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Show STATE EDUCATOR SPEAKS AT MILFORD HIGH SCHOOL ASSEMBLY Prof. E. A. Jacobson, Dean of Education at the Utah State Agricultural College, spoke before the student body of Milford High School last Friday, climaxing a week-long series ser-ies of special assemblies featuring Education Week. Dean Jacobson's talk proved the high spot of the week, as he tossed responsibility for the future peace of the world in the laps of the teen-agers of today. Pointing out that peace does-rot does-rot merely mean a world free from wars, but must also find the minds of the peoples of the earth free from fear of war, the famed educator said it was not the privilege of todays adults to enjoy a peaceful world. "We won't live that long," Dean Jacobson Ja-cobson said. "It will be up to you children who are training yourselves to take over the running run-ning of the world, to bring about a true peace." Dean Jacobson spoke to the Beaver assembly Friday afternoon, after-noon, before returning to Logan. Other high spots of the week's activities included talks by Principal Prin-cipal McCloy of the Beaver High School and a worth-while discussion discus-sion of the parents' place in education, edu-cation, by Bruce Carden. Both talks are published in this issue of The News, along with papers given at the American Legion and Legion Auxiliary oratorical contest, held Tuesday. Barbara Walker was adjudged winner of the contest, and her paper was published last week. Runner-up was Bert O'Leary, with Larue Atkin taking third place. SUPPORTING ADEQUATE EDUCATION By Bruce Carden If we are going to find out about supporting adequate education edu-cation we first must find out what constitutes adequate education. edu-cation. How much and what kind. The ability to read and write and do simple arithmetic is adequate ade-quate for some, high school for - and still others must college degree. In ad dition to these, there are some fori whom there will never be adequate education. These are the ones who take delight in learning. Once they ivvs. V'gtm to really, learn, the greater will be their desire tc keep on learning. Unfortunately, Unfortunate-ly, the number in this category is far too few. But it is to those few that the world is indebted for all the good that is in it. How much education is adequate ade-quate will vary according to the individual, but we must make certain that each individual is given opportunity to secure education edu-cation to the extent of his ability abil-ity to make use of it. What kind of education is adequate? For every- occupation that is necessary , to the economy of the country, and the world, there must be means whereby people can be taught to efficiently per form those occupations. An adequate educational system will include schools for miners, mechanics, butchers, bakers, railroad workers, sailors, truck drivers, pilots, farmers and ranchers, as well as doctors, lawyers law-yers and teachers. Do you know what occupation will be followed by the biggest percentage of the students here? Housewife. Statistics prove it, and you can't argue with statistics, sta-tistics, any more than you can argue with a housewife. While we do have a substantial substan-tial "Home Economic" education set-up, only a very few schools offer a course on marriage. When you stop to think that one out of every three marriages ends in divorce, you can then realize the necessity of an educational edu-cational system that will include courses designed to show how . marriage can be successful, and happy. Adequate education, then, is a ; system of schools wherein every i uibiert, professional or technical, techni-cal, that is necessary to the economic eco-nomic and cultural life of the ! country, is offered to each indi- vidual to the full extent of his ability to make use of it. How can we support it? We can support it by building , more and better schools, by con-, con-, stantly striving to improve . teaching methods and by a close ; collaboration of parent and ! teacher. And, by educating the general public to the urgency of , the problem. The present school system now appears to be forging ahead. New methods of instruc- tion are being employed, and t this is well. For there should be no reluctance to "latch on' i to any new method or systen that presents a fair chance foi - improvement over the old. Noi . should we hesitate to "let go" o: a mpiua system that ha: proven ineffectual, j The education of the child cannot be completed by schools alone, nor can it be done solely by home instruction. Parent and teacher must both work at the , job. The teacher can do his work better if he knows the kind of parents and home life the pupil has, and the parent must be familiar with the methods meth-ods of the teacher if he is to properly assist. There must be a meeting ground where two of the most important people in the child's life his parent and his teacher can sanely discuss his educational problems, and there must be an attitude of tolerance tol-erance on the part of both when such problems are discussed. To support adequate education educa-tion the standards of the teaching teach-ing profession must be constantly constant-ly bettered, and to do this, it is vitally important that the salaries sal-aries of the teachers be raised, o as to favorably compare with salaries paid in other professions, profes-sions, requiring the same high standards of education and character char-acter that is demanded of the teachers. Now let's look at some statistics: statis-tics: In 1942, the value of school property per pupil in one state vas only $103, in another state the value of school property per pupil was $970. Almost 14 per cent of the draftees m 1943 were found to be illiterate. Now, almost al-most all of these illiterates came from the same section of the country, where only $100 to p200 represents the value of school property per pupil. In the state of Massachusetts, library service is available to die entire population. In another an-other state, 71 per cent of its people are without library service. serv-ice. This is entirely too much divergence, di-vergence, and can probably be 3liminated only thru federal legislation. leg-islation. We have a separate .iepartment for labor, commerce, ;tc. i Why can't -we have a Department De-partment of Education? In 1945, Americans spent one oillion, 306 million dollars on -ace tracks operating under oari-mutuel betting. We spent me billion 200 million dollars on jewelry, and just under seven billion dollars for hard liquor. Yet, a bill to appropriate 100 nillion dollars for cancer re-;earch re-;earch was defeated in the ouse of Representatives in 1946. This means we were not wiling wili-ng to spend one per cent as much to find a cure for cancer, disease that kills an American very three minutes, as we did ;pend for race tracks, jewelry md liquor. Each year hundreds of thous-mds thous-mds of young people are forced o cut short their scholastic eduction edu-ction because they are finan-:ially finan-:ially unable to continue in school. Its true that this makes little difference to a large section sec-tion of this number, for they have already reached the limit of their ability to learn. But with regard to countless others, there is all the difference in che world, for they have the ability to make use of further education which they are unable to secure. And the world is the loser. An adequate education system would preclude such tragedy. So much for the physcial side of education support. The biggest obstacle on the road to adequate education is the indifference of the people in general, an indifference that springs from a lack of knowledge. knowl-edge. It is difficult indeed to secure se-cure adequate education support from an uneducated public. Education is a matter of vital concern to all the people. The better the job is done out of school, the more can be done within. The publis (and by "the public'" I specifically mean the adult population) can be of greater service if it is well informed. in-formed. It must be able to properly digest current event? as reported by newspapers, commentators com-mentators and newsreels. and by word of mouth. It's' a sad fact that there are millions of Americans who avidly avid-ly follow the daily fortunes of "Little Orphan Annie" and "Smilin' Jack," who could not tell you the names of three members mem-bers of the president's cabinet. Ninety-five million Americans . go to the movies each week, i yet, I think it safe to say, not lone in a thousand could identify Robert Oppenheimer or Enrici i Fermi. The tremendous " jvances recently made in trans-; trans-; portation, communications, anc I i other sciences have gone unnot-' unnot-' ed by a vast majority of the ! people. . j The 55 million copies of duii, magazines sold each month ii "jthis country are not bought hv f children; the 40 million mi. I Continued on Page Fiv ) HERE'S MORE ABOUT EDUCATION WEEK (Continued from Page One) books are not all bought by, nor for, the children; it was not the children who were responsible for once having a novelist and social reformer arrested for reading aloud in public the Declaration Dec-laration of Independence, and it was not a child that ecently referred re-ferred to perhaps the most conservative con-servative senator in the country as being a communist. In less than half a century the world has twice witnessed the age-old age-old cycle of war and peace with . its appendages, boom and bust, a cycle that is both stupid and insane. Now mankind appears to be on the verge of discoveries that will at last enable us to commit "terrestial suicide." Not only are we on the verge of such discoveries, but we are shouting, in a voice that can be plainly heard, that we intend to use them. If the present adult population of the world can manage to preserve pre-serve the "status quo" for another an-other 12 or 15 years, and, in the meantime, strive with all resources re-sources to educate the next gen-eration gen-eration thoroughly, and truth- fully, then it will have done a magnificent job. Filled, as they are, with hatred, contempt and intolerance there can be little hope that the present adult population pop-ulation of the world can establish estab-lish a permanent, or even a long-lasting peace. The hope of mankind lies within the minds of today's children. chil-dren. What we do wuh those minds will greatly determine how long our civilization will survive. Education is the only means whereby man is taught to control con-trol and subdue his basic, primitive primi-tive emotions, when these emotions emo-tions become a threat to the community, or to himself. Such education, unfortunately, cannot can-not be legislated. Nor can the solution of mankind's problem be legislated, any more than i' can be found in conferences of individuals who neither respect nor tolerate each other's viewpoints. view-points. The solution of mankind's problem will be discovered only through the means of education Not the sort of education that merely teaches an individual to rise above the "masses" or "common "com-mon herd," but the sort that teaches an individual to bring the "common herd" up with him, insofar as he is able. I have tried to establish these points: 1. An adequate education consists of a school system that will enable each person to secure se-cure all education he is able to use to make the world a better plsoe in which to live. 2. We do not have such a system at the present. 3. New and better schools must be built. 4. The standards of - t h e teaching profession must be constantly con-stantly bettered. 5. There should be a closer collaboration of teacher and parent. 6. A system must be established estab-lished that will uniformly distribute dis-tribute the education funds thru-out thru-out the country. 7. The public must be educated edu-cated to understand the rapid changes that are now taking place thruout the world . The real question is not "CAN we support adequate education; it is "HOW are we going to do it?" |
