Discipline was lax, and the curriculum…

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ne in the Territory had a public school of any importance. Discipline was lax, and the curriculum lacked direction, when M. R. Koehler took over. She soon remedied that. She established order in school life, she introduced the ideal of cleanliness in the building and on the grounds, she introduced new social and cul- tural standards — directing playground activi- ties, buying and raising, with appropriate cere- mony, the school’s first American flag, placing a piano in the school, directing plays, and launching a school paper, the High School Herald (five cents a copy, 10 cents a month, 75 cents a year) of which The Silver City Enterprise said: “The new high school paper, under the editorial management of Miss Mabel' Miller and Master Eugene Warren, is a spicy little medium through which the doings of our public school are transmitted. Its subject mat- ter is both rosy and interesting.” Largely because of the sound foundations which M. R. Koehler built into the young minds of her day, Silver City’s Normal school was able to enroll a large class of well-grounded students, when it opened its doors, and it sent Out one graduate that first year — Isabell L. Eckles, who was to become State Superintend- ent of Public Instruction in New Mexico. For 17 years M. R. Koehler directed the Silver City school, whose fame extended far beyond the Territorial limits.