The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1881-01-04
Written for the Holiday MINER.
EDUC1T ION IN MONTANA.
w. EGBERT SMITH.


Nothing in the history of this young
republic is more admirable than the
steady devotion Of her people everywhere
to the u of free popular education.
Here, in these isolated highlands, popu-
lated sparsely by fortune seekers of bold
and rugged natures, amid the excite
ments which discoveries of silver and
gold always produce with but few fam
lilies to represent the amenities of home
and healthful social life and the COM
p~aratively insignificant number of
children that such conditions would
favor, here, if anywhere, we might
assume that the pioneer would neglect
the school house as an institution that
could be postponed to a more propitious
day. A survey of the past and present,
however, assures us that whether the
motive which allured the early gold
hunter is regarded a lofty N or not,
he evidently brought with him many of
those noble and patriotic purposes which
animated the hearts of his pioneer an
cestry, through whose exalted and bene-
ficient spirit the achievements of Ameri-
cans have been made illustrious. Guided
by an intelligence that generally per-
tains to the more adventurous spirits,
who break away from old communities
and become the pioneers ofcivilization in
the great West, the early settlers in
Montana had no sooner established a
village in which the few families Of the
district were domiciled, than they pro-
vided the log school-house in which the
children might receive the rudiments
ofan education. Notwithstanding these
homely beginnings, they comported
with the other social surroundings, and
to pass the usual school age without
rudimentary training in the ordinary
branches of study. And to-day, after
fifteen years of isolation, it is doubtful
whether any portion ofthe United States
has a less proportion of illiterates than
Montana.
Many evidences of the appreciation
in which the cause of public education
is held by our people, may be gathered
from the school statistics that have been
published since the enactment of the
school law of 1872. This law, approved
January 18th of that year, has the ele-
m"nts of an excellent system, and to it
we owe much of the educational pros
perity that has been made apparent by
its provisions. Ut is proper TO remark
here, incidentally, that this law was re-
enacted by the legislature Of 1871 with
several important curtailments, and that
through acts %amendatory and otherwise
since that time, the law at present is
very weak and unsatisfactory, so much
so that it is hoped that the legislature
about to convene will grant a revision
that will preserve and make effective all
the good points of the law of 1922
The first report on the schools of Mon
tana was made by the Honorable c.
Hedges for the year 1873. On the sub
ject Of "School Houses' he remarks
u" The school houses in most districts
are log structures, neither very elegant,
comfortable nor convenient. During
the year past, a very fine frame school
house, by far the best in the Territory,
has been completed at Deer Dodge City.
1t is also furnished with improved desks
and supplied with a fine collection of
apparatus. y X y In the matter of
school-desks and benches, some of those
in use are a terror TO behold-neither
properly constructed or arranged while.
judging from the amount of lumber to
be used, they must have cost as
much as to import improved iron-frame
desks.n
The last school report, compared with
the first, shows Il notable increase in the
number and value of
SCHOOL OUSES.
Years. Number. Valuation.
1SyQ 90 GOO o. 90