Extended Interview

Annette Garland Teacher Callao, Utah   Read more extended interviews.

This interview has not been edited for content.

Annette Garland:  We have a one-room schoolhouse, actually it's a one-classroom school.  We have multiple classes in our classroom and I teach kindergarten through eighth grade.  I have eleven students and they're grouped in different ways—some cooperative learning, some individual learning, some whole-class learning.  It's a good opportunity to group the kids in different ways.  We've been in this building since 1993.  Before that we were at West Desert Elementary School because we closed the Callao Elementary School because we had a lack of students for school.  So we came back in 1993 and we've been in this building since then.  We've had as high as twenty-two students and as few as eight.  Most of the kids are from Callao, were born here.  Some of them came from town, Grantsville.  Most of their parents were educated in our school system and I've taught many of their parents.  So most of them come from within a half a mile.  My oldest is a fourteen year old and my youngest is six years old, kindergarten and my oldest is in the seventh grade and they range all the way from kindergarten to seventh grade.  I've known most of them since they were young or babies and a couple of them are new this year.  I think all teachers want to make a difference in lives.  I think that's not unique.  When you work in this kind of a situation you can make an investment in kids and keep working with them year after year and see progress that you don't see otherwise.  It's great satisfaction for me to start them in kindergarten and see them graduate from high school and see the progress they made.  Also I think it's a wonderful teaching opportunity because the younger ones are listening and the older ones are doing lessons and the older ones are listening while the younger ones are doing lessons and it reinforces what you've already taught them.  Callao is an old community as far as Utah goes.  Most of the people here in Callao are related and have been here since the 1960s and I'm a relatively newcomer.  I've only been here thirty years but we have a strong heritage of ranching and independence.  We are independent and we've learned how to survive and be independent and there is great satisfaction in that in knowing how to take care of yourself.  Hopefully we can keep our lifestyle intact for our children and our grandchildren.  My biggest fear is that my children and grandchildren will never know the independence that we've known.  I want to give them the opportunity and be able to choose and have the option of being able to stay here.  If we aren't successful we won't have the option and they won't have the option and I don't know how long it will take for our lifestyle to be destroyed, but I don't think it will be that long.  They say they'll reassess in 75 years.  I don't have 75 years and my daughter doesn't have 75 years.  I'm not sure my grandchildren have 75 years.  I would like to see Las Vegas live within their means.  They live in the middle of a desert and they should live within their means the same as we live within our means and I don't want to see the West defined as one big metropolitan area surrounded by desolate deserts where nobody can live.  I've grown to love Callao and it's my home and I'd like to stay here for the rest of my life.  I wasn't raised here, but I love it and I don't want to move and I don't want any other lifestyle.  I like this lifestyle and I cherish it.  The best thing is they (the kids) learn to work and entertain themselves.  These kids play outside and invent games and shoot baskets.  They go to basketball games with their families.  They go to dances with their families and there is a real family cohesiveness and a feeling of community and even though we don't all belong to the same church, the school kind of brings us together and our lifestyle brings us together and it's a simple lifestyle but it's genuine and real.  I don't think it's appropriate to take water from any place in Nevada that doesn't belong to their basin, you know.  They've probably had their share as far as I'm concerned.  I don't think it's appropriate for them to go to White Pine County.  I don't think it's appropriate to go to my county or Elko County.  I think the water that's in the basin should be for people who live there.  Everyone has to learn to live within their means.