Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 2.djvu/71



The school history of Eugene possesses several features of great interest to the student of education in Oregon. In the first place it extends over a sufficient period, almost half a century, to make its study significant. Secondly, we find here the influence of two distinct ideas, the private school idea and the public school idea, working side by side for many years; and thirdly, there is traceable the evolution of a dominant public school sentiment which results in unifying the educational effort of the town, and placing it definitely in the highway of progress.

In Eugene the private school idea had an exceedingly firm hold, owing doubtless to the fact that so large a proportion of the early settlers came from states where public education was not as yet much developed. In fact, too many of these people who were of good families in the southwestern states, Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri, it seemed a trifle degrading to send their children to a public school, which as so often happened both north and south, was looked upon as a "poor folks" school.

It is not surprising, therefore, to find in Eugene, during the first twenty years of her history, a great number and variety of private schools, ranging all .the way from a college to a kindergarten, or school for very young children, kept by a good woman in her own home. The scope of this paper does not contemplate an extended ac-