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Show POVERTY SHOULD NOT BE A BAR TO AN EDUCATION IN OGDEN Hundreds of Children Driven From the Schools Before They Have Received the Fundamentals Like the Retreat of Napoleon's Army From Moscow, the Children Are Picked Off by Regiments What the School Records Show Money Made the Supreme Goal. Editor Standard. In his recent statement in your paper, Superintend- ent Mills, discussing the proposed I half-day school, makos the admission j that the system has been in vogue for some time in the Ogden public j schools and adds the statement that I 'more than a hundred boys and girls i have been excused during the pat year." Is Mr Mills quite frank in that statement? Does that expression "more than a hundred" tell the whole story? I al60 note In Mr. M1116' comments and explanations, the idea that the wishes of the parents are to be consulted con-sulted In this matter of deciding whether the child shall labor half the day or not But over against that idea 1 place the thoifght so aptly expressed by Mrs. Milliard, that the child should be protected "from the need of the parent and the greed of the employer employ-er " Thai Is the whole story To circumvent cir-cumvent "the need of the parent and the greed of the employer " our legls lature has passed compulsory education educa-tion laws and provided for juvenile courts and truancy officers To overcome this "need of the parent and greed of the employer laws have been enacted to punish people who "contribute to the delinquency delin-quency of a minor " Children under 16 are not to be employed Then in order to help the parents and still more the state has provided provid-ed that the school books and sup-! sup-! plies shall be furnished by the public. pub-lic. Then to help out still more the state levies a school tax, the proceeds c.f which It divides out among the school districts, according to enrol ment Then back of the state of Utah comes the United States with a gift of one or two millions for school lands, given for no other reason than I that Uncle Samuel wants every Utah boy and girl to have a common school education Next the legislature has enacted certain laws against child labor Tou I php the human animal is the only one that is willing or tries to make its Children work for or support It The state has even made provision for the support of high schools, not only in cities, but in counties. Near ly every county in the state, except ing Weber county, has a county high school So far, and for some reason, no county high school has been provided pro-vided for the boys and girls of Weber We-ber county, who lie outaide of Ogden Og-den City They must hunt, up other schools and pay for their tuition But how about the "more than a hundred boys and girls who have been excused" in order that they may work? Some months ago you published ex cerpts from a bulletin issued by some department of the government, which gave the results of an investigation in to labor conditions at Worcester, Mas sac hu6etts. It appears that agents of the government gov-ernment had made a canvass of the mills, factorios and department stores of Worcester, and had asked all of the young glrU of school age why they were working instead of attend ing the public schools and the high school, and In a large majority of cases, the girls had replied that they "would rather work than go to school." It seems a little queer that the government should have rushed out this report just at a time when the legislature! of half a dozen states I were investigating the hearing that low wages of girls ha6 upon public morality, mo-rality, but that is probably one or the advantages of having a "department "depart-ment of labor." The value of such reports is very questionable For instance, suppose that Ogden had been selected by the government as the subject of this special investigation instead of Worcester. Wor-cester. Suppose a government agent wJ; to walk Into the canning factories, cundy factories, overall factories, laun dries, department stores, and offices in Ogden and were to ask each one of the hundreds of girls of high school age this question, "Why are you not in school where you belong instead or working here?" What would the girl reply? Would she burst into tears and confide con-fide to thiB total stranger the fact that her parents were not able to keep her in school any longer and dress her as stylishly as the other students, and that on the other hand they really needed the money she could add to the family purse? Or would she toss her head defiantly defi-antly and inform the inquisitive gentleman gen-tleman that she worked because she chose to and that she did not really care anything for school, but would rather work nine hours a day In a store or factory or shop than to be Bhut up Fix hours a day In a pokey old high school, where there Is never anything going on? The report was not made on Og den, however, so I have taken up the ' facts, as well as I could, regarding this city. The first big fact is that the factories, fac-tories, laundries, shops, offices, Btores and other Industries of this city do employ hundreds of girls and boys of high school age and many who are! under the age when they are required by law to attend the public schools. The second fact Is that the number of boys and girls so employed Is on the increase, and has greatly in creased In the last three years In other words, our progress as a manufacturing and industrial center is largely along those lines employing this class of labor. That is to say, we are running our mores factories and shops in com petition with our schools. And the school statistics indicato this verv strongly Below will be found a table compiled from the, annual an-nual report of the Ogden schools, showing the number of students In the several grades early in June, 1913. tirade. Boys Girls Total Beginners 251 280 511 First . 444 418 ICS Second 384 374 758 Third 349 ?.4J 91 Fourth 369 341 710 Fifth 349 311 060 Sixth 319 30S 624 Seventh 261 2S0 541 Eighth 210 227 437 Totals . 2,;:16 2,858 5.79 It will be noted in the above table iliut between the 6th and 7th graded, 8?, pupils drop out, and that between the 7th and 8th grades there is a loss ', of 104. Note also that the 862 boys and girls who started In the 1st grade have In S years, or 8 grades, been reduced to 437. a loss of 425. Very unhealthy this going to school! Let us examine next a table showing show-ing the enrollment by months, call ling September, 1912, the first month , Month. Boys. Girls , Pirtt 2.779 2,779 Second 2 772 2,811 Third 2.816 2,806 Fourth 2.811 2.847 , Fifth 3 067 2.989 I Sixth 2,862 8,072 Seventh 2,787 2.781 Eighth 2,659 2,717 I Ninth 2.594 2,670 The average of the above, omit ting the tractions, Is: Boys, 2.72S, and girls 2,774, or a total of 5,502. Note the drop from 3,067 boys in the fifth month, January, to 2,594 boys in the ninth month, Ma, a dlf fcrence of 475. Note also the drop from 3,072 girls In the sixth month, to 2,675 girls In the ninth month, a difference of 397. Is this a tniancj , or a child labor problem, or both? And note also that there are nearly 100 fe er girla enrolled at the end of the year than at the beginning, and nearly 200 fewer boys That i6 cii-siderabh cii-siderabh more than a hundred. With all our juvenile courts, proba tlon officers, and truant officers, how can these discrepancies fail to be noted and investigated? Then let us consider the attendance at the high school for the yast year Year, Bovs. Girls Total First .103 207 310 First 103 207 310 Second . 58 67 125 Third 46 71 117 Fourth .23 55 78 280 400 630 The mo9t noticeable thing about the above table ib that in the freshman year there are twice a6 many girls as boys, and in the senior year the ratio is considerably increased. The following shows the actual number graduating laBt year (1913) from the Ogden City schools, that is. those who have completed the course of eight grades In the common schools and those who finished the four-year course in the high school: Bovs. Girls Total Grades 105 136 241 High 23 65 78 It seems fair to suppose that the number enrolled last year In the first grade of the common schools, 862 was a good average for recent years. If so, then we can estimate from the above tables that of each 100 boys and girls who start into the first grade only 28 ever graduate from the eighth grade ever really get a COM MON SCHOOL EDUCATION. And we can further figure that of the same 100 boys and girls in the first grade only nine ever graduate from the high school. Of course, it can be said of the high school diploma, that, like break fast at the hotel. It is there for you whether It is called for or not, but the fact remains that of every LOO Ogden boys and girls, only nine attain at-tain to a high school diploma. Won der what Uncle Sam vould say to that? And we can further deduce from the above tables that of the total school population of Ogden City, less than 20 per cent, ever see the inside of the high school, and the government govern-ment would have us understand that the other 80 per rent "would rather work than go to school " Did Uncle Un-cle 8am donate his 2,000.000,000 acres for such results as the above? What an Impressive sight It would j hat e been If, at the last commence-merit commence-merit there had been grouped in thei rear of the stage, as a background fori the 78 graduates, all these survivors i of the hundreds of boys and girls who' started with them in the first grade. , 12 years ago, and who "are working' because they would rather work than go to school " Talk about Napoleon's retreat from I Moscow in the dead of winter with the Cossacks hovering on the flanks' of the Grand Army and picking oft the stragglers by the regiment! The march of the army of school children Is jut as disastrous, just as full of tragedy. Poor little tykes! How gallantly, and with what light hearts, the first graders start in, each year, 862 strong, a little army, beginning its eight-year march toward the goal a common school education. The taxpayers have provided for them' buildings, equipment, teachers books' --but as they march along, their rank dwindle from year to year until only 28 per cent Is in the finish. Some die and others move away, but their places are filled by the chil dren of families moving to Ogden from other places, for this Is a grow Ing city. So we must seek another explanation. Here it is The agents of eommer clalism. the recruiting sergeants of the Industries, follow in the wake of the little army, like the guerrillas of real warfare, picking out the strong est and brightest and calling always "Here, little boy little girl, here is money See it glitter. Wouldn't you like to have lots of money and nice clothes and good times' Then come and work In my factory my shop my store my office. The high ; school and diplomas are not for you Earn money money money ' " And It seems to be a satisfactory explanation, all around that they "would rather work than attend school " The first grades are comparatively safe from the lure of money, and the deceitfuluoss of riches, but as j soon as they get old enough to sell a newspaper, or black a pair of shoes. I or peddle shoestrings, or carry tele-1 grams, or deliver groceries, or peel tomatoes, or thin beets, or dip ehoeo lntes or measure off ribbons, or weigh out sugar, or serve Ice cream, or work button holes, or run errands, : or pound a typewriter or sell calico, j or run up a straight seam on a sew Ing machine, or paBto labels on bottles bot-tles or wrap up butter packages, or carry a newspaper route, or pit aprl-COtS, aprl-COtS, or strip tobacco leaves, or do an other work, they begin to drop out of the ranks, so that, at the end only 9 out of 100 come forward to receive re-ceive their high school diplomas. Am I attacking the public schools those people who have been attack- j Ing the schools In the one most effective ef-fective way, namely by stealing the pupils. It has been an American tradition that still persists in 6ome old-fash j loned localities, that every boy and girl has a right to a 'common school education " But in Ogden only 28 of each 100 pupils actually receive such an education and only 9 In 100 ever get their hands on a high school diploma di-ploma I remember when a boy attending a public meeting where a certain Iowa farmer was offered the nomina tlon for Justice of the peace in his township. He arose, very red-faced and said "I can't accept this nomination. I haven't got no education. When I was a boy my parents were too poor to send me to school I never had more than six months' schooling in my life 1 can hardly write my name " He would have given his best 40 teres to he "township squire." but he Lad "no education " He had been handicapped all his life by the pov-erty pov-erty of his parents- Since then I have seen the aboe episode repeated scores of times in lodges, in churches, clubs, in poll-1 tics, and in social affairs. The cry Is heard constantly: "I have no education. edu-cation. I can't do this thing you ask me to do My parents were poor and I had no chance for a schooling " They could work; they could make money, they could earn their living, all right, but they could not take their proper part in the world's work because they "had no education.' But now we are to take a new task In the years to come a business man will be nailing up a packing case He will miss the nail and hit his thumb He will throw down the hammer and lament bitterly as be sucks his thumb: "You see," he will explain, "T never had any chance for an education. My parents were rich arirl they kept mft in school studying books until I had finished the eighth grade. Thus I 1 was thrown out into the cruel and unsympathetic world at the advanced I ago of sixteen without having mastered mas-tered a trade After that, it was too late for me to learn how to work " Then he will pick up the hammer and take another chance at the nail It will all be very sad. Wherefore, I am a Socialist and object to having tho dollar mark put up over the door of the Ogden schools. Take it away! I deny that the object of a common com-mon school education should be to equip the pupil to earn money On the athletic field the pupil Is constantly con-stantly coached to "play the game for the sake of the game." He should study spelling so that he can spell correctly, not that he may moke money out of it. He should study grammar so that he may speak and read and write English correctly, and not for the money there may be ! In it He should know the geography and i history of his country so that he maybe may-be a better citizen and not for the sake of thf profit he may one day make out of it. The time to study is In childhood. After that there is plenty of time for work. What a pupil does not learn before leaving school Is hard to attain later on Those people who are trying to patch up the gaps In thoir common school education by means of correspondence corre-spondence courses and studies In night schools and business colleges will agree with me that the best time to study is in childhood And by the way. if only 28 out of 100 Ogden boys and girls get a common com-mon school education at the present time, was that what Uncle Sam Intended In-tended when he donated that 2,000,000 acres 18 years ago? Didn't he wnnt the other 72 boys and girls to have just as good an ed ucation as the 28? And would it not be a good thing to send out n tracer and find out where the are ond what they are doing? And is it not straining the limit. when 72 of each 100 have been lost 1 by the wayside to send the poor lit-tie lit-tie band of survivors out to hard labor half the time'.' Cannot capitalism, which does not hesitAte to rob either the cradle or 1 the grave excuse the remaining tb' until they are over 16 years old? And would it not be more to the point to hunt up that other 72 and jl have them come back to school where they belong? j (Signed) O. A. KENNEDY. H |