Show RAISING THE educational STANDARDS OF GRAND COUNTY 11 superintendent 1 I S I 1 mccorkle the marvelous social changes that have taken place in recent year years and of dissemination of ideas the de development clop ment of means of transportation classed foreign and almost unknown into have brought races that were as intimate social and economic relation relations the march ot of events in recent has kept educators busy keeping up with the procession changes year years the social and economic changes that are twe haie to be made quickly to meet constantly taking place all this means better paid and better pre pared A teachers system of education if it comes anywhere near meeting the de mandi mands of our times must be sufficiently flexible to meet the varied con dit editions ioris under which instruction is given the adage the school was made for the child instead of the child for the school will hold good many of the mistakes of the past as well as of the present were in attempting to fit all au of the children into the same formal line of procedure this is impossible each child must be considered in the light of hn his own individuality the home the church and the chool school were three institutions on which our forefathers pinned their pith and the part which each of those institutions was to play in the social life of the nation has always been conditioned upon the work done by the others in the pioneer day days there was little need of me chadic arts and physical education in the school schools for the home was a sort of workshop work shop and the necessities for work arising in the very struggle le for or existence gave every member of the family about all the exercise that he needed As A the country developed the factory and the trades unions tok took over much of the work formerly dom done by the home and with this change much of the development alon the lines of mechanic arts and vocations was lost to the boys and the girls of the home then it was that the necessity arose for establishing courses in those lines in our public schools the safe conservative nature of our people made them slow to accept these changes but there never was a time when tb the people of the U S were not ready to school methods and new now 8 accept new subjects in the curricula if they were only convinced that they were for the best interests of the people so many of the so sio called M raised d standards were only adjustments just ments to suit the chan changing ging so acial cial conditions tree true to american traditions I 1 pioneers of moab vat valley ley lost no tam in establishing a school this early school was of type it served the condition conditions 1 those days pretty well and laid F good found foundation aaion for to follow I 1 Consi considering denni the short time since the first settlers came into tie valley the advancement has his I 1 been rapid the people were always ready to vote funds to meet the thel educational needs since it is not the thia this article to give a purpose burp se of I 1 history of the educational develop of this valley after a brief ment q introductory sketch of the dev develop elep merit of grand county high school we ahall deal more specifically with ithe the rising standards of recent year years progressive Ive nature of the cit ct the hwnry of asive ts this valley is shown from the fact that grand county herh school was the first secondary ee condary tt esol to be organized in southeastern utah at the time of its alion stion only a jl few of the larecy citie cities of 0 the state could boast of having hig li schools let jet us u brie briefly fly sketch its early his tory in the year 1902 all of grand county wae embraced fa in two districts dut known as no I 1 and ni he the former including the towns of moab elgin and thompsons Thomp sons and the territory the remainder of pf the county being included in district number two A new law had just been passed allowing two or more districts to form a high school on march 6 1902 notices were posted in both of these districts calling for a special election to be held march 22 1902 for the purpose of voting upon the question shall we organic organize a high school district the results of the election follow yes 76 75 votes no 3 votes so even at this early date the people declared unequivocally in favor of higher education A special election was then held on april 9 1902 for the purpose of electing two high school trustees from each of the districts number one select selected mrs mr isa Hanun lond and mr bir A P sorensen and number two named john martin and claude rice these four constituted the first high school board of education in grand county during 1902 a little ath grade work was done mr jacobson was th the first principal the school continued 1 I 1 first as a one year high school then a two year school then a three kigh year ear school until 1916 when a full high school course was offered for the first time i since that time the school hai hu offered i four yeara years of work and new now I 1 courses have been added from time J to time to meet the new education educational I 1 demands there was was a time that student students of the high school were allowed to ro gister for about the courses that the desired both as to quantity and var now are not allow e ed to register for credits in excess I 1 of four units without the special consent of the faculty this has practically eliminated lunina ted the three yer year graduate gr and besides this students are directed in the eel selection tion of their courses curses so that the entrance requirements ants of the universities may be fillip fulip 11 met the enlargement of the field of ultra curricular activities has given the members of the student body in n opportunity for development self and sell expression and incidentally has opened up a wide held field for training for demoe democracy racy the student body hi Is now considered an important part of the high school organization and through its it wisely directed activities school life finds its proper express iman on in conduct instead of the space allotted for this article awill will not permit more than a mere nitre mention of mst mot of these activities euch auch as clubs for the more development of some special line |