Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/280

 272 WILLIAM BARLOW I will now take up the schools to show the difference between now and then. I am decidedly in favor of the new system, be- cause the poorest child in the country can get a better educa- tion now than the richest man's child could then, at least in the Western states. Such a thing as a school tax was never thought of and would have been unanimously hooted down if it had been thought of. Of course, there were no very poor people in the West in those days ; the poor people had to stay back East. All the men in the West owned their own farms, built their own schoolhouses, hired their own teachers and sent their children to school during the winter season. This gave them what they thought was a fair education. Reading, writing and ciphering were the main branches. Geography and a little English grammar were indulged in occasionally, providing the teacher could get that high up himself. He did not have to have a certificate, as there was no superintendent to examine him, and no school directors to hire him. If he were a new man, he would generally have a recommendation from where he taught before. The main things he had to have were nerve and muscle, as he was required to keep good order. The first thing he stocked up with was a good supply of good hickory gads. He might not have to use all of them, but he had obligated himself to keep good order, and most of the em- ployers said, "If you spare the rod, you'll spile the child." To think about a woman teacher in those days would have been perfectly preposterous. In fact, no woman would have thought of undertaking it. But now they handle all kinds of scholars much better than men and use no corporal punishment, or next to none. The man who wanted to teach school would find by going through the county where there was a log schoolhouse because there were no other kinds to be found. I never saw a frame schoolhouse in the country until I came to Oregon. These log houses in the Middle West, however, were comfort- able, large and well built logs smoothed down and closely chinked, and all had substantial puncheon floor. There was always a huge fireplace that would take in at least a six-foot back log.