What are schools like in really small rural towns?

[Mocha]

So I'm in the process of finishing the layout of the plot for a horror comic I've been writing for a while now, and I need some help with getting details for the setting. It takes place in a small rural town (North-America)and a few of the chapters take place in the school, but I'm not entirely sure what it would be like since the schools I went to were in rural areas but with large populations. If anyone who's lived in a small town or at least knows what schools are like in areas with really small populations could tell me a bit about their experience it would be a huge help!

[Kayke]

My school district was in a medium population area, but I used to spend summers at my grandma's house which is in a VERY rural area so I know a little from what the local kids would talk about.

Kids of all ages would be on the same bus and each grade only had one classroom, so you'd be with the same people all day every year and there were no AP or Honors classes. They also didn't have any school sports teams because there weren't enough kids in each age group who were interested.

One of the girls I know from that area is really smart, so she took some classes at the community college (after school and during the summer) while she was in high school so she could put that on her college applications since she wanted to get into a good school and didn't feel like what her high school had to offer would get her anywhere.

I also remember thinking it was weird that kids of all age groups kind of hung out together. Here, we pretty much hung out with kids in the same grade, the grade above, and the grade below... unless someone brought their little sibling along or something. There all the kids would kind of hang out in groups with wider age ranges depending on their interests.

[keii4ii]

I went to a school in a rural farming village in Korea, for a brief period of time back in 1st grade. Some things that stick out:

• No school buses in Korea. This isn't usually an issue for elementary school kids, as everyone just walks to school in urban areas. But due to low population density, even kids my age (1st grade!) had to take public bus to school. Parents normally did NOT accompany the kids to/from school.

• Mornings at the bus stop by the school were very busy. Kids would gather to chat and play quick games before heading to class. On rainy days, they would show off the frogs they've caught. (Those were mostly tiny frogs, like the size of a US quarter -- or smaller!)

• The richest kid in the whole school was in my class. Her father was the owner of a large farm with lots of employees.

• The school building wasn't big enough to accommodate all the students, so we had alternating morning/afternoon groups. Week 1, kids in my group would take classes in the AM while kids in the other group would use the classroom in the PM. Week 2, we switch.

[respheal]

My graduating class had ~30 people. The whole high school, about 120. Our school was 7th-12th grade all together in the same building, although we referred to 7th/8th grade as junior high. Going by @Kayke's description, my school was just a bit larger.

• Nearly everyone in my class knew each other since kindergarten. EVERYONE KNOWS EVERYONE.
• Football and basketball were the school's lifeblood. It's not uncommon for teachers to bump students a grade so they can stay on the sports teams (Like from an F to a D).
• No cafeteria in the high school. Lunch was either walk next door to the elementary school cafeteria (lunch period for high school was just after the elementary school lunch period) or walk/drive a few blocks to the local convenience store/eatery.
• Elementary school: the playground was divided into two parts by a large expanse of grass: 1st-3rd grade on one end, and the big kid's side (4th-6th grade) on the other. The sea of grass must never be crossed.
• Nearly every student over 16 drove to school or carpooled with a friend. Having a car is a must in the country (and besides, the buses were starting to get overcrowded near my last years).
• School dances are a major event, and not just prom. Homecoming and Sadie's were also pretty big.

Story time on the dance thing. The tradition in our town was that if you asked a person out to a major event, you do it in the most convoluted way possible. My date sent me on a scavenger hunt throughout the entire town with a stuffed animal and a card asking me out at the end. In retaliation, I asked my uncle (a high-ranking member of the church) to call him in for "an assignment". So my date's freaking out thinking he's going to be asked to speak in church or worse, but nope--just my uncle grilling him for some laughs and then telling him I accepted the date.

Aaaaaaaaaaaand last thing I can remember that stuck out was that the student body president from my class rode in to the school gym to give his nomination speech on one of his family's donkeys. Because why not.

[YangKoete]

Everyone usually knows each other regardless. It spreads fast and a new person is usually happily greeted unless someone's having a rotten day.

Also, most people will either have a farm or have family commute to get to work or even work from home, so you will get quite the variety of people from different backgrounds.

Let's also not forget; Autumn and Winter are the best times of year. Why? EVERYONE brought stuff to school. I went to an average-sized Elementary school, but I moved a lot, and the one I went to had a mix of both rural and suburban backgrounds.

We'd pick blackberries that loomed over the fence of the forest (and sometimes snuck in for the extras~) when it got to be June, we saw tons of deer, went crayfishing, had a pet "wild" rabbit that we'd feed leftover vegetables from lunch, and we had a lot of people bringing in bagged lunches. And if you didn't bring lunch, most would share.

[Shanny8]

I lived in a small town for most of my youth and half of my teen life. Pretty much the same as school in a larger city except the classrooms are smaller & manageable. You couldnt skip class because everyone in town knew your folks, and you'd get in trouble. The only thing similar to the larger schools was the crap lunch menu; by high school, we were able to leave campus for lunch and go the local restaurants to grab something to eat- that was them letting us be responsible(if you were late back you had to do detention after school).

The support for your school sports teams were a little stronger. Almost everyone in town would go to the home football games on Friday night or the home basketball games. Most would buy the school merch- varsity jackets, t-shirts, sweatshirts.

[Alamino]

I have the benefit of going to a school in the city and small town. So I do know a bunch of differences. The town I was in was only 1000 people in town, 1600 once you include the farmers... Everyone knows everyone.You still have the 'jock' the 'hot chick' the 'sweet little girl' ect... but they aren't as segregated. My graduating class was 16 people. The year before was 12 and before that 8 (We had a large class). The school goes from grade 5 - 12. Everyone rides the same bus system...

The school didn't have the high technology of city schools. We still had chalkboards and white boards.This was just a few years back too, while my friend who was from my school in the city had smart boards and fancy tablets.
There were very few school field trips. VERY FEW. Maybe one every 2 years and that would be only if the school could afford it and it was needed. (In the city we had one every 6 months)
Kids who do not live in town and have to wait for the bus have a shed on their property by the road to wait in. It is headed and protects them from the snow and wind (I'm in the north).
Lunch for the kids (grade 9 and under) was held in a classroom while the others got the Library.
My school didn't have dances, couldn't afford it... But we did have 'outside day' where they would give us the whole school field to do whatever you wanted and had things set up for groups to do. This normally included a free lunch of 1 hot dog and 1 juice box.
The first kid in any class to get his license became a star to the rest of the class, no matter how dorky/nerdy/jocky/airhead ect they were
Once someone was dating, there was no hiding it... and crushes were just as bad. EVERYONE knew...
Skipping school during harvest was normal. You knew who was on a farm and who wasn't by how tanned they were during harvest season and how much class they missed... Teachers didn't mind.
Bush parties happened but not like the movies where everyone shows up and drinks and makes out on trucks or something. It was more so, people would show up with wood for the fire and a small mickey would go around while people bitched about class lol
FROSH was a thing... but you volunteered for it so you could join the older kids on their bush parties. >_> (I never did this but a friend did and it was stupid)
(I don't know if this was just in my town or what) Once the guys hit grade 10 they would have 1 month set out were they would have beard growing competitions... and the only highlight to winning was bragging rights lol We would have a month of guys with patchy beards, scratching their face. There was always one kid who couldn't grow a beard too...
Also! There were no extra clubs. If you wanted to have an art group you'd get together off school grounds and do it or hang out in the school field. You wanted to have a group to play chess with? You did it during break or outside day or something. We of course had sports teams. I just mean side clubs. (I heard this was a thing from my city friend when they went to high school and were in clubs after school)

Also, just from what I noticed going from the city to the country... the country kids were more 'grown up' looking. When I first went to school they kept asking me if I was sure about my age and were scared in gym they would hurt me since the farm guys do a lot of physical work on the farms and the girls too... so farm kids tend to be more muscular and tall... at least where I came from.

[Mocha]

If you don't mind me asking, what was the school building like? Was it an old building, approximately how many class rooms and floors did it have, that kind of stuff.

Yeah I definitely agree with the thing about farm kids always looking older. Almost everyone I know who's grown up on a farm looks a few years older than they actually are. And then there's me, I'm stuck with the opposite problem and look like a middle school kid...

[Alamino]

We had 1 floor with 2 hall ways...

Blue is the grade 5 - 6 classrooms. Pink was the 7 - 9 and Green is the 10 - 12. Red is the gym. Yellow is the common rooms, such as music room (by the gym), art room, computer room, Home ec. room, library (middle big one) and kitchen by the library (basically a microwave and sink where you can buy something to drink or a pizza pop, not a classroom though). X is bathrooms. White room is the staff room and principal office. As you can see the grades were more or less split up.
There was a shop class that we had as an add on. It wasn't build into the school but was more like a mobile classroom someone parked beside it and hooked up to the school. It was not a classroom though. It's the grey part. I think we had 18 classrooms... but my friend who went to the same school says 17. So I could be wrong (it'd be the blue area that I would be wrong with)

The building itself was old and concrete, they painted the concrete cinder block white but there was no mistaking it for anything else lol. There was 1 window in the classrooms that could have a window and the window couldn't open which was stupid in the summer. The floor was laminate and scuffed up pretty bad. Library and the younger grades had carpet... Hmm... The lockers were along the walls, the 5 - 9 had long lockers all along the wall while the 10 - 12 had half lockers along one wall only. The other side of the wall was the graduating pictures all the way back to when the school first opened. with a bench bellow them so you could sit outside the classroom if you were waiting or just on break.
Does that help at all?

( Haha looking younger than you are works in your favor as you grow up. Better to look 25 when your 32 then to look 25 when your 17 lol )

[Wolven_Sister]

I grew up in a small town and went to a small school. My graduating class was 72 people. I graduated in 2009 so some of the things that occurred in my school were not PC.

A lot of previous posts were on point: The jock, the hot chick, nerds, theatre kids--all the cliques. However, it's not what the movies make it out to be. Everyone has their group they flock to, but everyone was polite to everyone. Everyone got along for the most part. It was simple country etiquette to be polite to each other. Even handicapped kids weren't targets, they were treated equally like everyone else.

Fundraising, sports, dances, decorating the halls, were INSANELY popular things to do. Being active in extracurricular activities was the norm that EVERYONE did, even the recluse high school kids. This is because there's nothing else to do, so everyone is very active in school.

Not much of diversity in ethnicities or other religions.A lot of folks were Christian. You wouldn't be targeted if you didn't follow Christianity and they certainly wouldn't try to convert you, but you would've been part of the 0.1%

Everyone was having sexual intercourse everywhere. Janitors closet, storage rooms, baseball dugouts--you name it.

Everyone got their licenses as early as possible. This is because a lot of people lived on farms so they drove to school a lot. For those of us who lived in the small town, we walked to school.

In my middle school, lunch,recess, and reading all happened in less than an hour. We would have lunch for 15 minutes, then recess for 15 minutes, then reading session for 15 minutes. Then it would rotate each day. In high school we had open campus lunch--which means we had the choice to eat wherever we wanted. Some people ate in the cafeteria (which was VERY TINY like only 5 tables fit in there), some kids ate in the schools library, hallways, fields. Or we would walk to the gas station or eat at home or drive 20 minutes to the bigger town and get fast food there.

A lot of teachers allowed food and drinks in their classes, and graded more on participation in class rather than grading on homework (we still got homework, but our teachers encouraged us if we wanted a better grade then we needed to be more active in the classroom discussions).

A lot of people got jobs at an early age. Most kids earned money to go to camps, buying things, etc...working on farms in the summer. Heck, I started babysitting when I was 9 to start earning money. Then I did odd jobs of working on farms and around the small town. I got my first official job at a bank when I was 16.

Rumors spread like WILDFIRE. Since everyone knew everyone, if there was one rumor started in high school you can bet the rest of the town would know about it by the end of the day.

Sports games and tournaments were something that EVERYONE in town attended. If you want to get the whole town in one spot for one night, just go to a football game. Tractor-pull events also happened every summer.

A lot of people in high school were related. it was very common to see groups of cousins, siblings, you name it.

A lot of people wore cowboy boots, it was considered fashionable. Rich kids wore them the most. Most of the rich kids, their families owned wineries.

There was practically no LGBTQ+ community. When I attended high school, I only knew of 4. Myself included. When I came out just as bisexual, I was targeted for bullying. I got death threats in my locker and death threat phone calls at my house. This also spread to the entire town too, so even people at the gas station would look at me with disdain. I also had no friends for an entire year as no one wanted to talk to me. However, once the new school year came around so did people so there's that. But from what I've heard, the town has improved their view on the LGBTQ+ community so it's willing to accept change.

EDIT: Forgot really quick. Every year there was a Senior Parade. This was for the graduating high school seniors. We usually decorated a farm truck that pulled a trailer. It was loaded with hay bales and it would be decorated with our school colors. We would also dress in our school colors. This was something ALL senior students participated it, didn't matter what background you came from.
The popular/rich kids would ride in the bed of the truck or on the trailer. However, most country boys were polite so they would try to get all the girls on the trailer so we would have some place to sit while the guys would walk. We would parade our "float" around the town and everyone would come out of their houses/stores to wave and congratulate us.

(sorry for the novel. I think that's all I can think of lmao)

[Shanny8]

@Alamino GEESH- every grade in ONE building?

Even though I consider it a small town we had MORE than one elementary school. But once you got to 6th-7th grade, everyone went to the same middle school. At first the [old] middle school was in the downtown area, but then they tore the old buildings down and moved it to another area a little too rural.

We had a junior high school that took 8th-9th grade, then the [senior]high school that took 10th-12th grade. When you made it to senior high you could leave campus at lunch to go to the nearby McDonald's and a couple of pizza joints. One pizza place had a $5 all-you-can eat lunch special & we use to stay late eating up all the pizza(the pizza was worth the after/before school detention). Also once you hit 12th grade, if you had nearly had all your accumulated credits, you could enroll in their work/study program and only had to go to class half a day(for those who had part time/after school jobs).

Yeah, we didnt do many field trips- though I did join a club in middle school where we went to some caves- really small caves that we had to crawl through and got muddy. We also took a trip to Huntsville(Alabama) to the space camp- where we stayed up late, running through the hotel halls at night; a couple of kids brought some liquor and got slizz'd...someone snitched on them and the group was banned from doing anymore field trips.

[Mocha]

Thank you so much for doing this! It really helps a lot