When Utah’s State Office of Education building was vacated in 1993 to allow for renovation, school officials found two old boxes in the basement. The boxes, which were nearly discarded, were found to contain annual reports of state school superintendents dating back to the 1870s, when Utah was a territory and a public school system was just beginning.
According to one superintendent, Utah’s hinterlands were being settled by “young people who have not had much experience in scholastic matters.” In 1877, John Taylor, an educated Englishman and School Superintendent, helped to carry out a congressional mandate to create a system of common schools in the Territory of Deseret to accommodate the thousands of pioneers who had settled there during a general westward movement in the United States.
Funding a school system out of the pockets of financially strapped pioneers was a challenge. A lack of architects was a deterrent to Taylor’s call for well-designed buildings that were well-lighted and airy, not awkward in appearance and constructed on a high-and-dry site. The first consideration after a building was in place, he said, should be a neat, strong fence and shade trees. Seats and desks should be, so far as possible, of home manufacture, he advocated.
Most districts didn’t want female teachers, and when they got them, they paid them less than their male counterparts. Marriage for a female teacher often was grounds for dismissal. All teachers got plenty of advice from the Public Schools Manual printed in 1894: “When you refuse, refuse finally; when you consent, consent cheerfully. Often command, never scold. Do not talk too much. When reading, always have a bright picture behind each word or sentence, which the child shall see vividly with his mind’s eye.” Duty extended to before and after school, when the teacher was charged to “prevent all quarreling, disagreement, rude and noisy behavior in students coming to and from school.”
This school was built in 1894, just two years prior to Utah being admitted as a state. Although it was easily accessible, there were No Trespassing signs posted, so a peek through broken windows is the closest I could get!
