Reported by Brad Penner, STATEWIDE Correspondant

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty.
At Burr Oak School, traditions from the past are an important part of the present. > I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. The children honor God and country. They respect their parents and their teacher.
A little bit louder when you are singing.
Bridgett Schmid is a fourth grader full of smiles. Seth Luke is a fun-loving second grader. His second grade classmate, J.W. Schmid, is a curious and eager student. Stacy Jones is in the sixth grade. She is a quiet leader of the Burr Oak student body.
My lucky day.
Wacey Joe Smith is the youngest, a bright-eyed kindergartner who seems to be a quick learner.
[Sarah Jane Graham] I didn't spend any time this year teaching the children to respect me because they already knew that. They already knew how I expected them to act and the appropriateness of their behavior. I don't spend much time on disciplining the children.
Sarah Jane Graham is in her ninth year at Burr Oak School. She has taught at other rural schools in Nebraska and even taught in Africa for a time. She is used to teaching several different children in several different grades and she likes it.
[Mrs. Graham] Well, one thing I have the students year after year, the same students, and you get to know them very well and you get to know their families very well. And it's an advantage I think to have the children in more than one year because you can just know their weak spots, you know their strong points, and you can capitalize on them.
When you visit Burr Oak School, one thing quickly becomes clear. You don't have to tell these kids what to do. They keep themselves busy while Mrs. Graham works with other students.
[Mrs. Graham] That's right. Now try to say it again. I think that's a very big advantage for the children to be able to have independence and not be able to come to the teacher at a moments notice, but they have to learn to work independently and try to solve the problems themselves first.
How many Great Lakes are there?
Five.
Can you say them?
Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, Lake Ontario.
[Mrs. Graham] I teach the children to be teachers. And they don't just happen to be able to help somebody. I teach them to be able to help their neighbor and not give them the answer but to ask leading questions so that the neighbor can figure out the answers by themselves.
An old Apple computer is about the extent of high technology at Burr Oak School. Some would consider that a drawback.
[Mrs. Graham] I don't think they feel deprived and I don't think they are deprived. I think they're privileged.
And Mrs. Graham says, students from Burr Oak are well prepared when they move onto junior high and high school at bigger schools in larger towns.
[Mrs. Graham] I get some feedback from the teachers that they have now and it's a positive feedback. I had a lady tell me not long ago that there is a difference. This is a teacher in a town school. She said there is a difference.
Kandi Ryan is an eighth grader in Broken Bow. She's the last of six Ryan girls who attended Burr Oak School.
[Kandi Ryan] It's a lot different because you have like eight different classes and you move around. You don't bring your lunch. I was the only one in my class at the country school and now I have like 100 kids in my class now. That's just how it is different. I like it here but I liked the other school, too.
Kadi Ryan says the education at Burr Oak School gave her a good foundation for high school in Broken Bow and there are some advantages to a town school.
[Kadi Ryan] I like sports a lot and there's more people. I have a lot more friends.
What do you miss about Burr Oak School?
[Kadi] My teacher. I miss her a lot. She is my favorite teacher. I think she always will be.
[Jackie Ryan] Mrs. Graham always took them on lots of field trips. One year Mrs. Graham took them to the museum in Grand Island and they had to all dress up like pioneers and they spent a day down there doing what the pioneers would do. They went to pioneer school. They ate what the pioneers ate and had a really big fun day.
The Ryan family has years of memories involving Burr Oak.
[Jackie] Several pictures here of Santa Claus. Santa Claus was always a big thing at the programs. Everybody tried to figure out who Santa Claus was and Santa Claus always had to kiss the teacher.
Jackie Ryan attended the school herself.
[Jackie] It was fun. It was great. I was one of the ones that didn't have anybody in my class. Went clear through grade school and never had anybody in my class.
Maurice Ryan has served on the Burr Oak School board for years. Now he has to preside over the school's closing. It's simply become too expensive.
[Maurice Ryan] That's what they're saying about our school that, you know, it's -- we're spending too much money for the amount of students we have. Per pupil cost is what it is coming down to. That's where, you know, they put us in a bind.
[Jackie] This is what I have grown up with and I know how much my kids have gained.
Burr Oak School may be small and fiscally inefficient but parents like Jackie Ryan know it works.
[Jackie] My kids have done very well but not only just our kids. You know, I can't think of anybody from our school that hasn't gone to college and done very well in college. They get socialized. They learn their manners. They learn their morals, their ethics. You know, God is number one. And they learn how to treat each other and their families. It's not just education they're getting out here.
But Jackie Ryan also knows a one-room school is only as good as its teacher.
[Jackie] The thing that I think came in common of the teachers that were really excellent was they were always learners. These teachers no matter how hard they worked or how far from home they were, they were always taking classes, going to in-services, you know, trying to learn anything they could to help these students and make them better teachers.
She says Mrs. Graham is one of the best.
[Jackie] Even if she had to help one a little more or maybe he was doing a little different work than maybe one of the others, you know, this kid never knew he was behind or wasn't quite up to the work that maybe the other student was.
[Kadi] I remember one day I was having a really bad day and I was out at recess and I was really mad, and Mrs. Graham came up and talked to me and she told me, I think, how good I was at math or something and right after that, I had a way better day.
When we visited Burr Oak School, something happened that says a lot about the way students view Mrs. Graham. J.W. accidentally called her grandma. She is kind and understanding but she doesn't coddle her students.
[Mrs. Graham] The day you saw Wacey spill his food all over his desk and the ordinary reaction for a child would be I'm going to be getting in trouble for this but rather than that, I said, you know, you clean it up, let's figure out a way to clean up your mess. And that's one thing I would like the children to remember is that if we're going to make mistakes, but it's how we recover from those mistakes and what we learn from them that's important.
When you have lemons, make lemonade. That's the approach Mrs. Graham is taking to the closing of Burr Oak School.
[Mrs. Graham] When things are sour and don't seem so good to us, what can we add a little bit to it? Stacy?
Sweetness.
We can add a little bit sweetness. And then how does it taste? J.W.?
Good.
It tastes a lot better than it did before.
[Mrs. Graham] We can't change it. We can't do anything about it so we need to look forward to the future and we need to look forward with anticipation and be able to look at it with a positive attitude. But I'm not going to weep about it. I mean I may shed a few tears but try not to in public.
Next year the students of Burr Oak will go to Round Hill School. It isn't much bigger and it's only a few miles from Burr Oak. That will help make the adjustment easier.
[Maurice] I don't think we're going to lose a lot. That's what the community wanted, that they would just as soon drive another two, three, four, five miles and go to the Class One instead of going to the town schools for now.
[Jackie] You know, it will never be the same as Burr Oak because they have their own traditions. It will be all right. I know the parents around that have the little kids are really thankful they don't have to send their kids 25 miles or 20 miles to town and that they don't have to ride a bus and that they still have a school that's fairly close for them to go to.
The last day of school began like any other day at Burr Oak.
[Mrs. Graham] Good morning, Seth, how are you? Good. You know this is the last day of school?
[Seth] Yes.
Are you glad about it or do you want to go all summer long?
[Seth] I want to go all summer long.
Mrs. Graham wants the last day of school to be a fun day for her students, a day to look ahead to summer and their next school year but first there are a few more lessons to learn.
[Mrs. Graham] You are glad today is the last day. We're going on a field trip today so that we can learn about the things that are in our neighborhood that we might not be aware of. A lot of history nearby. All right. Let's get out. Come on.
A sod house is the first stop on the tour.
[Mrs. Graham] See the grass and the roots and that's from the early -- probably the early 1900's or the late 1800's and they took that and my mother told me once she stayed all night this this house when she was a little girl.
In this one?
In this house here, uh-huh.
They stopped at the site of a long gone town named Cumro.
[Mrs. Graham] The towns were fairly close together because the country was really thickly populated. There were people that lived on every section. There might have been even two or three families on a section.
There were more schools in those days, too.
[Mrs. Graham] That's the Basin School. And it's been a long time since they have had school there.
Some day another teacher may say the same thing about Burr Oak School. No one is exactly sure how long Burr Oak School has stood here. Hundreds of students have learned their lessons inside these walls. On the last day it was up to four students to speak for those who came before them.
I will miss you, Burr Oak. You were a fun school. I liked to draw on the board and hide in your rooms. By: Bridgett, fourth grade.
I'm going to miss Burr Oak because we had a good...
Good-bye, Burr Oak. You are the best school. Love, J.W. Schmid, second grade, 1998-99, eight years old.
Seth said good-bye with a picture before Mrs. Graham added her thoughts.
[Mrs. Graham] Oh, I have so many fond memories, so many fond memories of the community and of the children and just school in general, the rewards I have gotten from the children, from their learning and I feel like they've learned a lot, so that's the greatest thing I'm thankful for.
Have you been thinking about those things a lot today?
[Mrs. Graham] I have tried not to. So I don't want to get too -- I mean I don't want the children to get too emotional about it. I want them to remember everything very fondly. This is the last time it's going to be reeled up. Everybody take a good look.
When the lights went out at Burr Oak School, we lost a living link with our pioneer past. Some will be sad for a while but they'll all be comforted by good memories, memories that will long outlive the building. Nobody so dear to our childhood as this little white school on the hill.

Captioning by Nebraska Captioning Center, Lincoln, Nebraska .