The Bozeman courier., 1925-09-23
By ANNE HAWKINS.


Ter one OF It's Investigations or scnOol
systems throughout the country, gave
Montana highest mark among all the 4
states in the union.
And when we went out into that /
big new prairie country in 1903, !
there didn't seem to be anything in /
sight for the Montana school sys-
tenn" to act on: sheep wagons, tin 1
cans, bands Of sheep, new houses and /
shacks going up, but no schoOlhOus- |
es being built A huge county and a /
big district and nothing organized /
for our immediate locality. This was
May, and families with children we're
coming in to settle right along. How /
to get school going by fall was a
problem.
There is a lot of red tape about
getting a new district created and !
set off from the old one, and the |
nearest point of contact to a school |
in this big district was too far away
to be of any use to US. Now next
to being the county agent, there is |
no person or persons more "harras- |
sed" than school trustees in a place
being newly settled, so we went and
''harrassed" the trustees at the near
est point of contact. Finally they,
the other two trustees allowed to go
ahead and do most OF the work, said
if we could put u D our building, that
this district would furnish the equip
ment and pay the teacher. That was
the hardest part of our problem, to
get the building, and we solved it in
this way: After making diligent
inquiries we came across a young
man who thought his sister might be
induced to come to Montana and take
a quarter section of land and use
her own house for a schOOlhOuse and
teach our school. The very thing.
A glowing account of the pleasur-
able life of a Montana schoOlma am,
together with the subtle bait of be-
ing a landowner, was promptly for
warded to the young lady in question,
a university graduate and teacher Of
experience. The west appealed to
her and she came. She entered a
quarter section of land in a place
conveniently situated for a school,
bought the lumber for her house and
the neighbors built it. One large
room for the school and one small
room to live in and our building was
solved for the time being. We had
a good school running by October
and an eight-mOnth's term. So much
for the beginning.
School Ambition Grows.
Then as the population grew, our
ambition in school matters grew, We
created a district of our own and
we're set apart and had our own
homegrown trustees and internal
troubles of our own. Each little
creek within a radius OF six or seven
miles desired to have d school in it's
own doOryard, if for only two or
three months. That was the one
thing they ought not to have, two
or three months term, for every boy
and girl in Montana is entitled to a
nine months term.
To establish a central or cOmmun-
ity school is about like trying to
walk on several acres of closely
packed eggs without breaking any
egg-shell So many petty things to
consider, so many very sensitive feel
ings to avoid hurting No matter If
the children suffer greatly by be-
ing deprived of a half year Of school,
the parents MUST be thought Of
first
We did, however, establish a CEN
trail school with a nine-mOnths term.
Some of the most difficult parents to
appease we're well satisfied when
their eldest boy would be offered the
job of driving the school wagon from
their immediate locality, at so mach
per month, which really was a bene-
fit all around, justifying an honor
able means to a worthy end.
Then there was the chronic fusseI
to be considered, whom you can no
more overlook than you can the
swasp that has made up his mind to
sting you. Whether it was the very
important fact that the horses on the
school wagon were not the right col.
or or whether the first quarter Of
the new moon didn't act just right
the trustees for the central school,
got it hot and heavy. We're you
ever? but then at some period II
your life you must have been a schoo
trustee. Nice, wasn't it? But theI
some one has to be ''it' or the chill
dren would lose out.
AS time went on it became appar
ent that a town would be necessar!
factor in the general scheme of EN-
pire building, and so we laid off ;
town. We were on one Of Jim Hilli
surveyed lines for extentiOn and Wer'
all set for the railroad to be bull
through We hitched the steam pIov
engine to the central school ant
brought it to town. The county su
perintendent said, "YOu must havl
two teachers, one teacher can no
do justice to the number Of children
being taught" Once more we hal
civil war and even the trustees hal
"feelin's" toward each other. Econ
omy was the WatchwOrd. Two teach
ers would be gross extravaganza. TWl
of the trustees were for one teache
and one trustee was for two teach
ers, and then when the minority