Join the Poultney Historical Society at our Annual Meeting in the East Poultney Schoolhouse on Sunday, November 18th at 2:00pm for an afternoon of school history! The event will feature a presentation, “19th Century School Slates: The Local Connection,” by speakers Dale and Joan Prouty. Their talk will be highlighted with many examples of school slates used by 19th century scholars and a power point presentation. The program is free and open to the public.
Dale & Joan are long time area educators and museum programmers who have enjoyed interacting with youth of all ages. Dale is a retired Elementary School educator who taught at Granville, New York in the Slate Valley. Joan is the education coordinator at the Farm Museum and Perkins Hollow Schoolhouse located at the Washington County Fairgrounds where both work with children’s programs and exhibits. They are charter members of the Country School Association of America with both serving on the Board of Directors. They have presented at various local and national conferences and in 2015 they hosted the CSAA National Conference at Saratoga Springs, New York with a Slate Valley tour that included the Union Academy and the East Poultney School.
While attending Castleton State Teacher’s College in 1968-69 Dale spent his Junior and Senior years with his Aunt Ida & Uncle Corbett Hughes and did his student teaching at the new Poultney Elementary.
Preparing for the 200″‘ year of New York country schooling in 2012 they worked on locating, photographing and documenting the sites and surviving country school buildings which were included in their exhibition at The Farm Museum in Greenwich, NY.
In retirement they say their interest in slates and the collection grew through visitations to various historic sites and museums which provided them the opportunity to discover the great variety of student slates that had been available for young scholars a century ago.
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