Friends of Cornell School

The Friends of Cornell School is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1987. The group's purpose at that time was the restoration and preservation of an 1886 one-room schoolhouse.

The Friends of Cornell School offer a living history program in which an actual school day at a one-room schoolhouse is recreated for area schoolchildren. Students are encouraged to dress in period costume, bring lunch pails, learn lessons the old way, and always show the proper respect to the schoolmarm. This program allows Cornell School to preserve the heritage that one-room schools brought to our nation.

Mission of Cornell School

The Friends of Cornell School want to raise public awareness about one-room schoolhouses as related to the educational process in the United States. They want to preserve and commemorate these houses of education, and their connections to the lives of schoolchildren, schoolmarms and schoolmasters.

The members of the Friends of Cornell School have a poem that dovetails with their mission. During the long renovation and restoration of this historic structure, the following "Don't Quit" message helped the group through many rough times.

John Greenleaf Whittier

Don't Quit
(Special Poem Used by the Friends of Cornell School))

When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and debts are high
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but don't quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out,
Don't give up though the pace seems slow
You may succeed with another blow.

Success is failure turned inside out ---
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell just how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit ---
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.
                                                           -- John Greenleaf Whittier