OCR Text |
Show JUDGE GULL ON HALF-DAY SCHOOL Editor Standard The statement presented by Prof J, M Mills to the city b..ard of education and published in the papers is a very important pn sentatlon of ideas and Is at tho same time a strong argument In sup port of the IdeaR and suggostlons. If is pood to s the profeasor try ing to get out of ruts and make prog regfi in school work T"o many men hold positions and merely follow the lead of predecessors and draw pay. The public schools of all states have been attacked and sneeringly criticised of late for being huge, expensive ex-pensive and inefficient machines, grinding up the people's money and the children's health with little gain to anybody. Many observing and thinking people long ago saw thnt erecting fine buildings and employing employ-ing hundreds of persons to herd thousands thou-sands of children did not really make schools and did not. In fact, educate but very few. Surely there was good reason to believe that children In considerable numbers would become educated from the study done while congregated in school buildings. Two or three hours' confinement each da Including Saturday, n charge of competent com-petent instructors for the purpose of recitation and receiving instructions on all points not well understood by the student would mean vastly more to the striving student and to the un-lnstructed un-lnstructed or indifferent boy or girl than the old way of going the rounds each day with certain fixed rules and forms, and nobodv either giving or receiving much actual bene ficial Instruction. Professor Mills reasons, doubtless, that only boys and girls who do most of their real headwork of the kind called "studying books," away from ihe school building over become edu cated to an extent worth mentioning. And, of course, neither boy or girl will carefully and diligently study, eagerly ea-gerly investigate a subject in any book treating upon any subject, ;n which he or she Is not interested. I think that the purpose of Professor Profes-sor Mills is in the main to put each child at the kind of study the child should take up 6erlouslv and then see that the child getj all the help It needs in school after he or she has labored with tho problems away from school. Some will say that children will not study away from school. That is a mistake. They must bo encouraged encour-aged and compelled to do so The point that children ought to I hav employment for money earning while not in school Is so unimportant as to be Immaterial and almost ir relevant. It la more Important that I they go home, or go off to a vacant school roo-m, or other quiet place and study study, dig into the book I problem or go to somo kind of normal nor-mal school exercises. Tho greatest thing that could hap-j hap-j pen to the social, life of this dav 0f amusement-hunting and job-hunting would be to get children Interested In homo study and get parents to understand that they must give chll-dren chll-dren home conditions conducive to study, and stay at home with children chil-dren In the evening and assist, or, at least, encourage them. (Signed) VOLNEY C GUNNELL |