The Jones Family and a Tale of Two Schools

Book excerpt: Jake and Marta Jones, after years of unsuccessful attempts to introduce fish ponds as a protein source for villagers in Sierra Leone, returned to Jake’s childhood home in Center City, Wyoming. Their five children entered American life and schools with youthful vigor. Almost at once, some of Jake’s old friends, high school football players from some thirty years ago, shared concerns over eroded goals and values in the educational system, the church and society. Fred Fraser, the Superintendent of schools discovered his new principal, Arnold Burton, lacked appreciation for established morality. Burton said, “I will be the enlightener of this backward, countrified community.” He enthusiastically embraced the Department of Education’s new Initiative for change. Fraser asked his friends how this difference of purpose could be resolved. The reader will want to know how peace was maintained in Center City schools.