A ranch school is a type of

school A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the Educational architecture, building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most co ...

used in rural areas of the

Western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Western States, the Far West, the Western territories, and the West) is List of regions of the United States, census regions United States Census Bureau. As American settlement i ...

History

The ranch school movement began in the Western United States in the early 1900s as a way to educate children who lived on ranches in remote and rural areas, far away from regular schools in the towns and cities. The idea was popular and within a short time many ranch schools took on characteristics of a

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. They have existed for many centuries, and now extend acr ...

and a dude ranch, where Easterners or city-dwellers could send their children as well. At the time, Americans widely believed that the arid climate of the Western states could help children recuperate from conditions like

asthma Asthma is a common long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wh ...

. The hard work that went with living and working on a ranch and spending a lot of time outdoors was also appealing to those who wanted their children to grow up strong, healthy and independent. Most ranch school students rode a horse every day and were taught the basics of ranching and living outdoors, in addition to regular school teachings.

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

led the nation in the number of ranch schools, most of which were in the Tucson area. Many were for boys only, but there were some all-girls schools as well, such as the Hacienda del Sol school outside of Tucson or the Jokake School in Scottsdale. Most of the ranch schools were built for locals, but some ranchers — such as those at the Little Outfit Ranch in Arizona's San Rafael Valley — established ranches with the specific intention of operating them as boarding schools for "city boys". Ranch schools were advertised in magazines and newspapers, drawing in students and their families from across the country, and as a result are credited with contributing to the growth of the tourism industry in the

Southwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A '' compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west— ...

in the early 1900s. By the 1960s, most of the ranch schools in the United States were closed or soon-to-be closed, marking the end of the traditional ranch school movement. However, some ranch schools have survived, such as Deep Springs College. Many contemporary ranch schools are

therapeutic boarding school Therapeutic boarding school is an institution where students reside on campus and are provided with both educational and therapeutic services. These institutions first began to emerge in the late 1960s. Description A therapeutic boarding school ...

s for "troubled teens".

Gallery

File:Students Of The Hacienda del Sol School Tucson Arizona 1930s.JPG, Students at the Hacienda del Sol ranch school in the 1930s File:LO Sch Hou Dean 19 2x2 300ppi.jpg, Students of the Little Outfit Schoolhouse raising the US flag in 1943 File:Fuller lodge los alamos.jpg, Fuller Lodge was the main building at the Los Alamos Ranch School in

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

. File:Old Little Red Schoolhouse Beyerville Arizona 2014.JPG, The Little Red Schoolhouse in what is now Beyerville, Arizona, was built in 1921 for the children of local ranchers and farmers. File:El Dorado Schoolhouse Sulphur Springs Valley Arizona 2015.JPG, The El Dorado Schoolhouse in eastern Sulphur Springs Valley, Arizona, near the Faraway Ranch Historic District

References

{{Schools School types History of Arizona Education in the United States

History

Gallery

See also

References