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     O'Neill is admirably situated for the seat of a summer school. The weather is seldom uncomfortable, even in July, and our young people were able to study to good advantage every day of the session The town contains nearly 2,000 people, and board with room has been fairly reasonable, though this cost is necessarily higher than in larger cities and in places where boarding clubs can be maintained. Being the county seat of one of the largest counties in the state, there are nearly enough teachers in the county to justify a summer normal. The two railroads offer convenient access from three directions and some students come from most of the adjoining counties and a few from more distant parts of the state.

     There is an agricultural population of approximately 60,000, who can be conveniently served at O'Neill; better, indeed than at any one place in that portion of the state. These people are scattered over an area about one hundred miles east and west by eighty miles north and south. In this region are six normal training high schools and several excellent academies, which in time will be able to provide most of the teachers required by the district. The state normal school at Wayne is too far away to offer relief, and its admission requirements are too high to supply the present needs. Three-fourths of our pupils could not meet the requirements for admission to a state normal school. Until the standard of our teachers certificates is raised, these young people will teach in the rural schools with such preparation as they can receive in their home schools and in nearby summer schools.

     The members of our faculty have all had experience in Nebraska rural schools and have tried to make their instruction fit the conditions. In the four years of my service hero I can observe a decided improvement in the quality of work which we have been able to do. This is owing partly, perhaps, to our better understanding of conditions, but chiefly, I think, to the better preparation of the students coming to us. It Is still true that a majority of the teachers of this part of the state have had no high school training. The junior normal furnishes the only training beyond the eighth grade which is within their reach. It would surely be a serious calamity to the educational interests of this region if the state should discontinue these schools without providing an adequate substitute.

     O'Neill, as a community, has taken great pride in her junior normal, and has given the school most loyal support. On several occasions this loyalty has been proved in a very substantial manner. The town possesses a splendid hall and the people support a winter lecture course each year, so that they don't care for summer entertainments. The business men, however, respond most generously to any request for helping out our lecture courses. The most serious inconvenience In our work is the very inadequate and outgrown high school building

wherein our classes are held. There is every indication that this drawback will not exist long. The O'Neill district is now out of debt and a new modern high school building is curtain to arise shortly.

     The attendance for the past two years has been about the same as for the two years immediately preceding, though the names of our pupils vary from year to year in a surprising manner. Only about two-thirds of those who attend a considerable portion of the whole term take the trouble to complete examinations for credit. Of the 323 students who have received credit during the pact four years, only 10 students have attended every year. Twenty have attended three years, 53 two years and 240 only one year. Just about half of the attendants each year are new students.

     While the need for these schools is certainly very great, there is also need of greater stimulus to attend. Salaries in rural schools are now much higher than in any other schools in the state in proportion to work and preparation required. Is it not the duty of the state to ask for better preparation on the part of rural teachers and to offer them the opportunity to meet the new demands? Few children with only eight years of schooling are competent to teach other children.

     Perhaps the most satisfying experience connected with these schools is the eagerness for help which most of our pupils manifest. To most of them it means great sacrifice to attend school. They are,, therefore, thoroughly in earnest, and it is a pleasure to aid them in their efforts to improve themselves. Perhaps our greatest weakness has been in a failure to develop social interest. Our students have been rather serious-minded and our faculty are all missionaries, hence the duty and drive and drudge have been rather too prominent.

     The Valentine junior state normal is located at Valentine, in the northeast part of Cherry county. It has a large territory to serve including the counties of Cherry, Brown, Sheridan, and parts of Dawes, Sioux, Rock and Keya Paha. This section of the state Is sparsely settled, comparatively speaking. The occupation of the people is largely given to ranching and farming. There is but one railroad, the Northwestern, in this section. The nearest educational institutions are the junior normal at O'Neill, in Holt county, and the junior normal at Alliance, in Box Butte county. There are but two normal training high schools in this territory.

     The attitude of some of the nearby counties has not been all that might be expected, but one needs to know the circumstances and the discouraging conditions under which some of those teachers work before passing judgment. Very few teachers go away to school and not many have the advantage of a normal training high school -- and

many no high school at all. The junior normal is rendering the greatest assistance in. furnishing qualified teachers for that section of the state.

     Valentine is an ideal place for the junior normal. There Is an excellent school building and it is well equipped. There is good janitor service, all of which the Valentine board of education looks after.

     The faculties have been giving excellent service and all worked together with an earnestness that meant much for the students under their care.

     The faculty for 1909: G. A. Gregory, principal; Mrs. Lulu Kortz Hudson, registrar; O. R. Bowen, E. P. Bettenga, Kate E. Driscoll, E. P. Wilson.

     Faculty for 1910: W. T. Stockdale, principal; D. F. Story, registrar; O. R. Bowen, E. P. Bettenga, Kate E. Driscoll, H. H. Reimund.

     The student body was made up of earnest young men and women, who fully realized that the school meant much to them.

     The hearty co-operation of the people of Valentine, their open hospitality, and their assistance in every way possible make conditions such that students and faculty are sorry when the summer term closes.

     A model school, consisting of the advanced first grade and the fifth grade, was maintained throughout the entire 1910 session. This was a strong feature of the normal. Special work was also given to drawing and picture study.

     The first week of the normal was institute week for Cherry county. Special work was given during the week in the "essentials" by the Instructors and five lectures on school management were given by the principal.

* Institute week only.

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© 2003 for the NEGenWeb Project by Ted & Carole Miller