Progress In The Country Schools
Many of the older citizens can remember when Gilmer was not the beautiful little city that it now is. They can remember when the streets and public square were sand beds when it was dry, and mud puddles when it rained.
They can also remember when the public schools were not what they are today. No phase of the county institutions has felt the effect of the magic wand more than the county schools. The school children of today know nothing of the inconveniences of forty or fifty years ago. They now have comfortable school buildings, supplied with desks, maps, libraries, and free text books. They are carried to school in comfortable busses, and many are served with hot lunches at noon. How different was the conditions back in the 1880’s and 1890’s.
At that time, the country school houses, as a rule, were very unattractive and uncomfortable. The pupils were required to sit on long, hard benches and do their sums on a slate. They had no libraries and each child had to furnish his own books. There was no uniformity of the text books, which worked a considerable inconvenience to the teachers. Webster’s Blue Back Speller was almost universally used, however, and a pupil’s grade was estimated by the page he had reached in this book. The schools had no playground equipment, and the boys and girls were required to have separate playgrounds. It was not uncommon to find a bundle of switches lying on the teacher’s desk, and the teacher that did the most whipping was considered the best teacher.
One patron once remarked: “We shore got a good teacher this year. He whips them, comin’ and goin’!” The little one-room school buildings were heated by an old box heater, located in the center of the room, around which the shivering children crowded. The boys had to bring the wood for the heater from the near-by forest. We can understand why the boys were not crazy about school. Back then we had no County School Superintendent nor County Board of Education. The county school affairs were managed by the county judge, who was ex-officio school superintendent. The county was not divided into districts, but you could have a school anywhere you could get a bunch of children together and a shack to teach them in. Schools were not graded or classified and a teacher was allowed to teach anything in the curriculum, regardless of the grade certificate he had.
The school term was from three to six months in the year, and was usually divided into the winter and summer terms. About thirty-five years ago, Upshur County had its first county superintendent, Mr. A. F. Shepperd, and since that time, the schools have come into their own. Today, visitors are proudly permitted to inspect the schools. Upshur County compares very favorably with other counties of the state in its educational facilities. The stranger, driving across the county, is struck with the beauty and size of some of the school plants with modern brick buildings and attractive grounds.
The county has 18 white schools, all of which are accredited; nine high schools, affiliated with the state university; 143 white teachers, most of whom hold bachelor’s degrees, while some hold master’s degrees; 14 colored schools, with 71 teachers. The colored people have three high schools and eight accredited elementary schools.