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Show JOHN M, MILLS HAS ENDORSEMENT OF MEETING The educational poiieies of Superintendent Super-intendent -lohn M. Mills ct the cltj schools were endorsed last night by many parents and teachers of the City, in ihe following resolution: ' We, the parent-teac hers assocl.i-lioiib assocl.i-lioiib of Ogden City, in joint assem- blj hereby endorse the educational policies of Superintendent John M. j Mills.'1 The resolution was presented bj D, i Thurman at the mass meeting oi Hie associations held at the Taber hacle lasi nlcht and wnn passed with bill two dissenting votes The building build-ing was three-fourths filled with people peo-ple and tin program w,i? carried i uiiiier the direction nf Judge .T. A. Howell, as chairman There wrro many school chlldien in Hie audience ' A girl's chorus from the Lewis junior high school rendered several song! under the direction of Mrs. Vgnes Warner, in a highly commend-able commend-able manner Hester an Dyke read B paper on The Newspaper and the Public SchOOl.' ?nd Herman Meiss tier read one on 'Vocational English at the Central School " Both arc junior high school students and their i fforts were heartily applauded in addition to these, demonstration: In reaiiinc ixere given by two third-grade slrls chosen from the Madisdn snd Lorin Fair schools They were given matter entirely new to them, selected select-ed from The Craftsman," and read it In a manner that both surprised and pleased the audience. Mr. Mills commented on these demonstrations as golnc to show that the students were well taught In book worlc although al-though having onlj one-half day's work In school, as both have been in school since starting under the half- day plan Judge HowHi made the first address, ad-dress, explaining the purpose of the meeting as a preface to the address of Superintendent Mills He spoke of the agitation which bad been going on in the city for some months past regarding the schools and stated that the primary-cause primary-cause of it whs that the superintendent superintend-ent was endeavorlnc to Improve them hy Introducing up-to-date educational methods ami by so dome had stirred up believers in the old methods against him Continuing he endorsed the industrial plan of education now being followed In the schools and urged his hearers to visit the schools and Investigate the conditions at first band. Superintendent Mills was the only Other speaker and his address war as to Hows: Mills' Address. The school made its app arance In ancient times and was held In grow -and temples and houses of worship Men of the select few attended and studied subjects which thev needed in the community lif. . In mediaeval times they were still held in groves und ecclesiastical houses and were still for the select few of the male In this period, Creek. Iatln und mathematics became the snat triumvirate tri-umvirate of studies in college eduction, educ-tion, because all the literature, philosophy phil-osophy and earning of the world had been written In these languages by ! the adv anced people of Greece and 1 Home, and to learn these languages was n necessity in acquiring of the hest thOUglf Of the world The r banians had brought mathematics into in-to Europe and that formed the third subject "Since these were the required subjects sub-jects in college, the lower school, whose duty it was lo prepare for ihcbc subjects, made its curriculum a preparation This was not bad When it i- ulderstood that the schools were not for Ihe masses The ancient an-cient form has been largely preserved pre-served In modern times even though the sehool is now intended for the masses. Men have forgotten, in perfecting per-fecting the school machine that there an bright children, dull children, book-minded children and hand-minded children The school machine serves well the book-minded rhild (he minority hut many Ml through to graduation totally unfit for useful service. We misstate the fact when we ay that they are educated edu-cated It is desecration of a sacred institution to tell the facts about the traditional schooi We have not learned to think that everything we learn from the cradle to Ihe grave is a part of education "We could easily persuade our selves; thai swimming Is a part of education if we should wHte a text- book on BWimming and lake a c lass I of students through the book, cive! ihem an examination and diplomas. Tf (hey do the book-work and pas-well pas-well in their subject, we would regard i hem as good student'., but some Uinri adviser trom the real world should be near-by to rautlon those students, when tlrey leave the school room, not to go Into deep water. The student would be i hotter swimmer If he got Into real water and learned the diffl rulties and how to overcome them Many a parent sends the chi'd through the book work, relieving him from all care and responsibility. He tells him that he Is goinc to leave1 him unbandicapped that he may jjet an education, and then be will be; well prepared to start his liTe work What a mistaken parent. He gives the bov the book work and then: pushes him out Into the ocean of life and he may either sink or swim He will surely sink unless he has learned omethlnc sometime when his father was not looking Fortunately for boys and girls, most of what they Icam is learned outside of school. "Education is the acquisition of power; not an accumulation of facts. The one who is best educated it one who is best fitted for life, and it often happens that a man js best educated ed-ucated wbo has never been in school, and that a man who has been through collece Is most unfitted for life. When the time comes that anyone may prop- r: . fit himself In the schoolroom for lile duties, our schools will serve their best purpose The kitten In its p'ay imitates the more serious work of the -rown animal This helps to fit it for its later work There can be no valid reason given why the training of children should be entirely entire-ly unlike their later dUtltS. The school should be industrial, cultural, and social, and should provide na n ing along all these lines. "We learn to do by doing." The B hool should provide as nearly as possible the laboratories lab-oratories for training in the various lines that may be taken up later In life, it i- especially difficult to see v hy the yi'houl plant should open for operation at f o'cio k in ih morning md (lose at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. after-noon. In most places 'here is )0 reason except an ancient tradition, why It should not run on Saturday and In the summer School should be made as much like real life s po.i-bie po.i-bie bince Its purpose- is to prepare for life Our education is continuous. It begins in the cradle and ends in the grave, and is made up of work, play and study. Too often one or two of these sides may be overlooked or eliminated from our training, giving us at best an imperfet preparation The man or woman who doe. not know how to work is handicapped through life even though a legacy might have been left him through the death of a wealthy ancestor. One who does not know how to play beeomes old while yet young and misses the pleasures Of his own life and fails to know those of the live of others. The Bad Boy. "In every school there should be line- of preparation for the hand minded as wr a? the hooU minded hoy. In our bookish schools the boy who does not fit heroines nervous and irritable His very bejnq revolts agaillBi what l8 to him meaningless : abstractions. This type of boy is nx-tremel) nx-tremel) energetic, and must express I himself in some manner that giyes to himself tat Isfartion. The ordinary school does not provide the opportunity, opportu-nity, exerpt through truancy and worse misbehavior Truant officer and probation officers are put on his track. They hound him about. Much effort and energy are put forth to make him fit the school. Half the effort to make the school fit him might sohe the problem He is called ' a bad bov. A bad boy is simply a misfit. Bad boya are often the best boys In the community: They revolt against thc BO-called cultural educa-I educa-I Hon. Their teachers have failed to comprehend them. Sometimes the nc ' Hons of these boys are such that they are expelled from school and then they surprise the- community and i shame those who conduct the schools b going our and making a success of life Their education begins after thev loavc school. They are for the first time unfettrred and allowed to grow. This alone condemns tho school machine. There is no one thing in all the experience of youth that does more to develop men and women of common com-mon sense than work. The weakest point In our American school system I is that there Is little provision for J training boys and girls to be useful. La little work scattered along in all ! ihe years oT the students life Win 1 make him more reliable, his reason more logical. his judgment more sound, his aspirations more lofty, and his ambitions more enduring. The tendency of physical work Is to promote pro-mote and sustain the mental and physical phy-sical organization in an uninterrupted action of health until it shall be brok en UP and dissolved in death. Man Is kept In life bv work, and dies because Ik will not or cannot work. Every boy should know how to make a living liv-ing when he leaves school, and every ev-ery zirl how to make and keep ;i pleasant home W?nts thc Machine Smashed. "The schools Have bulb up a mag-nun mag-nun c-iit machine and ii works so per feetly that the only thing necessarv for the principal to do is to sit in his office and push the button, and in a sort of loek-slep the pupils march 3n, the i'Hght and thc dull, the book minded and the hand-minded alike. Tbe are promoted at regular times during their eohool da; s. They work nn the studies of the tradi'ional school and when they leavp high BOhool, many of them are unfitted for serving humanity. Many boys and girls do not bepin their education un til the leave school. It is a well known tai that many boys o through high school ;ind college with only one lesson thoroughly learned and that is to try to cet along without with-out work. The dignity of work should, bo upheld All work Is education. The entire city should be considered the school, with all thc shops, stores. pJtr aens, etc., as a part of the plant, .oi any good thing that is learned in one place should be as valuable as any good school that is learned in an other The school machine should bf broken and a class of students grad uated that will know how to earn a living or keep a good home. Tba' school or home that deprives a ho; or girl of learning how to work arid be useful robs the community of a good citizen and bequeathes a indj-ance. indj-ance. The Half-day Session Plan. A year ao a proposal war- vkkCs (Con'inucd on Page 8.) JOHN M. MILLS HAS ENDORSEMENT OF MEETING (Continued from Pago Foun In Ogden for vitalizing the schools by reorganizing them jn an industrial indus-trial plan, having a half day 01' academic aca-demic and a half day of industrial, social and physical work, and in certain cer-tain cases boys and girls were to be excused from the industrial half day of the school to take their industrial work In some of the approved industries indus-tries of our city on the co-operative plan on the theory that the real, practical work of life should be an essential part of our educational syatem; sya-tem; provided that it shall be thoroughly thor-oughly supervised and that the Intellectual, In-tellectual, physical and social progress prog-ress of the student shall not in any way be hampered Some kinds oi work have little or no educational value Other kinds are injurious to body, mind and morals. The child should be protected by the school from entering such employments. "It was also thought that the educational edu-cational value of earning and having money was an important thing in the training of young people. This plan was intended to make full use of tho school plant all the time day and evening the year around. The proper mingling of work, play and study can lengthen the school day without injury to any child, while under the present syatem the present day is too long. Cramming the child with a mass of unrelated, disconnected, disconnect-ed, disassociated, meaningless, abstract ab-stract formalities ls making a generation genera-tion of mental dyspeptics unfitted for usefulness. The benefits of longer supervision in related activities are numerous The rights of every individual in-dividual child should be safeguarded, and in some cases it is known that the home can provide better training than the school for a part of the time each day Great care should be taken by the school officers, however, that careless and grasping parents should not exploit their children for mere financial gain. Junior and senior high school boys and girls may be directed by the home, with great profit, in housekeeping, dairying, cabinet cab-inet making, gardening and many-other many-other occupations, as well as in private pri-vate lessons in art. music, languages elocution, etc. The daily program should be such that the book-minded or the hand-minded child can be cared for and his choice under guidance should be encouraged. Many boys and girls, too, could be brought back to school for the academic half day who are compelled to leave school' continuing the Industrial half day away from the school plant, if their necessities demand their full time outside, their academic training could be obtained in the evening school, provided in the social center "Every school building if necessary should be kept open all the day and evening. Woa. play and study-should study-should be the program of each session ses-sion Running a school system should receive as much business ense as any other big business. Any other business, after having built a large expensive plant would want to use that plant to its capacity. School buildings are generally used five and a half hours a day, five days In a week, nine months in the year nd atand idle the other half of the time Why this appalling loss? The Ogdeu plan calls for the full use of the plants all the time, each building containing con-taining full facilities for all lines of deveopment be they manual training, train-ing, sewing, cockling, swimming, bowling, handball, gymnasium work, leading, lectures, music, dancing, dramatics, dra-matics, or any other training wanted by both young and old of both sexps "The Lewis Junior high school In Ogden Is a school that will fit any kind of an individual This school has been made to fit the child while children are generally made to fit the school For instance, school openB at 8 30 in the morning and runs until 4:30 In the afternoon with a half day of academic and a half day of industrial, physical and social work. Any boy or girl may be excused ex-cused from any part of the Industrial half day from a half hour to a half day without missing any of his academic aca-demic work and without retarding his school progress He will graduate with the other bojfM and girls in the same time and we believe, with greater strength. Our observations have taught us that the boy or girl who works his way is generally stronger in his academic subjects. One mother who has a large family fam-ily needs the services of her daughter daugh-ter from 10 o'clock to 12 o'clock to aid in the preparation of the noonday noon-day meal. This girl is excused from that period of the day without detriment detri-ment to her studies So a child may be excused for a short time In the middle of the day to perform some real service in the practical work of life without hampering him This Lewis school was organized into the longer day with the half-day sessions with a having of five teachers so it is considerably cheaper It should be the aim of the school people to get the maximum efficiency with the minimum min-imum cost. The Night School. "It is well known by those of us who have given our attention to the matter, that there are more young people of high school age and over out of school than there are in it These are made up for the most part of young men and women who have discontinued school to make a living or because they have had no Interest in the subjects offered in high school. These generally are some of our most progressive young people, and are just as much entitled to an education as those whose fathers and mothers are able to keep them in school. A high school education is the heritage of every boy and girl in the state and neither law nor common sense has ever prescribed a certain few hours during the day as the only time when education can be received. We have accustomed ourselves to thinking that school should begin at 9 o'clock and close at 3 30, and what is learned from books between those hours is i education. The broader view savs that anything that a person mav learn nny where and at any time is education educa-tion This policy led up to open the school at 8 30 in the morning and keep it open until 10 o'clock at night continuous performance' The ear neatness and enthusiasm manifested by the hundreds of students attending attend-ing in the evening demonstrates fully che wisdom of this plan. School should fit for life. School shouln D Itself real life. "This whole plan leads directly to 5e P,nt ,tfat In the public schools there should be a supervisor of voca Uonal guidance and a systematic I study should be made of the cott munity and its population, buslnesi interest and schools It should be th duty of the one In charprr of vq-tional vq-tional guidance to take charts of these investigations and he Ujo cli.. at adviser of the youth in trying to help each to find himself by directing his thoughts to the necessity of prewiring prewir-ing for' life by doing work that will make that preparation, both In the schoot and out of It. Another useful part of his duty would be to interest himself in the prevention of nnv tend' ency towards child labor. Teachlnj children to work is a credit to auj community A system of child labo: Is a disgrace to the state." |