Over the three centuries of its existence, the rural school provided countless children with the basic intellectual tools with which our society was built. "One Room out West" offers a crucial piece of the story of this institution, by focusing on one schoolhouse, the children who attended, the teachers who taught, the farm families that formed the community which supported, and was supported by, its ethos and its daily life. This book is really the story of American public education. Rita Seedorf is professor of education at Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Washington.