Iron County record. [volume] (Cedar City, Utah) 1893-1982, 1919-10-10
M|DVALLEy DEMANDS
OPENING OF SCHOOL
Complains of Hardships Incident to
Sending Children to Enoch-But
Where is Teacher?

Editor Record.-There having been
great deal of controversy over the
school question for one of the rural
districts / am presuming to give you
few Of the facts straight off the
bat"
Some time ago the people of this
section having above the number of
children to command a school, they
straightway put in motion the ma
chinery to get one and after many
delays and the usual number of meet
ings and discussions, the powers that
be" granted the prayer and there was
school house built to accommodate
the thirty odd students. Things went
on quite favorably for several years
and the students made splendid pro-
gress under the very efficient tutelage
Of Mrs. j. w. Mendenhall and Miss
Jennie Rogerson. Last season the
former lady moved away and the lat
ter took her place and the people
and pupils welcomed Miss Rogerson
and she expressed her deep stisfac-
ton with the position and although
she had to travel three miles every
morning to school Git is only one
room school house) and also expressed
herself that nothing would please her
better than to teach at the same place
again. But there comes hitch.
Among the rumors afoat is one that
she was needed at home and could not
be spared by her parents. Another
was that there was no way or means
Of transportation. All last winter the
little lady rode horse to and from
the school and said on many occasions
how she enjoyed it. Another rumor
is that it was too much Of a hardship
for her as she had to be on the road
so early in the morning, and lot of
such "dope" as that, and that it was
impossible to get saddle horse, etc
But why so much about this one
teacher? Well, the fact is she was
the only available teacher in sight and
had expressed herself as wanting to
take the same school so many different
times.
The fact remains that there are q
greater number of pupils at the Mid
valley school than at Enoch. The
Midvalley school is in the middle OF
n district so scattered that some OF
the students have to travel distance
of three and half miles to get to
the school, whereas if they are com.
PEELED to go over to Enoch they viii
have to travel over seven and halt
miles, as they will have to make 6
considerable detour in order to gel
all the pupils. Which is the worst
side of ito make lot of little tots
beginners of the age of six years anC
up, travel this more than double the
distance, or for one person to go hall
or less than half, the distance?
This year there will be another lot
of little ones who are starting in the
beginners grade and some of the
Board say they are going to compe
the people to transport the pupils ov.
er to Enoch school because Mr.. Lewis
has tried every likely and unlikely
possibility of securing a teacher fol
this place, but as yet has been unsuc
cessful. He has been untiring in his
efforts and is still trying. The schoo
board says they are not going t.
spend money enough for truck trans
portation as they had to build us &
school house and if there is no teach
er procurable then the pupils must be
sent to Enoch, the nearest school. The
laws say that children must attenC
school a specified number of weeks
during the school year and that par
ents are responsible for that part o,
it. So there you are, and then some
About the only conclusion we can
come to is this; that the people are {
lot of "domphools" for the following
reasons: in the first place for coming
out from towns to build up com
munity and make living and in tn,
second place for raising a lot of kid
that have to be sent to school an!
way and being a charge on the power
that be. In the third place for no
selling out their stuff every fall ant
moving to town where the kids coult
walk to "skule" and no one would b.
bothered with such a "deestrict" o
outlaws anyway. Can you beat it
ONE OV EN-.