Evolution of Education in Utah

Evolution of Education in Utah BY DR. GEORGE H. BRIM HALL, PRESIDENT OF BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY / — The Spirit with Which We Have Grown The builders of Utah have worked under the inspiration of the thought that nothing is good enough that can be made better. Even in the days of isolation one thousand miles beyond the border line of civilzation the power of that idea was manifest on every hand. The people of Utah have always been in a state of healthy unrest. Not the unrest of the nomad, moving on at the approach of the first near neighbor ; nor the unrest of the fidgety, fault-finding pessimist, but the unrest of up-and-at-it. During the early days of Utah, progress was of necessity measured from within. There was nothing without with which to measure. We were in competition with ourselves alone, and yet things were done — great things. Within ninety days from the entrance of the pioneers, a school was started and in less than four years a university was chartered. The Salt Lake tabernacle, celebrated for its unique architecture and acoustic properties, and the Salt Lake theatre which has held rank as a first rate theatre for over half a century, were built ; and, too, that marvel of workmanship, the Salt Lake Tabernacle organ, was produced when transportation was done by ox team; while the school house in the many DR. GEORGE H. BRIM HALL

896 IMPROVEMENT ERA centers of our colonial civilization stood as an evidence that this early isolated age was one of education, — all around, practical, social, scholastic, and spiritual. The mothers of that epoch had ambitions — not so much for themselves as for their children, and these ambitions were reenforced by the religious conviction, that education is salvation, — it was part of their creed. In our log cabin on the east bench in Ogden, my mother taught me to read and cipher. She kept well our humble home, caring for a quartette of little ones, even to the making of our shoes, while father was out in Echo Canyon blocking the way of the "Buchanan blunder expedition." There are some things we evolve from; there are others we evolve with. The evolution of our education has not been from this spirit of getting the best, but with it. The idea, inspiration and determination that gave the boy the best that could be given in the cabin home is with the aged matron today. She urges her grandchildren to attend high school and to go on to college. The pioneer heroines and heroes are passing away, many of them are already in the Great Beyond, but each in turn has carried well the torch of educational inspiration to the end of his or her station, on the great relay race of life, where it has been seized by others, eagerly waiting for their turn to bear it onward at a winning pace. The following incident illustrates that the spirit of "getting an education" is still dominant in the humble homes of our state. A representative of an eastern publishing company tells the following story : "I chanced to need entertainment in one of the towns in Sevier County, and sought it at one of the village homes. Early in the morning I found everybody at work, milking cows, putting up hay, etc. A little boy of seven attracted my attention in particular. "Why do you work so hard?" said I to the little seven-year-old who was raking hay. 'To keep Hugh at school,' was the reply." Hugh was attending one of the normal schools of the state. 77 — Evolution of the Educational Idea The idea of eternal progress is behind the evolution of education in Utah. Her pioneer founders stood on a spiritual platform into which was written these three educational ideas, "The glory of God is intelligence ;" "No man can be saved in ignorance ;" "Man is saved no faster than he gets knowledge." These ideas heralded from the pulpit, and taught at the fire-

EVOLUTION OF EDUCATION IN UTAH 897 side, naturally permeated the atmosphere of the. school room. They have never lost their hold in Utah. They have culminated in the educational ideas that dominate today — that breadth of culture is preferable to breadth of domain — that winning without work is not worth while, and that usefulness is the progressive end of education. Said Brigham Young, Governor of Utah, in the year 1852, in his message to the legislature, "Deplorable, indeed, must be the situation of that people whose sons are not trained in the practice of every useful avocation, and whose daughters mingle not in the hive of industry." Thirty-seven years ago Brigham Young founded a school, conditioning the perpetuity of his endowment on the teaching of the arts and trades in the institution. The educational idea that has put manual training into our common schools today, domestic science, the arts, and agriculture into our high schools, and made the State Agricultural College a center of industry, is not an evolution from pioneer thought, but an evolution with pioneer thought. Ill — Evolution of Implements of Education We have evolved from the tent to the log cabin ; from the log cabin to the adobe building, and from the adobe building to palaces of brick and stone. A little less than half a century ago, I attended school in an adobe school house, comfortable in the main, but of such quaint architecture that it was nick-named "the old gypsy with a pipe in her mouth," and really the resemblance justified the title. On the 17th day of the first month of this year I had the honor of delivering an address at the dedicatory services of a fifty thousand dollar high school building in the town where once the adobe gypsy sat on her cobblestone foundation. The basement of the old house had no windows, and was used as a cell where the big boys imprisoned the little ones during the noon hour. The basement of the new structure is a well equipped gymnasium and swimming pool. The playground of the old was two streets and part of a 12x12 lot; the campus of the new is a ten-acre field near the hill on which the magnificent building stands. We lighted the old with tallow dips and candles ; the new is illuminated with electricity. The old was heated with a stove stuffed with wood and brush (I remember one cold day we all turned out and gathered weeds to feed the ancient furnace.) In the new the heat is furnished by modern radiation. In the old, sat the wooden bucket with the tin dipper in it ; in the new the sanitary fountain gushes. In the old was the slab bench ; in the

898 IMPROVEMENT ERA new are hard-wood settees and opera chairs. Libraries and laboratories were things undreamed of in the old, while in the new provisions are made for both. This is enough — let fancy do the rest, but we must confess that our educational realization in the matter of buildings and equipments has surpassed all idealization of half a century ago. IV — The Evolution of the Curriculum The three R's constituted the early day essentials of education. There was little time for more. To this requirement subject after subject has been added until it is becoming a question whether or not a pupil has time for the three R's, in which event we have evolved from not zvith our fundamentals — a growth without advancement. As we are little more than on the threshold of advancement with our secondary schools, very little can be said concerning the curriculum, except that the general trend is towards providing for the community needs and individual aptitude. V — The Evolution of the Institution We quote from Whitney's History of Utah the following: "The University of Deseret, under the title of the Parent school, was opened for the first time on Monday, November 11, 1850, in Mrs. Pack's house, 17th Ward, under the direction and supervision of Chancellor Spencer. Dr. Cyrus Collins, A. M., a sojourner in the city, on his way to California, was employed for the time being to take immediate charge of the school. Later, Dr. Collins retiring, Professor Orson Spencer and William W. Phelps, and later still Professor Orson Pratt became preceptors. Owing to a lack of room the . school was at first organized for 'yovmg men only,' but a separate department for young ladies was contemplated. The tuition was eight dollars per quarter, half payable in advance. The second term of the Parent school opened in February, 1851, in the upper room of the Council House, corner of East Temple and South Temple streets. "Forty pupils, male and female, were then enrolled, the idea of a separate department for ladies having been abandoned. Subsequently the school was held in the Thirteenth Ward, where the university building was projected. A few years later the Parent school collapsed, the common schools established throughout the city and territory being deemed sufficient for educational purposes at that time. Until the revival of the University in 1867-69 the common schools, so far as possible, supplied its place." It is plain that from the beginning the educational institutions have been co-educational. Our higher institutions have fre-

EVOLUTION OF EDUCATION IN UTAH 899 quently come up through the grades and secondary schools to the college and university. VI — Financial Support From a standpoint of financial support we have passed through several stages. First stage, local taxation for buildings and applicances only ; second stage, state and local taxation for partial payment of tuition ; third stage, state and local taxation for full payment of tuition, and fourth stage, for free text books. VII — Evolution of the Educational Unit The educational unit for many years was the county, subdivided into districts with a board of trustees managing each district, and a superintendent. Later, cities of the first and second classes were made educational units, with a superintendent, and provision made for county consolidation at the option of the voters. The public high school has been latest in its development. Until the last decade the high school work was done for the greater part by the University of Utah, the Utah State Agricultural College, the Salt Lake City and Ogden high schools, and the various denominational schools.* These schools carried on the high school work with great credit when the state was financially unable. The state is at present in what may be styled the high school era. Beginning with the establishment of high, schools at the expense of the locality, and terminating with the establishment of high school units or districts composed of counties or parts of counties, at the option of the voters in those districts. All building and furnishing expenses are provided for by local taxation. The teaching expense is provided for by tuition, special local tax, and a per capita state appropriation. The University of Utah, as most of the other institutions of higher education in the state, has come up through the elementary school; the secondary school, (which in most instances has been a normal school preparing teachers for the elementary schools,) to the college and university. Today our state University has a school of mines ; well equipped departments of engineering; a teachers' college, and departments of medicine and law, as well as a normal training school of high repute. VIII — The Evolution of the Teacher If it be true that the teacher is the soul of the school, then *An article in this issue of the Improvement Era by General Superintendent of Church Schools Horace H. Cummings reviews the work of the Latter-day Saint system of schools.

900 IMPROVEMENT ERA the schools of Utah have, as a rule, never been small-souled. Civilization in her invasion of the American desert resorted to unusual tactics. There was not a gradual advance of the everrising tide, but the sudden heaving forth of a mighty wave from the banks of the Missouri over the summit of the Rockies carrying with it the aggregation of the ages ; skilled artisans and scholars from Europe, people of culture and refinement from the Eastern and Southern states, and characters of strength in practical affairs from Canada and the then Western states of the Union. Cosmopolitanism characterized the communities from the first, while conditions tended to a rapid amalgamation of interest. Inspiration, Indians, and irrigation are responsible for the village method of settling and developing Utah. This system of settlement had a tendency to accelerate and economize the application of skill and ability. The pioneer teacher of Utah was Mary Jane Dillworth (Hammond), a talented maiden of seventeen, whose portrait deserves a place in every school house in the state. She taught in a tent where pieces of logs served for benches and a camp table for a desk. Education in Utah has had no backwoods era. Fifty years ago this winter my teacher in the little hamlet of Cedar Fort was the honorable Zerrubbabel Snow, a member of the first supreme court of the territory of Utah, and a friend of Daniel Webster, while the latter was secretary of state. Over forty years ago, in the little town of Grafton, on the Rio Virgin, it was my good fortune to come under the training of one of the best teachers I have ever known, in the person of Henry I. Young. In makeup he seemed to me the prototype of the author of the Monroe Doctrine, whose picture was in my geography, and in disposition I thought of him as I did of Washington. In my early teens the great man of our town was my teacher, Silas Hillman, a man of eastern training. He was justice of the peace and a general legal adviser of the town folk. Then later I had the good fortune to become educationally intimate with Robert Campbell, a scholar of whom it is said, "He worked all the time ;" John Morgan, the father of commercial schools in Utah ; T. B. Lewis, with a soul akin to that of the present incumbent of the office of State Superintendent, A. C. Nelson, which position he once held ; John R. Park, college bred, who came to Utah, taught the village school at Draper, successfully stood for many years at the head of the faculty of the parent education institution of our State, and rendered yoeman service to the state as superintendent of public instruction. Dr. Karl G. Maeser, German-trained pedagogue, none too big to teach a dis-

EVOLUTION OF EDUCATION IN UTAH 901 trict school, and none too little to work out and direct a magnificent educational system. J. B. Forbes, one of the first persons in Utah to establish a free school. For a decade and a half before free tuition was state wide, American Fork, Mr. Forbes' home town, had free schools. Glancing back over this line-up of departed educators, with the famed philosopher and mathematician, Orson Pratt, at their head, and seeing also the community leaders still with us who have retired from teaching, and then viewing the multitude of trained teachers at this noblest of all tasks, it can be said of Utah, "She has had no cause to plead pedagogical poverty." But by pedagogical poverty I do not mean to say that teachers are as a rule on "Easy Street;" I mean that from the first the teachers of the schools of Utah have been good teachers. IX — Evolution of Teacher's Pay and Preparation The teacher has not received relatively his share of what has been created by honest toil. Often he has taught school because he loved the work and those for whom he worked, while he has been forced to make most of his "living" on the side. His vocation was not as compensative as his avocation. But the evolution of pay has gone on, beginning with what he could collect with sack on his arm, or pushing a wheelbarrow, or with some borrowed team, and up to the present, when the bank check is regularly mailed. There are instances now where the teacher receives more for one month's service than he did for six months' service four decades ago. The day may be dawning when our educational motto may apply to the teacher in a twofold way: Get the best preparation and then get the best salary. Here are a few pointers I quote from the Journal of Education: "A year ago there were but three cities in the United States that paid salaries higher than $6,000 for city superintendents. New York and Chicago paid $10,000 to their superintendents, and were in a class by themselves. Seattle paid $7,000. Today New York pays $12,000; Chicago, Boston and Cincinnati pay $10,000, and Philadelphia and Pittsburg $9,000." Surely the world moves educationally, if the salaries of superintendents have any significance. X — The Rise of the Stepping Stone It has sometimes happened that school teaching has been made a stepping stone to something else, say law, medicine, en-

902 IMPROVEMENT ERA gineering. Rut the stepping stone has stepped up. In the face of the following it would appear that teaching is very near the door of honor. From the Journal of Education we quote : "The fraternity rejoices in the election of Woodrow Wilson, as President of the United States." The evolution of the teachers' income has lagged behind the requirements made of him. For a new candidate to receive recognition as a permanently certificated teacher today, for the elementary schools, four years' high school training, supplemented by two years in the college, is required. For full recognition in the high schools of the state, a requirement of a four years' college course, with a four years' high school, course, as a foundation, is demanded. From the fact that the other professions, requiring no more preparation, are much more remunerative in this state, it must be seen that in order to get its share of the best talent, the teaching profession must expect to increase the teacher's compensation, even if some other educational output must be curtailed. No one can hope for a greater proportionate revenue for education than the state of Utah allows, but the real educational growth of the state will demand a change in the distribution of the finances. It may not be possible to have buildings, furnishings and fixtures that are too good, but it is quite possible that we have a teaching force that is too poor. The faculties of our higher institutions of learning are made up, in the main, of men and women who have done graduate and undergraduate work in institutions of the first rank in both America and Europe. We have done more than supply our own faculties with the majority of its members, for Utahns are to be found upon the faculties of a number of America's leading colleges. In conclusion we present a summary of some of the educational results growing out of our educational effort : Utah made the first appropriation for an annual Art Exhibit. Utah was one of the first states to make the Kindergarten part of its public school system. Utah made the first appropriation for the National Education Association, excepting perhaps California. Utah devotes 86 per cent of her taxes to Education, and her educational edifices are among the best in the land. Utah has always stood near the head of the list in respect to literacy, for many years standing third. The report of the United States Commissioner of Education (1890-1910) shows that Utah and Iowa lead the United States in their percentage of secondary school students, these being the only two states that have over 20 per 1,000 of population. PROVO, UTAH