By Bob Sweeney
PAGE 2 | WEEKLY REGISTER-CALL • April 20, 2023
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School open house reminder
I’m reminding parents of school-age students that the Gilpin County School District has a pre-
school enrollment open house on April 26 at 5:30 p.m. All grades, including preschool, 3 years
old; kindergarten, 5 years old, on or before Oct. 1.
If you follow the “Looking Back” column, now written by staff member Gary King, you might
have read about early-day schools and the miners starting schools and hiring teachers. In the early
mining days, school-age children increased as miners, and their families reached over 20,000
residents, prospecting and mining precious metals in the “Richest Square Mile On Earth.”
When the mines eventually played out, and the U.S. went off the silver standard, silver prices
crashed, and the mines slowly disappeared, reaching the Great Depression of the 1930s. Lack of
funds closed schools, and Gilpin County children were bused to Idaho Springs and Golden. Gil-
pin County has split school districts, sharing students with the Boulder County School District
and the Gilpin School District.
I’ve met many county residents who told me about being bused to nearby communities be-
cause of poverty in Gilpin County with mine closures and lack of funds for local schools.
Well, times have changed, and Gilpin County is now the envy of these neighbors, and because
of gaming, we have one of the finest school districts in Colorado.
The District states, “It is the mission of the Gilpin County RE-1 school district to provide a
positive, caring culture in a safe environment, for all students and staff, that is focused on aca-
demic excellence.” There is a deputy sheriff on-site daily.
There are generous college scholarships provided by Central City and Black Hawk gaming
entities for high school graduates.
The spectacular athletic field overlooks a majestic view of the Rocky Mountains. More Gilpin
County students can enrich numerous athletic programs.
The miners knew that education was vital for their children and no doubt wanted easier lives
for their kids than themselves, performing daily back-breaking labor with picks and shovels.
Many immigrants wanted their children to read, write, and prosper in this new land.
Mark this date of April 26 to tour the school and meet the teachers who are shaping the next
generation of Americans. Nothing is more important than protecting and educating those who
will lead this county, state and nation forward.
We respect and honor our teachers, and you can thank them for their service, along with the
administration and school staff.
Now this is a teacher!
In September of
2005, on the first
day of school,
Martha Cothren,
a military his-
tory class at Joe
T. Robinson High
School in Little
Rock, Arkansas,
did something not
to be forgotten.
On the first day of
school, with the
permission of the
school superinten-
dent, the principal
and the building
supervisor, she
removed all of
the desks in her
classroom.
When the
first-period kids
entered the room,
they discovered
that there were no desks.
“Ms. Cothren, where are our desks?” they
asked.
She replied, “You can’t have a desk until you
tell me how you earn the right to sit at a desk.”
They thought, “Well, maybe it’s our grades.”
“No,” she said.
“Maybe it”s our behavior.” She told them,
“No, it’s not even your behavior.”
And so, they came and went, the first period,
second period, third period. Still no desks in
the classroom. Kids called their parents to
tell them what was happening, and by early
afternoon, television news crews had started
gathering at the school to report about this
crazy teacher who had taken all the desks out
of her room.
The final period of the day came, and the
puzzled students found seats on the floor of
the desk-less classroom. Martha Cothren said,
“Throughout the day, no one has been able to
tell me just what he or she has done to earn
the right to sit at the desks that are ordinar-
ily found in this
classroom. Now
I am going to tell
you.”
At this point,
Martha Cothren
went over to the
door of her class-
room and opened
it. Twenty-seven
U.S. Veterans,
all in uniform,
walked into that
classroom, each
one carrying a
school desk. The
Vets began plac-
ing the school
desks in rows,
and then they
would walk over
and stand along-
side the wall. final desk in place those kids started to under-
stand, perhaps for the first time in their lives,
just how the right to sit at those desks had been
earned.
Martha said, “You didn’t earn the right to
sit at these desks. These heroes did it for you.
They placed the desks here for you. They went
halfway around the world, giving up their
education and interrupting their careers and
families so you could have the freedom you
have Now, it’s up to you to sit in them. It is
your responsibility to learn, to be good stu-
dents, to be good citizens. They paid the price
so that you could have the freedom to get an
education. Don’t ever forget it.”
By the way, this is a true story. And this
teacher was awarded the Veterans of Foreign
Wars Teacher of the Year for the State of Ar-
kansas in 2006. She is the daughter of a WWII
POW
Let us always remember the men and
women of our military and the rights they have
won for us.
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