Now that summer is done and autumn has begun, I’ve returned to my desk. This winter I’m challenging myself to write two books. At the request of my readers, one is the sequel to my most recent novel, “Under The Endless Sky”. In my planning and researching for “Where Flowers Bloom”, I came across these rules for teachers in 1872. (“Frontier Teachers: Stories of Heroic Women of the Old West” by Chris Enss.)

1. Teachers each day will fill lamps, clean chimneys.
2. Each teacher will bring a bucket of water and a scuttle of coal for the day’s session.
3. Make your pens carefully. You may whittle nibs to the individual taste of the pupils.
4. Men teachers may take one evening each week for courting purposes, or two evenings a week if they go to church regularly.
5. After ten hours in school, the teachers may spend the remaining time reading the Bible or other good books.
6. Women teachers who marry or engage in unseemly conduct will be dismissed.
7. Every teacher should lay aside from each pay a goodly sum of his earnings for his benefit during his declining years so that he will not become a burden on society.
8. Any teacher who smokes, uses liquor in any form, frequents pool or public halls, or gets shaved in a barber shop will give good reason to suspect his worth, intention, integrity and honesty.
9. The teacher who performs his labor faithfully and without fault for five years will be given an increase of twenty-five cents per week in his pay, providing the Board of Education approves.

In other lists, I’ve seen the additional rule that female teachers were not allowed to go to ice cream parlors. Figure that one out! I guess it falls under rules #6 or #8, although, I’ve seen nothing saying male teachers can’t enjoy an ice cream.

See Frontier Teachers part 2 next month for School Rules.