The Secret School

First published in 2001, The Secret School, by Avi (or Edward Irving Wortis), is a historical novel for middle-grade readers. It takes place in rural Colorado in 1925, where 14-year-old Ida Bidson tries to keep her one-room schoolhouse open by secretly serving as its teacher. Ida must elude the school board, teach every grade level, struggle with her farm chores, suffer from lack of sleep, and study for the eighth-grade exit exam, all so she can enter high school and become a real teacher.

Avi has published 80 books and won multiple awards, including a Newbery Medal and two Newbery Honors. In 2021, he announced that a sequel to The Secret School is in the works.

The Secret School’s 2013 ebook edition forms the basis for this study guide.

Plot Summary

In the farming community of Elk Valley, Colorado, in 1925, eighth grader Ida Bidson drives an ancient Model T to school. She’s too short to reach the pedals, so her kid brother, Felix, pushes them with his hands when she tells him to. In their one-room schoolhouse, they learn that the teacher, Miss Fletcher, must leave to take care of her ailing mother, and the rest of the spring semester is canceled. Ida and her best friend Tom won’t be able to take the exit exam that lets them enter high school. If Ida doesn’t continue her schooling right away, her parents might not be able to afford it the following year, and her dreams of becoming a schoolteacher could collapse.

Tom suggests that, as the best student at school, Ida should become the teacher. Ida is scared of this idea but would rather take the risk than become stuck forever in a backwater community. The school board likely won’t approve, so Ida and Tom convince the other six students to agree to the plan and keep it a secret.

At the end of her last day, the teacher says an emotional goodbye, and the students thank her and present her with a basket of homemade foods. The next day, Ida, nervous, begins teaching. She announces that students must call her Miss Bidson. Class cut-up Herbert Bixler dares her to force him to study; she responds by having the class vote to throw him out if he refuses to cooperate. Herbert backs down, and classwork proceeds in earnest.

Ida finds she’s a good teacher and enjoys it. Between teaching, grading papers, and doing farm chores, she becomes sleep-deprived and barely has time for her studies.

Tom builds a crystal radio and demonstrates it at school. The students listen to their first radio stations, which transmit from cities hundreds of miles away. That afternoon, county school inspector Miss Sedgewick arrives and discovers that the teacher is 14 years old. She listens to Ida’s explanation and decides to think about it.

Stressed with worry and overwork, Ida is relieved one day to find an apple on her desk. It’s from Tom, but she understands it also represents the approval of the other students.

Herbert doesn’t show up for three days. Ida visits the Bixler farm, where Mr. Bixler tells her Herbert doesn’t need to go to school and instead is needed on the farm. When he learns Ida is the teacher, he threatens to report her to the school board unless she stops trying to bring Herbert back to class.

Miss Sedgewick returns to the school and announces that the kids may continue their education, but each must pass a final exam if they want credit for the year. Ida realizes that, with her heavy schedule, she has so neglected her studies that she might be the only student to fail the test.

On a rainy afternoon, school board chair Mr. Jordan suddenly shows up at the schoolhouse and orders it closed. The next day, Herbert visits Ida’s farm and tells her it was probably his father who told Mr. Jordan. Herbert adds that he overheard the two men setting up an unannounced meeting of the school board, whose members will be urged to close the school permanently.

Ida and Tom print flyers announcing the meeting; they deliver them to local farms, Ida by Model T and Tom on muleback. The next evening, the board meeting is crowded with students, parents, and a dozen other local residents. Mr. Jordan and a couple of the other board members accuse Ida of pretending to be a teacher and trespassing, but other members and the local preacher argue that the kids were simply completing their school year, something the community wants for them. Ida asks that they allow the students to complete their studies and advance to the next grade. The board votes to permit it, and the audience cheers.

For the next two weeks, the children study frantically. On the morning of the exam, Ida bursts into tears, convinced she hasn’t studied enough to pass. Driving to school with Felix, the car spins out in the rain and gets stuck in a ditch. Tom, on muleback with his sister, offers them a lift, and they make it to school just in time to take their tests. At the end of the day, Ida doesn’t know if she did well enough to pass.

A week later, she learns that she passed with honors and that all the other students except Herbert also passed their tests and completed their school year. At a graduation ceremony for the eight students, Mr. Jordan admits that Ida performed admirably, and he hopes she’ll return someday as the school’s official teacher. Herbert tells her he plans to join the Navy. Tom says he’s glad he can again call her Ida. She likes that too.