Education in San Juan County Zenos L. Black
I grew up in Blanding and went to school there for twelve years, graduating from high school in the spring of 1925. I graduated from the University of Utah in the spring of 1930 with a degree of Bachelor of Science and a teaching certificate. I taught in Idaho for twelve years, then came to Monticello as principal and teacher of the school which contained grades one through twelve. It was when World War II was in full swing. Many of the young male teachers of the state had been called into the military service, and both male and female teachers had abandoned the teaching service to work in the war industry where salaries were much higher than in the teaching field. Consequently, there was an extreme shortage of teachers. Our distance from the populated areas made it worse for us because the teachers who were left preferred the larger schools. As I recall, that first year, 1942-43, we started out widi a teaching staff of six teachers for grades one through eight and two teachers plus myself for grades nine through twelve. I taught five classes and did the work of principal in my spare time. Every teacher was loaded to the hilt. Several of the classes exceeded forty pupils and none of them, widi the exception of home economics, had less than thirty. The teachers were dedicated and not afraid to work hard, and we managed to have a pretty good year. We did get some relief during the year in the high school. At Christmas time, a young lady, who had taught there the year before, came to visit some of her friends and the superintendent 337
