“Browntown School Went on Interesting Hike to Mountains”
“Mr. Bittinger Explained to the Pupils How These Mountains, Rivers and Valleys Were Formed”
(Written by Mary Deavers, Cecil Compton, and Lorraine Updike)
Source: Front Royal Record, Volume 12, Number 47, 25 November 1931
This is a hike that it is still possible to do today. Most descriptions of schoolroom activities around this time (i.e. the 1920s and 1930s) in small rural schools like Browntown Elementary feature rote learning, a concentration on the three Rs, and rigid discipline with frequent use of corporal punishment. This story illustrates how creative teachers like Foster Bittinger were able to inspire their students and promote learning by using challenging and fun activities such as school trips and hiking which departed radically from accepted classroom practices.
Their Story:
“On the bright Thursday morning of November 5, the Browntown Elementary advanced room left the school at 9:00 a. m. for a hike to the Raven Rocks near the top of the Blue Ridge Mountains. We went up through Browntown, turned to the left, and followed a road to Mr. Tolbert’s spring, where all got a drink. We left there at 10 a.m. and started up the mountains for the Raven Rocks. We rested several times and a few fell down, but no one got hurt. We reached the rocks at 11:05 and looked around for a few minutes, after which we all sat down on the rocks and ate our lunch. When we had finished Mr. Bittinger cut our initials on the rocks.
The mountains we overlooked were the Blue Ridge on which we stood, to the west the Massanutten, beyond that the North and Shenandoah Mountains, and still beyond those are the main ridges of the Alleghany system. The towns we overlooked were Browntown, Bentonville, Limeton, Front Royal, Winchester, and Martinsburg. The rivers were the two parts of the Shenandoah, the North and South Branch, which flow together at Riverton. We overlooked a large part of the Shenandoah which is a very wonderful scene.
Then Mr. Bittinger told us how these mountains, rivers, and valleys were formed. The Goose Creek, Rappahannock. Rapidan. and Rivanna Rivers which now rise east of the Blue Ridge Mountains, long years ago rose in the Alleghany Mountains and flowed across the Shenandoah Valley. This Valley was then as high as the mountains are now. But parts of this plateau were made of limestone and dissolved more rapidly than the sandstone parts. This caused ridges to appear which turned the grade against the waters. These waters then sought other outlets and finally found the Potomac River which they joined in flowing through the Harpers Ferry Gap. Thus, the direction of the rivers of the Shenandoah Valley changed. The rivers washed the valleys lower and lower. The sandstone ridges stood out as the Blue Ridge, Massanutten, Shenandoah, and North Mountains. The Manassas, Chester, Swift Run, Thornton and other gaps stand out as evidence that rivers one time flowed through these mountains.
We then climbed over the rocks for awhile and got some pieces of rock for souvenirs. About 12:15 we left the rocks and started for home. We reached Mr. Tolbert’s spring about 12:55 and got some water and rested awhile. Then we came on down to Mr. Jenkins’, where Mr. Bittinger’s car was. Mr.Bittingertook some of the crowd in his car and came on, but most of us walked. We stopped once and cracked some walnuts. Then we came on down and visited some houses. Once we stopped and got some apples. We arrived at the school house at 2:45 p.m. Every one learned much about mountains and all enjoyed the day. We are using the trip in our history, geography and English studies.”
Photo of Foster Bittinger and his wife, Esther, circa 1923
NOTE: Mr Bittinger was the Rev. Foster Bittinger who became Pastor of the Church of The Brethren in Browntown in 1927 and also served for several years as Principal of the Browntown School
Another example of taking teaching and learning outside of the classroom. This is a photo of a 1933 Browntown school trip to the Chicago World Fair.