Sanpete County has a well-deserved reputation for its fine public and private educational institutions and its concern for education. Graduates of the three public high schools in Sanpete CountyGunnison, Manti, and North Sanpete-have gone on to distinguished careers in many professions. However, like the other pioneer undertakings in Sanpete County, education and the development of public schools was a long and difficult process.
Early School Conditions In the first decades after settlement, children received schooling on a very irregular basis, mostly in the winter when there were fewer farm and livestock chores. Lack of funds or goods to pay teachers kept many children out of school. It was also common for parents to take turns sending one child at a time, and later another and another, as means permitted. Miles E. Johnson recalls of the man who baptized him that Elder Matthew Coldwell was also "his second school teacher for about three months. That was all my mother could pay for." '
