Fearless and Determined: Two Years Teaching in a One-Room School

Part memoir, part creative non-fiction, Fearless and Determined, takes you back to life in rural southern Ontario in the mid 1960s. With one year's training at Toronto Teacher's College and no curriculum resources except a list of subjects, Linda Hutsell-Manning created and taught courses for eight grades. Built in 1860, the school had seen better days and resembled many one-room schools across Canada. With a wood stove, two pit toilets, a cold water tap, and no storm windows, many students experienced their entire elementary school education here. Linda's memoir traverses the Kennedy assassination, the Beatles craze and smallpox shots. She worked ten-hour days and made on-the-spot decisions as teacher and principal. "Circumstance gave me this opportunity; time has deemed it to be one of the most challenging and great experiences of my life," says Linda.

"Her one-room school serves as a backdrop to marvellous stories about a world that, perhaps regrettably, or perhaps not, will never come again." - --Shane Peacock, multi-genre author, the latest, Monster

Linda Hutsell-Manning demonstrated ingenuity, courage and a quiet power as she struggled to educate her students. Inspiring --Sylvia McNicol, children's author, the latest, Body Swap

"An 'old school' memoir of the nicest kind - and Linda has excellent penmanship as well." -- Ted Staunton, author 50 children's books, the latest, The Almost Epic Squad.

"In Fearless and Determined: Two Years Teaching in a One-Room School, versatile writer Linda Hutsell-Manning effectively transports readers back to an era of galoshes, Freshie, stencils, cap guns, and gunny sack races as she recounts--with visceral clarity--her 1963-1965 teaching term in a one-room school. In her tripartite role as sole teacher, secretary, and principal, having 'so little time and too much to do' was her constant reality, and with a toddler at home, 'working mother's guilt' often lurked in the shadows."-- Shelley A. Leedahl, multi-genre author, the latest The Moon Watched It All

About the Author
Hutsell-Manning, Linda: - Linda Hutsell-Manning's writing career spans thirty-five years and includes an impressive variety of genres including poetry, plays, TV, short fiction and novels. Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1940, she moved to Ontario at age nine and, after Ryerson Polytechnical Institute and Toronto Teachers' College, taught for two years in a one-room school between Cobourg and Port Hope, Ontario. Following this, she attended the University of Guelph as a mature student, graduating with a B.A. in 1975. Encouraged by two of her university professors, she began writing full time in 1981. She has worked as a free-lance journalist; taught creative writing at several community colleges and hosted an author reading series. In the first twenty years, she published primarily juvenile fiction including three picture books, three juvenile plays, two time-travel novels and scripts for TVO's Polka Dot Door. During this time, she gave countless school/library workshops across Canada as well as in Germany and Luxembourg. In 2011, her literary novel, That Summer in Franklin, was published by Second Story Press. Its sequel, The Tangling of Years, is waiting to be published. In 2017, a novella, Heads I Win, Tails You Lose, was short-listed in a Quattro Books novella competition. Her two-act comedy, A Certain Singing Teacher premiered in 2017. She is currently working on a novella/short story collection, Whatever Were You Thinking When You Did That? and a poetry collection, Falling into Light. She has lived in many Canadian communities from Kamloops, BC to Cobourg, Ontario, where she now makes her home, writing in the attic office of a century farmhouse. More information about Linda's publications can be found at www.lindahutsellmanning.ca