Madera’s schools march to a different drumbeat

For The Madera Tribune

Captain Russel Perry Mace, an early president of Madera’s school board stands in the middle of the student body at Eastside, Madera’s first school. These students and their teachers faced educational expectations that were much different from those of today.

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This writer has been thinking about modern education and how it has changed over the years. He wonders how School Superintendent Todd Lile would have assessed the situation if the district had been forced to live under the same standards with which Madera’s schools had to deal a long time ago. 

Let’s return to the early 20th century for a few moments. Back then county boards of education, not school superintendents, controlled both the content of the curriculum and its implementation. There was no ambiguity. Everyone knew what was expected and those expectations were far different from those of today.  

The proof of this can be seen in a document from June 1918, in which the Madera County Board of Education laid down the law for its pedagogues.