--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Barber, G. P. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 28 number: 2 published: 1924-12 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "G. P. Barber, “Determined Youth and Education,” *Improvement Era 28, no. 2 (December 1924)*: 155–159." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2802unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera2802unse start_page: 155 end_page: 159 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1924-12) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2802unse publication_year: 1924 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1924, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Determined Youth and Education DETERMINED YOUTH AND EDUCATION By G. P. Barber, Principal Central High School [Some people think that all the pioneering was done back in the 40's and 60's. We are still at it in Utah and other parts of the West. Witness this account from the southern slopes of the thousand-laked Uintahs. As in the days of '47 and up, churches and schools come first. — EDITORS.] I often read, each time with increased interest, of the early edu- cational attempts in Utah. The first school in the state was opened in the Old Fort, Salt Lake City, a little more than three months after the arrival of the pioneers. In those times there was little or no money and teachers taught for the love of the profession, or because their sense of duty prompted them to do so. Clarissa Browning was one of the first teachers. She opened a school in Ogden, in 1849. There were no books, so she cut up a bundle of newspapers which she had brought across the plains with her and used them as texts for her pupils. Her first month's salary was a piece of buckskin which she made into gloves and sold to the gold seekers, enroute to California. The first school was held in her cabin, but by the winter of 1850-51 it had grown too large for such limited quarters and was moved into the Bowery. Here the teacher and pupils gathered about a large camp- fire and alternately shivered and read from the newspaper readers. I am indebted to Professor Levi Edgar Young's Founding of Utah for these bits of history. The history of the University of Utah, or the University of Deseret as it was originally called, is replete with romance to us today, but it was disheartening disappointment and near tragedy to those who were first concerned with its commencement. Parallels to these educational struggles seem lacking in these more prepossessing days, when we may sit back smugly and complacently and take stock of our modern and completely-equipped high schools, almost within a stone's throw of our doors. To most of the boys and girls of Utah today, who are attending high school in beautiful, well-ventilated, comfortable and oftentimes almost palatial buildings constructed especially for the purpose, it seems unthinkable that fi- nancial or other conditions should make it imperative the holding of a secondary school in an abandoned farmhouse, three miles from any town, in this educationally auspicious age. But I know of at least one case, and there are probably several more. A year ago today the present Central High School between the towns of Boneta, Talmage and Mountain Home, in Duchesne county, Utah, existed only in the minds of the board of education; and, in all probability, its existence there was transitory and vague. However, 158 IMPROVEMENT ERA one cannot always figure to an exact mathematical degree the bounds to which enthusiasm will carry youth — which is the soul of this brief article. During the summer of 1923, the people of the three towns re- quested the county board of education to provide them with a ninth Top: Enroute to the field day exercises at Roosevelt. Bottom: The student body of Central High, on the opening day of school, September 15, 1924. grade, the school to be located between the towns so that it would be alike available to all. In spite of the fact that funds were very limited, and new ventures were not being especially encouraged at this time, the request was granted. The school, however, did not open its doors until October 15, due to the fact that a teacher could not be secured to instruct the boys and girls. But finally, after a month's DETERMINED YOUTH AND EDUCATION 159 lapse of time, a teacher arrived on the scene and school commenced in a log cabin with five students enrolled. That first winter is now history, but many of the students who first attended Cedar high school (later changed to Central high school) will relate incidents of the winter to their grandchildren in times to come. Fortunately, the winter was not cold, as the building was old and open and the wind swept savagely across the cedar-covered ridges. Gradually, as the weeks went by, the enrollment increased to fifteen and hovered near that mark all winter. The students rode horseback to school, some riding six miles to school in the morning and six miles back at night. The majority stuck doggedly at it. Their chief re- laxation from the arduous course of study was an occasional peanut One of the horses brought in to be judged by the youthful stockmen at the field day exercises. "bust," a spelling bee, or a "chickaree." The young and thriving family of kittens which had made its home under the schoolhouse furnished the school with music, often in discord and at inopportune times. All things must end. The long year finally drew to a close, and in the last day's class exercises nine plucky youngsters marched up and stood before their pedagogue, in the presence of their justly proud parents, and received their certificates of hard-earned promotion. The exercises were held under the starry sky, and it is likely that as each name was read the stars twinkled even more brilliantly, and the man in the moon smiled appreciatively. Perhaps he said, "This is the stuff of which men are made." As a fitting climax to a year of hard work and obstacles overcome, the student body, consisting of twelve doughty students (three had entered too late to receive promotion), secured a truck and drove to 160 IMPROVEMENT ERA Roosevelt to participate in the Field Day exercises, open to all county ninth and tenth grades. Night found the gladiators tired but happy, with a tie for first place with their most feared and considerably larger opponent, Duchesne high school, securely tucked away. The curtain falls on that first year as the truck with its lone driver disappears into the night, and "Three cheers for old Central" from twelve lusty throats come to a lingering close upon the springtime air. During the summer plans were perfected for a four-room high school building to be erected by the people of Boneta, Talmage and Mountain Home. Excavation was completed and work proceeding nicely when an unexpected obstacle presented itself. The summer was dry throughout the entire Western country and the Uinta Basin did not escape the drought. Many streams dried up and the consequent loss of water power prevented the ambitious schoolhouse builders from getting their lumber sawed. The new building was delayed for a year but a lean-to was constructed on the old building, thus providing more commodious quarters than the school had enjoyed the previous year. September 15, 1924, Central high school, now boasting a ninth and tenth grade, two teachers and a student body of twenty-three boys and girls eager to improve their chances in the world, officially com- menced business. At the date of this writing there are thirty-five students enrolled and more coming daily. The Uinta Basin is a new country, it is off the railroad, it is sparsely settled, and the making of a living is the first consideration. So, ditch-work and fall harvesting must take precedence over education for a time in the fall when work is most pressing. The wide-awake and progressive student body has already pur- chased a piano on its own responsibility, and is contemplating buying a sewing machine. The opera, Love Pirates of Hawaii was scheduled for Thanksgiving day. The students "put out" a four-page news- paper and have a football team that is the pride of the whole county. It is doubtful if there is a more energetic and ambitious group of high school students in the entire state. The instructors place em- phasis upon the practical, or more properly, the vocational side of education, as suits the needs of the community, and the youngsters tackle the problems with contagious enthusiasm. Stock judging, seed collecting, milk testing, soil analysis, and like projects, absorb the boys' attention, while dressmaking, millinery and art needlework are of equal interest to the girls. What the future holds in store for Central high school is not difficult to predict. The students are determined that the school shall grow. It is assuming a power in the community that indicates that its growth will be rapid and stable. A four-year, full-fledged high school is assured, according to those who are in a position to know. DETERMINED YOUTH AND EDUCATION 161 YE CENTRALIAN He rides to school on a raw-boned bay, a broncho of ill repute. He wears at his throat a gay bandan', a Stetson surmounts his brow; His spurs a-jingle, our hero comes, repeating, with musical whoop, The song he sings on the midnight watch while guarding his restless cows. A child of latitude wide is he, as creature that roams the wild, To him the plains are an open book, the stars his friends and the storm; But when he enters the realms of books his nature at once grows mild, He flings to the winds his guise of the range and borrows ye scholarly form. He delves with zest into problems of math., and tackles with infinite glee The essays of Emerson, Addison, Lamb, and numberless parts of speech. Science to him is a thing of charms — such theme as astronomy Is never beyond ye scholarly grasp but well within his reach. There came a swarthy, vaunted host of doughty football men From yonder school across the dell our plucky team to do; But huge of brawn and quick of head our heroes strove, and when Ye whistle blew of men alive our foes had very few. They tackled left, they tacked right, below ye fatal knee, And piled the enemy in mounds like goodly stacks of hay ; The slaughter like ye Waterloo could scarce more bloody be, And sadder much and wiser far our foemen went away. And then rejoiceth all the school, and raised our heroes high Upon the shoulders of the strong with sundry bursts of cheer; The banners wave, the bugles blow with strident, brassy cry, And all the students shout, "Behold! The peerless of the peer!" He plays with skill the shrilly flute and rolls the rattling drum, And sings full well ye modern songs, and apes ye classic wits; Ye athlete, ardent scholar, wit — then too he doth the banjo strum, Enough, mv friends, vou see. Centralian is vouth of varied bits. Boneta, Utah. Judge Not How oft we judge our dearest friends The outside coat is all we see, For things they may say or do; We know so little of the cause; We add a burden to their souls, Perhaps if we could see as they, And make their hearts feel heavy, We'd let our words die in a pause. If we could take him by the hand, — i • j j j • r. And guide him from the snares For unkind words expressed in haste ,? • Oft cause the speaker sad regret, Wd kJS^\om the d th of The injured one you may forgive, • But in his heart he can't forget. FromS1£hkh hc needs must climb How often when we see a friend Departing from the path of right, 'Tis oft we sin in other's eyes. We give him knocks that push him We sometimes hate and hold a down, grudge; Instead of helping win his fight. But we ourselves, not perfect yet, So God alone should be the judge. Salt Lake City, Utah. LEO. W. ALLEN.