Belt Valley times. [volume] (Armington, Mont.) 1894-1977, 1923-07-19

In the early days the Stockett and the Sand Coulee schools
were separate entities and Travelled their respective ways to no
where in particular under the guidance of many and various prin
cipals who oft-times drhted on after one years service.
What the objective aimed at no one knew unless it was to
spend the districts money in the most guileless manner and to
make up for scholastic attachments in a complacent assumption of
extraordinary success. Eighth grade examinations were then a
part of the years work dreaded by pupils for fear they should not
pass and by some teachers lest the results should unyeil their own
incompetency. When the examination papers came to the county
board of examiners the latter began the grind of correcting them
with the unspoken query, II wonder how bad they are this time %
Oftentimes the papers showed not the slightest training in
composition, penmanship and photography and though the exam
iners tried to Tighten the blow as much as possible, the number of
failures was appalling.
Then the school board of Stockett secured the services of a
man who had ideals and energy.
When superintendent j. E. Young took charge of the schools
of Stockett the conditions were deplorable; no modern buildings
no equipment, nothing better to face than the results of incompe-
tence and neglect. Building modern buildings was out of the ques-
ton but Superintendent Young realized that a real school depends
not altogether upon the buildings that house it.
1t was slow work at first. Pupils had been graded several
years beyond their scholastic attainments. Clever pupils lacked
the finish a~n9~1ainng they ought to have had. Slow pupils were
hopeless. Another year of awful eighth graders and then the ex-
aminers discovered that a metamorphosis was taking place. The
next class was better and the next class good and it began to dawn
upon the school people that Stockett had arrived.
Sand Coulee pupils were still the despair of the examiners but
when there came an opportunity to consolidate with Stockett I'M
der the same superintendent enough people understood the hope
less condition of the Sand Coulee schools to put the combination
across.
A high school was built half way between the two towns at
Centerville, which has already become too small for the enrolment
but that is another story.
Without having definite information we should conjecture
that 80 per cent of the children of these two towns are born of
foreign parentage, Poles, Firms, Savs, Italians and as an exhibit
of the Melting Pot in action the schools of Stockett and Sand Cou-
lee are wonderful.
Shortly after the union of the two districts an improvement
was seen in the scholarship of the Sand Coulee children which be-
came more marked each year. i
Stockett for several years had produced classes which had
earned the admiration of school people because of their thorough
training and which had many times injected names of Finnish,
Slavonic or Italian derivation into the first 10 of the county list. g
Heretofore Sand Coulee had been trying apparently for the
BOBBY prize but last year Sand Coulee had the best balanced class
in the county and only some bad geography and physiology marks
prevented them from getting several of the first places.
This was no flash in the pan. This year they are back again F
with a victory so complete as to leave no room for a second.
For well balanced classes which show the effect of careful, effi- :
training and in which classes even the slowest pupils have
had the same painstaking care as the clever ones have received, F
are more noticeable than those in the Sand Coulee-Stocketta
schools. IN
This happy condition reflects extreme credit upon the good =
people of that school district, upon the board of trustees whom
have elected to direct their school affairs, upon the teachers
have given the instruction, but through it all may be seen the
energetic and efficient leadership of the superintendent, j. E.
YOUNG. /!