, the museum was relocated to its present position, adjacent to the rain forest reserve at the Kelvin Grove campus. Following the latest amalgamation of Brisbane CAE with the Queensland University of Technology, the work of the museum has received strong support from both the Education Faculty and QUT administration. This support has enabled the publication of a series of monographs in the One Teacher School Museum Studies series. This monograph is a revised edition of the publication A History of the Loganholme One-Teacher School Museum, produced in 1992. Subsequent research into the history of the school and its teachers has enabled this fuller account to be prepared. Other titles in the monograph series include a study of David Freeman the first headmaster at Loganholme; a study of the collection held by the one-teacher school museum at Kelvin Grove; and a biographical account of the teachers who taught at Loganholme between the world wars. The study of Loganholme school and its teachers represents a neglected part of our educational history. Increasingly it is the small and ordinary stories which are providing valuable historical insights into practices such as education. This school and its teachers, together with the community they served, are presented as case studies of the unremarkable, the unspectacular. Yet it is because of these very characteristics that we are provided with valuable insights into some of the everyday experiences of Queensland schooling of the past.

Welcome to the collection of the One Teacher School Museum. For some readers the items in the collection will rekindle memories, pleasant or otherwise, of their school days while for others this monograph will serve as an introduction to an era of schooling which is a part of history. The materials in this collection were used in the running of Queensland State schools during the late decades of the nineteenth century and the early decades of this century. As is the experience of most museums, this collection is far from complete. The museum committee has a collection policy which seeks to expand the holdings so that they will represent more completely the materials used in Queensland schools in the period 1860-1960. Much of the initial task of establishing the collection was carried out by the late Ted O'Rourke, a lecturer at the Kelvin Grove College of Teacher Education, who was also responsible for the setting up of the Loganholme School on the Kelvin Grove Campus. This monograph provides a detailed background to the items in the collection, placing them into an historical context, but also providing anecdotes concerning the experiences of teachers and pupils. It is hoped that as you read about the collection, you will become engaged in the life of the Queensland school of earlier times.