This photograph captures a rural schoolhouse built or improved through the Tennessee Valley Authority's education initiatives in the 1960s. The TVA invested in school infrastructure across seven states, believing that better buildings and resources would transform opportunity for children in one of America's poorest regions.
You step into the bright classroom where afternoon light streams through new windows. The smell of fresh paint and new wood fills the air. Children sit at proper desks—not hand-me-downs or crates—and a teacher stands before a real blackboard, ready to teach.
Reflect
What did a good school building mean to your own education—or to schools in your community?