Troutman’s School, also known as Trautman’s School, was a one-room school house in the Spain section of Lykens Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. John D. Troutman collected stories of Spain and some of them were published in the Klingerstown Bicentennial Album in 2007. This one is entitled “A ‘Ritin Lesson at Trautman’s School.”
As the one room schools were built, some to the Pennsylvania German children were exposed for the first time to the English Language. Often times, the teacher was as Dutch as the kids, which led to some humorous situations as told by John Williams and Dorothy Williams.
John Williams was born April 1, 1906, and lived most of his childhood in the stone house in Spain, with his older sisters Minnie Williams and Gertie Williams, and an older brother Charles Williams. These three children attended Trautman’s School, which at that time had a very “Dutchified” school teacher. The lessons taught, were the familiar three R’s – Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. It happened one day during a writing lesson.
The teacher, a man, was practicing vocabulary words with the students, and Minnie was up front writing them on the blackboard. One of the words given was “thick,” which when pronounced with a Pennsylvania Dutch accent sounded like “sick.” So Minnie wrote “sick.” “No, no,” said the teacher, “thick,” not “sick.” But Minnie wrote the same word “sick” again, as she heard it spoken. The teacher becoming anxious, said, “Thick is the word, as in “the board is thick.” You have written “sick” as “I am sick.” By this time Minnie was exasperated. She turned around and spoke to her older brother in the class. “Charles, go get the doctor! The board is sick and the teacher is too.” This announcement brought laughter from everyone in the room but the teacher. He went to catch Minnie who by this time was out of the schoolhouse door and headed for home!
Only a few bricks from the school remain lying among the trees and leaves where once these children gathered.
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