Families have changed as well

back in the old days

here in Iowa , along with most of the farm belt

families and times have changed

60 years ago there was a family farm or even two on every section , and those families had 6-8 kids

now , one family farm owns several sections by themselves , and those families , only have like 1-3 kids

the population demographics have changed

there's simply isn't enough rural kids to support all the small farm town schools anymore , many of those towns only have a population of 400- 800 people and relied heavily on the farm kids

I graduated with 30 kids , only 6 of those kids actually lived in town

and over the years as farm families shrink in size , so did the class size

sadly , Iowa is full of small towns with school building that look like this

This building used to be the proud home of the Ayrshire Beavers , now it just sits abandoned and alone

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