The irony is that one-room school houses in the 19th century, haphazardly financed and staffed, produced grammar school graduates—sometimes—with more learning than our high school graduates in general. Think of Matty in “True Grit.”
It was first organized and built by a handful of local ranchers who **volunteered** to built it and hire a teacher. In fact, the existing school, a lovely structure from the 1920s was built this way. In the beginning the school year was only a few weeks out of the year. ( I think 8?)
Ah! The problem is that these ranchers turned the ownership and management of this adorable little PRIVATE school over to the government. Big mistake on their part. They wrongly believed the expression, “I'm from the government. I'm here to help!”
History is replete with self-taught geniuses, with no more elaborate instruction than God’s own creation to inspire their beautiful minds.