School buildings and the ways that students are taught have changed a lot since the 1930s. In these 15 pictures, you get a glimpse of just how much is different now.

Many of these pictures were taken in Reedsville/Arthurdale in Preston County, which was the first New Deal community under the first of three Franklin Delano Roosevelt administrations. There are also some from the Tygart Valley Homestead district and in the area of Eleanor, which were two other New Deal communities in West Virginia.

1. Here’s a class of students in a one-room schoolhouse in Red House, 1935.
Ben Shahn/Library of Congress LC-USF33-006145
2. These school boys are playing with blocks during a free period at a school in Reedsville, 1936.
Edwin Locke/ Library of Congress LC-USF33-004161
3. Here’s some art work by school children at a nursery school in Reedsville, 1936.
Edwin Locke/Library of Congress LC-USF33-004162
4. This was a school for black children in Scotts Run, 1938.
Marion Post Wolcott/Library of Congress LC-USF34-050049
5. Here are some small children playing at a nursery school in Reedsville.
Elmer Johnson/Library of Congress LC-USF34-001084
6. Here are some children at a nursery school in the Tygart Valley Homesteads, 1939.
John Vachon/Library of Congress LC-USF34-060067
7. Here are some children taking a nap at a nursery school in Reedsville, 1935.
Elmer Johnson/Library of Congress
8. This is the high school at the Arthurdale project in Preston County, 1936.
Edwin Locke/ Library of Congress LC-USF34-015305

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9. This shot shows some school boys learning instruments in a schoolroom in Reedsville, 1937.
Elmer Johnson/Library of Congress LC-USF34-001079
10. These school children at a nursery school in the Tygart Valley Homesteads are having lunch in this 1939 photo.
John Vachon/Library of Congress LC-USF34-060087
11. Here are some children leaving a schoolhouse in Reedsville, 1936.
Edwin Locke/Library of Congress LC-USF33-004166
12. These kids are leaving school in Reedsville, 1936.
Edwin Locke/Library of Congress LC-USF33-004166
13. Here are some kids posing for a picture at a school in Red House, 1935.
Ben Shahn/Library of Congress LC-DIG-fsa-8a16722
14. Here’s a shot of a school teacher at a school in Red House, 1935.
Ben Shahn/Library of Congress LC-USF33-006147-b
15. These children were transported to their school in Eleanor on this truck, 1935.
Unknown/Library of Congress
16. Here are two first-grade students drawing at a school in Reedsville, 1935.
Elmer Johnson/Library of Congress LC-USF34-001078

What do you think of these photos? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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