[Granville-Hough] 19 Aug 2009 - Schools 9
Trustees for Granville W. Hough
gwhough-trust at oakapple.net
Wed Aug 16 20:22:20 PDT 2017
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 2009 06:50:26 -0700
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: Schools9-19 Aug 2009
Allen CaughmanÆs struggles with the Smith County Schools.
Allen Caughman was Elected Smith County Superintendent of Education in
1916 when there were 78 white and 28 colored schools, ranging from the
very poorest to the very best in the piney woods area. These could all
be defined as walking distance community schools. Allen Caughman had
taught at Oak Hill School, and it was somewhat of a model he kept in
mind. He introduced the practice of floating bonds to finance the
erecting of school buildings, and he started the practice of using
wagons to carry children to school. He later introduced T-model trucks
with home built bodies for moving the children. Road improvement had to
go along with this innovation. He raised the qualifications for
teachers, setting the standard that each teacher had to have at least
two years of college. He followed the state law and set the school year
at eight months. He also made an honest effort to enforce the compulsory
attendance law, though I knew many teen-agers and adults who had never
been a single day at school. By 1924, he had consolidated all rural
schools into 20, each with new school buildings, with modern desks,
blackboards, and teachers were paid each month for 8 months. The Smith
County WPA history claims there were libraries, but I never saw a
library book in grade school. Any library books must have been in the
high schools.
Allen Caughman became a bone fide member of the Sullivan community in
1925 when he married one of his school teachers, Myra Yelverton,
descendant of Frederick Sullivan. He later became Chancery Clerk for the
county and a highly respected elder citizen.
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We are indebted to Carol DeMars Collins for finding Benjamin Franklin's
quote: "A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle."
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