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Show Ij I BOISE'S SCHOOL SYSTEM AND SCHOOL BUSIDBNGS AR j. JUSTLY THE PRiDE OF GEM STATE'S THRIVING CAPITAL I) 3 I BY O. . ARNEY. ' Special to Tho Tribune. 1 :' BOISE, Idaho. Deo. 1. Boise has a ; system of public schools of which she jiiay bo justly proud. The cajiitnl city has refrained from waging serious but-ilo but-ilo for the loention of any of tlio state . educational institutions, although there ; are vory many reasons why it would bo idealistic- as an educational cen ter. 'The intelligence of (he community life of this city is indellibly stamped f on the public schools of Boise. The j Interest and faith in the highest order j of perfection in buildings, grounds, r' faculty and apparatus is exemplified by l.ho ever readiness of tho voters to see , to it that every means of support by way of special tax levies and bonded j indebtedness sought by our school board I iii nniply provided, , i Yor many years two of the six school . trustees of the various boards havo been women and they havo ever been J alert and adroit in looking after tho I highest type of ladies and gentlemen ! ; to servo as teachers before the rising ; i school generation of Boise, tho Bcauli- ful. ; . w ; ! Boise school district has a spacious n high school and seven ward buildings, , all of modem stylo of architecture; I . built of stone or brick, and model from a standpoint of convenience and ' accessibility .for teacher and for taught. i Tug erection of tho last building by i the Boise board of school trustees, a s photograph of which is here present cdf f brought about a change in business ! methods which mav veil receive notice I' from some school boards in Idaho who ; are- following a different line of business busi-ness policy. ; Early in tho spring of 190$, tho dis- M trict voted $100,0(10 in bonds for tho f J nreciion of the now stone wing to tho f high school- These bonds wore ad- 1 vertisod Tor sale as 5 per cent bonds. ! redeemable in twenty years and sold J at a prcyiium which made them equivalent equiva-lent fo -1 per cent bonds. The purchaser pur-chaser in the early fall announced his readiness to take up the cntiro issue. t Jlo was promptly advised by tho board 5 tluri thc' would niako their issue in bloeJcs of four .5,000 bonds, one in I . September, a second in January, a third i in M'tirch and (ho last ono in June, f Tim sacccssful bidder demurred fo the S plan nnd sent an agent fo tho board l who threatened suit to compel the on- ' tiro issue to bo made at once. "Former ; Congressman Edgar "Wilson, a member ' of tho board and a lawyer, poinlod out i tho futility of his proposed plan from : a standpoint of law and of fairness to !' tho school district, with the result that 1 tho periodical issue plan was adhered ,L ' to. This saved the district, in interest : alone on this bond issue, approximately 1 $2,500.. - 3 ! Anotbor saving was made on -this Ifino stone and pressed brick wing building build-ing to tho high school. Bids wore called for and tho lowest offer for construction con-struction was .$100,000. The board rejected re-jected all bids, lured a competent foreman fore-man of construction and bjiilt the wing building for $(1,000. i This oast wing of the high school building an ornament to tho cify and a gem in arrangement and equipment will be duplicated on the westerly side of the present brick high school building, build-ing, when the needs of the institution demand it. Later when the burden of school debt will warrant, tho central structure will be torn away. and a new stone central building, connected to the two wings, as the old brick is connected at present, will be built, making complete com-plete I he most atiraotivo and substan-,tinl substan-,tinl school building in ihe .West; the complete plans being shown in the photograph pho-tograph above, at a total cost of approximately ap-proximately .'ro;j0,000. Boise's higlf school today is accredited accred-ited in the leading schools of the country, coun-try, from Smiths and Cornell in the East to Leland-Stauford and the Uni-versiiy Uni-versiiy of California in the Wcsl. There arc -172 pupils enrolled in the high school of this city at present, a1 gain of seven! y five over the enrollment enroll-ment at this period last year. Such up-to-date courses are adequate.-ly adequate.-ly provided as a completo business course of four years, a domestic science course, manual' training course, agricultural agricul-tural course and a biological course. in tho Central high school building is a commodious auditorium, with a seating capacity of S00. The high school has a band of thirty-two pieces, an orchestra of thirty pieces, a girls' glee club of twenty voices and a boys' glee club of twelve voices. A new adjunct (o (he faculf- pf the high school added this year is the physical director. This member gives his entire time to the physical caro and training of the high school students. He presides in the basement of the new east wing building, where an up-to-date gymnasium has been provided, equipped at a total cost of $1000. Tu size, this room is GOxSO feet and the floor space is f0xG0 feet. Tho spaco of her than floor is used for seating purposes and has a capacity for 000 people. The apparatus consists of dumb bells, Indian In-dian clubs, wands, horses, bucks, parallel par-allel bars, horizontal bars, flying rings, traveling rings, stall bars, wresl ling machine, ma-chine, wrist roll, chest weights, chest bars, spring boards, jump standards, ladders, climbing ropes and poles and giant, si rides. This floor is used for a basketball court. The coiling is seventeen seven-teen feet in height. The high school sporfs are continuous throughout the school year. From the beginning of the school term until Thanksgiving football is the sport. This is immediately followed 1)3 basketball, both boys and girls having teams, and tho season ends wifh the winter. Then folIowK baseball and track teams, which operate to tho end of the term. Each participant in these sports is specially examined and trained in exercise and muscular development by tho plrvsj'cal director, George T). Combal, TJniversily of Pennsylvania, who, in addition to his scientific directorship of all the high school, has personal supervision of lho basketball and tho track foams. The school baseball is supervised by O. ('. Schorer. University of "Wisconsin. The football squad is coached by George Eyre, University of Oregon. "To cither side of the galleries of this model gymnasium are stairways leading to dressing rooms, equipped with lock- ers :ind shower foal lis for lho convenience conve-nience of tho participants or tho pupils pu-pils following exercise or contests. n m There is no question of the relevancy rele-vancy of this physical director adjunct to the well regulated High school curriculum. curric-ulum. The harmonious development of the physical student is his scientific function. I i y tho application of his skill, injury in these sports many of them hazardous is reduced to the 'minimum. 'min-imum. A nrnetical illustration is at hand. At the State Fniv Ihe Boise High school met the Payette High school on a now ground, rough nnd grassy, in the center cen-ter of the racing course in front of tho grand stand. Prior to the game tho, physical director di-rector called the boys up one hy one and with surgeons "tape, bound t lie ankles and knees of one after .'mother of the squad. Tho Payette boys won 1 ; ' ; .t 1 . BOISE'S MODEL HIGH SCHOOL. the game, but two of them were badly injured and three were compelled to retire during ihe course of tho game, while the Jloiso team escaped injury. This Boise team lias completed itS season sea-son without the loss of a second's time on accounf of injury; and this remarkable remark-able Tecord is credited to the skill and care given the team by the physical director. di-rector. a One more foot ball season is ended. Thanksgiving is an appropriate day on which to end t his sport this year for Idaho, for thore have been no fata lilies. There are no new graves in our cemeteries ceme-teries I his year and no vacant chairs at the family fireside chargeable to this "manly sport." Every state institution in Tdaho has a football team. The University squad played here on Thanksgiving day. The academy team of Pocatcllo played on its home grounds today. Almost cverv High school in Idaho has a football foam which has, during the past sixty six-ty days, contested under the rules of lho game, with a neighboring High school. But there are today many young men in these college and High school teams who have suffered broken limbs, broken ribs, sprained ligaments, black oyes. bruised shins and dislocations; and there are "many anxious fathers and loving lov-ing mothers who loday breathe a sigh of parental relief thai, their cherished son has again escaped cither injury for life, or fatality. Over at Pocatcllo a few days ago, Ihe Albion Normal school and tho Pocatcllo academy met for their final strngglo on the gridiron. On the train accompanying accompany-ing the visiting team was an anxious father who stated that he accompanied accompan-ied this team because, of what he termed, a righteous fear that his son was to bo singled out for injury in tomorrow's to-morrow's game. The following eveninc. after the game. 11m writer met him again and inquired how his son fared and he re-plied re-plied r "AH right this time, but up in yonder hotel, under the care of a physician and a nurse, lies tho star of our team, bruised and suffering, and we I car for his recovery." That nighf the anxious normal school boys. Ins team associates, sat about the hotel ofTice and waited with sincere anxiety for news from the sick room as to the extent of the injuries and the young man s chances for reeoverv. Over at. his home near Jiurlev his beloved parents were telephoning constantly for lie latest news from the doctor' and the attendant, nnd a week later ho was removed to his home on a stretcher. Plie academy boys won tho game, but if the ,ioy of their victory was not overbalanced by fho sorrow for this injured in-jured one a valuable lesson in the moral ite ot these participant in this Cfinau-ly Cfinau-ly sport" -was lost. This was a regularly schoduled game, under tho management of an organization organiza-tion of southern Idaho high schools, tiio normal school of Albion and tho academy acad-emy of Pocatello belonging to tho association. asso-ciation. There was no protest filed, hence wo assume that the gamo was played in entire conformity to the rules of football. This being fho case, no charge of brutality can bo laid at the door of the academy team. Thev iniured Ihe normal school participant in the ob-scrvanco ob-scrvanco of the rules governing the game. Blame for his ininries, therefore, there-fore, attach to the association who countennnce lho sport and J'oster its onthusiasm. This association consists of fho faculties of fho various schools of southern Idaho and in their arrangements ar-rangements they have the co-operafion of the boards of trustees of tho various institutions of learning of southern Idaho, public and state schools. The parent has little chance- against, this agency. Tho boy must go to school. Jlo must meet and mingle with and become a part, of the enthusiasm which goes to niako up school spirit, as it is termed. Tn tho grados he becomes inoculated with tho spirit of his surroundings and tho member" of the football squad at once becomes his idol. JIc learns tho college or high school "yells" nud carries car-ries a ponnant. lie begins in the grades to fako part in a. small way in football and from those boys -who advance in their grades are to be mado tho freshman team of next 3'ear, the sophomoro of tho year following, then lho" junior and tho senior team. The father and mother of the boy are helpless. Tf the boy is in school he must participate or fho discrimination is a- cruel blow to his ambition. II is fellows engage in it, his faculty oversees it and tho board give it their sanction. .School athletics should not be placed under the ban of public approval. But until tho rules of football are so modified modi-fied as In eliminate tho probability of danger, of injury or of death, this sport should be dispensed with. Under existing exist-ing Togulafions the game is not wnrlhy the consideration givon if by those ivho have tho educational, moral and pli3-sical pli3-sical dovolopinent of theso young men of "Idaho in charge. "Manly sports" aro entitled f,o a higher measure than tho standard set by the 1009 game of . football. The game is too hazardous, too brutal, too dangerous to be included in a woll-re"ulated woll-re"ulated educational institution of this advanced age. |