The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-12-25


eminence as an educational center not
surpassed by any other city in all the
land might perhaps be too sweeping a
statement. II would not be. how
ever, to say that but very few cities,
and they located in the great eastern
cepters of population, enjoy a higher
reputation in that regard.
Everywhere the advantages Salt
Lake offers for obtaining an education
are recognized as being of the highest
order No city of anything like the
same number of inhabitants can boast
of so many fine school buildings where
graded courses are taught. No city
has a graded course which better
equips the pupil who cannot find the
opportunity or means to pursue an
education beyond them. The high
school of no CITY sends out its gradu-
ates better fitted to take up lifes work
or enter institutions of higher educa
ton than does Salt Lakes. and the
University of Utah, located here, en-
joys an enviable reputation among the
universities OF the United States.
There is perhaps no city in the United
States that is the educational center
of SO great an area. This may seem an
extravagant statement to persons un-
familiar with the facts. 1t is not.
There is nothing in the way OF schools
between, say a line drawn at Colorado
Springs on the east. California on the
west. and the international boundary
line on the north. It might be said
the area should be bounded on the
south by the Mexican line were il not
for the fact that lack of ways of com
munication excludes Arizona from the
area.
The area then. that is tributary to
Salt Lake as ga educational center in
cludes sll Of Dtah and Wyoming. the
western rart of Colorado. the greater
part CT Montana and practically all of
Idaho and Nevada All OF these va
riouf portions of the area have their
school systems well developed, but
they are not as extensive as here.
True, Provo on the south and Logan
on the north have excellent educa-
tiolcl facilities. but Salt Lake is yet
The head center for this vast area, and
1t is worthy of mention in this con-
nection that families move to Salt
Lake from all of the states named for
no other purpose than to give their
children the advantages of our schools.
The educational system here is COM
plete from the kindergarten to the uni
versity. There are no public kinder
gartens, but there are a number of
private ones which afford the ad-
yantages of kindergarten training, and
g state kindergarten association exists
whose purpose is to promote the kim
dergarten spirit, and it is expected that
the kindergarten will in time become
part. of the public school system.
The City Schools.
The public schools of Salt Lake City
are % in number, all distinct schools,
occupying in all 81 buildings. In some
OF the buildings only the primary
grades are taught. Some include the
primary and intermediate grades, and
in some all the common school grades
are represented.
The School Houses.
The regularly occupied schoolhouses
OF the city have ali been built within
the last five years. and are all models
of school architecture. In every one of
these buildings the matters of heating,
ventilation and lighting, have been
made matters of first Importance. In
every case direct and indirect steam is
used for heating, and the apparatus is
SO arranged that after the buildings
are heated in the morning the direct
steam is shut off and only the indirect
steam is employed. Connected with the
admission of the heat into each room
is an ample supply of fresh air. BY
actual measurement. the system ad-
silits 80 cubic feet of air per minute for
each pupil. The standard temperature
maintained in every school is from &C
10 6S degrees.
The Lighting.
The system of lighting employed is
not the least admirable thing in con-
nection with the school buildings of the
city The rooms are so constructed as
N 1fcr1,x IoT
rear of the pupils, and in some cases
from the left only. This ARRANGEMENT
permits light to fall almost directly
on the pupils work and prevents the
shadow of the pupils body from fall
ing on the book. as well as all cross
lights SO injurious to the eyes.
On General Lines.
The general construction of the build
ings adapts them TO the easy and or
DERBY movement of pupils, and the
large corridors insure free ventilation
and ali avoidance of crowding. In fire.
Quent cases these corridors are seated
and are made useful as assembly rooms
on public occasions. The sanitary con-
ditions of the school buildings are as
nearly perfect as they can be made
Nearly all of them have direct sewer
connections with provisions for fire.
quent flooding.
So admirable are all the appoint
ments of ali the school buildings of
the city, that educational experts who
visit Salt Lake are unanimous in their
expressions of wonder and satisfaction
with the buildings lions children oc-
cupy.
There is one feature of the buildings
that is unique II Is the arrangement
of the cloak rooms. Cloak rooms are
generally places of sconsiderabl disor-
der. It is not so here. In all or the
buildings there are separate cloak
rooms for the boys and girls. and in
the more latterly CONSTRUCTED buildings
z. single teacher can place herself IN
such q position as TO be able to see all
the movements in four cloak rooms
and keep aH eye on her classroom at
the same time. These and other sim
ilzr arrangements render the buildings
admirably adapted for maintaining or
der and department.
The Teachers.
TIE teaching force of the Salt Lake
tools is composed Of saDerintend-