Two old Eads school record books have somehow survived nearly a century. They are dated 1932-1933 and 1933-1934. Just a few short years before the beautiful three-story Eads School building that was built in _____ burned to the ground in 1938.
We do not know if there were once more of them, or whether others are still tucked away in an attic, basement, storage room or forgotten cabinet somewhere. Truthfully, we are not even entirely sure how these two came into our hands.
What we do know is that they have been through it.
The covers are worn. The pages are dry and brittle. There is water damage, mud, dirt and the unmistakable evidence of decades spent exposed to time and the elements. In places, the paper is so fragile it feels as though one careless turn could cause it to crumble.
And yet they remain. So do the words inside them.
Nearly a century after they were typed onto those pages, the paper has weakened, but the ideas have not. The books have endured water, dirt, neglect and time, and somehow the message preserved inside them has endured right along with them.
Education matters. Children matter. Teachers matter. Schools matter.
And every generation carries a responsibility not only to the children sitting in its classrooms, but to the generations still to come.
There is something fitting about that.
These old books have survived because someone, somewhere, chose not to throw them away.
And the Eads school system has survived for much the same reason: generation after generation chose to keep investing in what came next.
But what remains on those pages is something far stronger than paper. Words of wisdom.
Records preserved from the 1930s offer a remarkable glimpse into what earlier generations believed a school should mean to a child, a family and a community.
“Education concerns the whole life,” one page declares.
Another says simply, “To learn is to grow.”
The old records include writings about citizenship, health, vocation, home life, teachers and the purpose of education itself. They speak about reading, writing and mathematics, but also responsibility, character, cooperation, work, family and citizenship.
One passage says a student should learn “to gather and weigh facts.”
Another says children should learn fairness, justice, honesty, cooperation and responsibility.
A section on vocation says schools should help children discover the trade or profession in which their interests and abilities might lead them to succeed.
And nearly a century ago, those records made another point very clearly: The condition of the school itself mattered.
“The school provides a safe physical and mental environment for your child,” one page reads.
The record describes what was then considered a modern school — a clean and comfortable building with proper light, heat and ventilation, sanitary facilities, playgrounds, gymnasiums and spaces that supported the health and development of children.
The page ends with four words:
“Health is the first wealth.”
Those words were written generations ago, but the people who came before us did more than write about the importance of education. They invested in it.
That investment is one of the reasons hundreds of students have walked across a stage as graduates of Eads High School.
Long before most of us were born, people in this community made decisions about schools they knew they would not personally use forever.
Fifty years ago.
Seventy years ago.
Ninety years ago.
Parents and grandparents, farmers and ranchers, business owners and community members invested in buildings, teachers, programs and opportunities that would eventually belong to children they would never meet.
They built for the future. We are living in that future.
One old school history describes what earlier Eads students endured before improvements were made: cold rooms, unreliable lighting, muddy approaches without sidewalks, falling plaster and inadequate drinking facilities.
Later students looked back at those conditions and expressed gratitude for what had been provided to them.
“We’ll be thankful if our class turns out as well as previous students who did not have these advantages,” the record says.
Even then, students understood they had inherited something from the generations before them.
Every generation receives something.
Every generation eventually decides what it will leave behind.
Another page in the old records states:
“Your child’s school is your ally.”
And then:
“A sound schooling is the richest legacy you can leave him.”
Legacy matters. A school is not only for the students sitting in classrooms today. It is for the kindergartner who has not yet learned to write a name.
It is for the child who has not yet been born. It is for the families who may someday choose to make Eads home. It is for grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
The people who invested in Eads schools decades ago could not have known our names. They did not know what technology our children would use, what careers they would pursue or what challenges this community would face.
But they understood that education mattered. They understood that communities do not simply happen. They are handed forward.
Today, we can open their worn record books and see what they valued: education, health, citizenship, work, character, teachers, family, community and children.
The pages may be nearly crumbling, but what those generations helped build has endured, and its impact reaches far beyond the walls of a school building.
Eads schools have sent generations of graduates into the world. Doctors have walked these halls. So have lawyers and engineers. Teachers who went on to educate another generation. Law enforcement officers who chose lives of service.
Pastors who ministered to communities and families. Business owners, farmers and ranchers who kept communities alive.
Mothers and fathers who raised the next generation.
Coaches, nurses, tradesmen, public servants, volunteers and neighbors.
People whose lives and work have reached far beyond Eads while carrying something of this community with them.
That may be the greatest return on the investment made by generations before us. They did not simply build a school. They helped build people.
And those people went out into the world and contributed to families, professions, churches, businesses, communities and generations that followed.
Someday, perhaps 50 or 90 years from now, someone may again open the history books of Eads. They may read about the school our children attended.
They may read about the challenges the district faced. They may read about the opportunities placed before this community.They may see our names in meeting minutes, newspaper articles and election records.
And they will know what we decided.
We already know what earlier generations left us. Hundreds of graduates. Generations of teachers. Championships and concerts.
First days of kindergarten and graduation nights. Friendships, careers, families and memories. A school that became part of the identity of Eads itself.
Now the question belongs to us. What will our great-grandchildren say when they read the history of what we left them?
