Teacher Shares Realities of Early Frontier Education

by Scott Freutel

Teachers are often appreciated, frequently honored, seldom celebrated. An exception is Judy Hove Harding, '79 MEd, '89 EdD, who before her retirement had had her share of accolades but nothing quite like what came her way when she appeared in "Frontier House," the much-watched PBS series that debuted last year.
The show followed three families who for five months tried their hands at living as Montana Territory homesteaders would have lived in the 1880s. Harding taught the families' six children in a replica of a one-room schoolhouse. She was well suited for the job. A native of Montana reared near tiny Ray, N. D., she attended a one-room schoolhouse through seventh grade before moving to Polson, Mont., where she graduated high school.
Harding's teaching skills encompassed French and Spanish, English, music and art. Moreover, before taking the job she'd researched the history of frontier education, delving into territorial education superintendents' reports and teachers' letters home. She came to realize that a commonplace about the young single women who taught in Montana's territorial schools was wrong. Far from being barely educated themselves and ignorant about pedagogy, most of these young teachers had been trained by the National Board of Popular Education, a program something like the Peace Corps, and arrived in Montana Territory packing valises stuffed with theory. Most served contractual two-year stints.
Judy Hove Harding taught French and Spanish and a little English in Great Falls after receiving her bachelor's degree from the University of Montana in 1963. Ten years later she and her husband entered master's programs at MSU, Judy in education and her husband, S. Jay Harding, '74, in accounting. They'd enrolled their daughter Jill at Bozeman's Irving School, and Jill's kindergarten teacher, Connie Rumely, so impressed Harding that she decided to focus on early childhood education. After receiving her master's in 1974, she accepted a position with Helena's then-new public kindergarten program. "It was very exciting," she says. "I got to help shape a brand new program."
In 1989 Harding was awarded her doctorate in education. Her dissertation was on the relationship between music and teaching. "Music was always a big part of my life, a big part of my family," she says. "I'd always used music in teaching foreign languages, but when I started teaching kindergarten, music became central--it became the backbone of the curriculum. At the time, I was exploring ETM [Education through Music]--that is, music not only as an art and a value in itself, but also as a tool in classroom management and in developing language skills and helping children learn. I explored all the ways in which music was successfully used in classrooms." Harding still teaches music. She conducts guitar workshops, and taught her "Frontier House" charges to play the guitar.
Now retired and living in Helena with her husband (now also retired from teaching business at the UM's College of Technology), conducting guitar workshops and making pottery, another passion, Harding is much in demand as a speaker. Most of her audiences want to know about her "Frontier House" adventures, about the nuts and bolts of a fascinating experience, a captivating show. Most of the time she manages to steer the conversation to the realities of early frontier education, and when she does she impresses on her audiences, many of them made up of schoolteachers, the importance of writing things down.
"Make a record," she says. "Write letters. Keep a diary. Write it all down. Someday, what you write will be of great interest to other teachers, and maybe of great use, too." She implies that that's the way teachers of the future will someday be appreciated, honored and, yes, celebrated. Photo courtesy of Audrey Hall/Thirteen/WNET