After a competition in which seven Texas sculptors submitted preliminary models, Herring Coe of Beaumont was awarded the task of making the model for the sculptoral block.

The sculptoral block of Texas granite depicts twelve life-size figures, representing children coming to school, bringing gifts and handing in homework to two teachers. The massive granite block weighs twenty tons and is seven feet high and four feet thick. It is supported by two monolithic granite columns with fluted sides. These twenty feet high columns rise from a granite platform which is reached on two sides by granite steps. Overall the cenotaph monument is thirty-two feet high.