The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-08-23

Ing these Ills was TO establish In the
midst OF the people institutions OF learn
Ing modelled after the best that they had
| enjoyed, so the call went throughout tbe
land Tor skillful. conscientious teachers.
VINO were onered employment by the
year at fair average salary as then
paid in the Eastern schools These teach
e[s were 10 furnish an object lesson of
what free Christian but not sectnr,an
school system would do for the young
and what glorious page In Utah's ed,1o
catlonal history this work marks-glori-
GUS In the names OF those who labored
III thls cause. glorious In the fruita9e re-
suIling' Take approximately thirty
years-one generatlon-that this work
covers, What greater revolution has ever
been wrought than the change in nubIic
educational field? And who Is there who
can say Just how much OF this or how
little, Is due TO the example set by the
mission schools Think you that their
influence extended merely to those who
came under their direct instruction? Does
not the consciousness OF a superior in
stitution covering the same ground but
IN much better way serve as most
effectual stimulus?
A superintendent, who Is at the head of
a system having 400 teachers frequently
recalls the school that for him stands as
model and IL was one OF these early
mission schools kept in a hired hall
seated with home made desks and having
an enrolment of near hundred pupils
grading from the kindergarten to the
high school, and taught by one little
woman and yet, to quote him as have
heard him tell II repeatedly, because he
was one of the hundred, he does not re
call any unseemly behavior nor waste
OF time. The teacher was the spirit of
the school and as she moved through the
busy day with her few short minutes of
drill for each class, her spirit OF order
and work seemed 10 enter into her pu-
pills so that while this man has seen
many splendid teachers and must have
scores under his supervision, yet when
he recalls the best and most successful
school he goes back in memory TO that
little village In southern Utah and names
the school | have described as the one
coming nearest his Ideal
And while this man Is nominally a
member Mt least OF the dominant church
In this State and attended the mission
school only few years, who can meas
ure the influence on his life and work
OF the two or three strong teachers who
gave him his ideals?
Utah Owes a Debt.
Utah may be slow, yea. she may never
acknowledge the debt, educationaIly, that
she owes to the hundreds Of trained
minds who have poured out upon her
thirsty soil In unstnted measure tho |
best years OF their service Looking at |
1t. aside from any religious aspect, the |
influence OF these trained. cultured minds |
upon the communities where college or |
even academy trained people were rare,
must have been tremendous and far |
reaching. And when We look at the Won
derful transformation In the educational
held In so short a time and are led to
inquire the forces working to this end,
The impartial historian must at least
name the mission school and the min
ster as one OF the most potent
The hundreds Of young men and women
attending our State institutions and the
scores going yearly East and West 10 our
best colleges and universities means much
or the next generation, and II ought to |
mean much for the future outlook and
policy of the mission school work You
nay say. 'Oh, but we do not undertake
o keep UP with the educational process
ion. much less lead 1t. Our work lies
long an entirely different line" Speak
ng as an outsider and a barbarian,
hould say when the day comes that the
,reat Presbyterian church maintains
lass of schools that must be apolcgized
or. may she have the sense TO fold her
ents and get out.
But 30 long as she has an ideul to
nstill and a message 10 give through her
chools, making for freedom OF con-
cience, she should stay in our midst.
his ideal, this message, must come
lear-cut and distinct, with no faltering
ones 1t must come through brains as
killed and as cultured as the best that |
he public schools can command. plus
he Christian spirit in the work, which {
he public schools need, but can not COM
land. &