Art
This photograph shows a school built by the Tennessee Valley Authority in the 1960s, part of a massive federal effort to modernize the rural South. Good schools meant families could stay in their communities instead of leaving for factory jobs up north. Education was the backbone of everyday American opportunity.
Art · Full story
You walk into a bright, new building—linoleum floors, big windows, fluorescent lights. The smell of fresh paint and chalk dust fills your nose. In a classroom nearby, a teacher writes on a clean blackboard while rows of students sit at individual desks, not the hand-me-down benches of their parents' schoolhouse.
Reflect
What was your own school building like? How did it shape your daily experience of learning?