By Susan Bromley

Staff Writer

Ortonville-There are only five known surviving students who attended the Mann School, but they will be reunited soon in the one-room building that closed in 1943.

From noon-2 p.m., Aug. 13, the Ortonville Community Historical Society will host a Mann School Reunion and Open House at the one-room school that stands on the grounds of the Old Mill Museum, 366 Mill St.

All students, their family members, and anyone 80 and over in the community are invited to attend and enjoy a lunch that will include chicken salad or egg salad sandwiches, as well as punch and cake.

“There are only five known surviving students of the Mann School,” said Judy Miracle, OCHS president. “We will go out to the school, where we house all the photos of it being moved and the work that was done and we will introduce each of the people and ask them their memories of the school.”

The Mann School stood at the corner of Honert and Saw Mill Lake roads and was one of several one-room schoolhouses in the area that served students before the advent of busing. After it closed in 1943, it sat empty for years and was being used as a chicken coop, with many broken windows, before being rescued by the OCHS and relocated to the Old Mill Museum campus in 1996.

Miracle, a retired teacher, now gives tours to local school children and holds classes in which students have arithmetic lessons, recitations, and learn penmanship.

Recitation, in which students stand at the front of the class and learn to make eye contact, annunciate clearly and speak slowly, is often a new experience for modern students, Miracle notes. Students all want to wear the dunce cap and are curious about the pen and ink. When she shows them a paddle with holes, their eyes widen.

Miracle is enthusiastic about the reunion.

“I think it’s really important to share with the community all the knowledge and history these people can bring.”

For more information or to RSVP, call Judy Miracle at 248-627-4656.