Page:History of Public School Education in Arizona.djvu/135



When a general view of the history and growth of the public school movement in Arizona is undertaken, it is easily possible to comprehend the steady, if uneven, development in the course of the same. In the first place the Territory did not receive its preliminary organization until the days of the Civil War, and was therefore the heir of all that had been said or done or thought on the subject of education in the older States. In the next place the first American settlers came from States in which the public system was already more or less developed, and in seeking for a basis of action in their new surroundings they naturally turned to the experience they had had in their earlier homes; and finally their proposed new organization was to meet no insuperable obstacle in its path, for the Indians, averse to all civilization, had to be subdued first of all by force of arms, and the Mexicans, although reared under the theory of church schools only, and in general favorable to that view so far as they had any intelligent opinions, only for a brief interval presented any serious obstacle to the development of public education. Lastly, the Territory was practically wanting in schools of any sort, so that there was little or no resistance from other interests. There were no private or Protestant church schools. Such Catholic schools as existed were devoted largely to the education of Mexican and Indian children, and were separated to a certain extent from the field to which public-school workers were mainly devoting themselves. It is therefore substantially true to say that the first advocates of the public school found a field without previous claimants, clear of obstacles, fallow for cultivation, and with the greater part of the more intelligent population in direct sympathy with its purpose.

This was the situation during the earlier years of the Territory. Fortunately, the men in charge of the organization knew their duties and met its requirements like men. The Howell code, drawn up before the meeting of the first legislature, provided for the organization of a school system which was unquestioningly accepted as its rule of action at the first meeting of the representatives of the people.

As soon as practicable the legislature turned to the subject of school legislation. As early as 1867 they passed their first school law. This was amended, improved, and reenacted in 1868. It provided for a system of schools based on the idea that local taxation 129