The stage lights illuminate a classroom. Tidy rows of desks face a wood stove, a chalkboard, and a teacher’s desk. Piles of books and papers adorn the teacher’s desk. A young girl and teacher are speaking quietly.)

Question

TEACHER: The primary children are studying poetry this afternoon, and I need your assistance. (She gathers a stack of textbooks and hands them to her student.) Please choose a few poems and have the children read along with you.

MARGO: (She reaches for a book) Yes, ma’am. I always enjoy reading to the young ones.

(MARGO retreats to a chair by the window and begins flipping through a book. Two boys sit nearby, giggling about a picture that one of them has drawn.)

Which setting detail reveals the time period?

“Tidy rows of desks face a wood stove, a chalkboard, and a teacher’s desk.”
“She gathers a stack of textbooks and hands them to her student.”
“MARGO retreats to a chair by the window and begins flipping through a book.”
“Two boys sit nearby, giggling about a picture that one of them has drawn.”

Answer 1

The setting detail that reveals the time period is: "Tidy rows of desks face a wood stove, a chalkboard, and a teacher’s desk."

The presence of a wood stove suggests a historical setting, likely prior to the widespread use of central heating in schools, indicating that the scene is set in an earlier time period.