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Show Local Citizens Asked To Comment on Educational System In harmony with the spirit and philosophy of "National Education Educa-tion Week," November 9 to 14, the Review cooperates with the Pleasant Grove PTA Council in publishing three additional articles ar-ticles on the general subject of "Education." The articles made available to our readers this week are by a teacher, a parent and a high school student. Appeal for Cooperation by Carol P. Jaynes Parents, were you there when "Back to School" invited you to take your child's place in the school room; to hear the plans, objectives and expected outcomes; out-comes; to become better acquainted ac-quainted with his teachers and note the environment where your child spends 900 hours each year? If you were, you made the tie-between tie-between the home and school stronger. In unity there is strength. If you weren't you were missed very much. The schools are your schools, visit them often, of-ten, share your ideas, interests, suggestions. We welcome them. There has never been a time when greater interest, time, money mon-ey and attention has been focused fo-cused on education. Why this great awakening? We realize all too keenly that the youth of our schools today will be the leaders of our gTeat nation tomorrow. The school must provide an atmosphere at-mosphere conducive to learning, where the child can find joy in achieving tnd succeeding. It must develop his ability to solve his problems, to help him to place proper values on things, to develop de-velop an eagerness to learn, and to work to his capacity to perform per-form on his own best levels. Parents, we welcome your criticism. It makes us work, "keeps us from relaxing too comfortably com-fortably on our laurels." Criticism has stirred up public interest in our schools. The critics must know the facts, and remember re-member criticism is positive as 'well as negative. A key question at this point is: What would happen to our schools if we acceptet the criticism criti-cism and put these suggestions into operation? If they would result re-sult in better schools to make better Americans, the criticisms should be welcomed. This intense interest holds more promise than danger. The philosophy philos-ophy and purpose of our school system in America has always been "an honest attempt for 'equal respect for each human being be-ing and to teach each child so that he may grow to the limit of his abilities." Children will get into action when they are appreciated and encouraged, and when their deeper deep-er impulses, their true motives, their basic purposes of life are touched, they will work creatively creative-ly and energetically. Our kind of society calls for the maximum development of individual in-dividual potentalities on all levels. lev-els. The school people have always al-ways known that education is perhaps the one indispensable defense de-fense .of the nation. Also, only through education are the skills of science, industry and politics developed. The world is too dangerous to teach anything but truth. It is too small for anything but brotherhood. broth-erhood. Your opportunity to visit school is here again. Parents Visiting Days are scheduled in November. Novem-ber. Parents, will you be there? Work for Better Schools by Lucile W. Walker Our children are everybody's business, but especially are they the business of parents and teachers. tea-chers. Parents and teachers have the same problems. They must be willing to cooperate in guiding children. When a young child starts his journey down the road of experience exper-ience with public schools, parents par-ents are faced with sharing their child, his time and affections with someone new, his teacher. Good relationship can be striv-ed striv-ed for by arranging1 conferences with the teacher. The child is the link between parent and teacher. tea-cher. The problem of guiding the child is discussed. The teacher takes note of the child's activ-.. ity at home, such as movies he attends, his favorite radio or television tele-vision program and his other interests in-terests and activities. The teacher teach-er thus becomes more effective and understanding in the class-(Continued class-(Continued on page 6) Education . . . '(Continued from page 1) room because of the cooperation of the home. Whrn a parent and teacher share experience's concerning the child it brings about a relationship relation-ship which is for the betterment of the child, home and community. commun-ity. Only through working together to-gether can the bonds that are so, necessary come into being. School Board Member by Boyd L. Fugal . A board of education serves , as the legislative and policy making mak-ing authority for the school sys-should sys-should confine their activities to extend my compliments and appreciation ap-preciation for this attitude. Homework by Steven Walker I'm a hign school senior. I'm very grateful for the opportunities opportun-ities of public education that I've had. Although I've attended school in widely separated areas, I feel my training has prepared me for both the competitive and the happy life. One of the best things my education has done is to encourage me to form my own opinions. It is my humble opinion that there are things which are very wiong with our educational system. I, like the other three students in our family, average twelve to fifteen hours per week doing homework. I don't begrudge this time at all. I feel if I'm going to improve, I must work toward that end. Besides, I enjoy homework. home-work. But I 'am thc.oughly disgusted dis-gusted with the teachers who insist in-sist upon regimenting my homework. home-work. They force me into specific fields. They insist upon my studying study-ing in terms of their interests and not mine. I delight in reading both prose and poetry. I enjoy writing. I like people and 'philosophy. I like going to church. I like music. These I would enjoy studying. But what am I forced to study? Math, biology, scienoe and the like. Oh yes, you may force me to get good marks in these fields, but you have taught me nothing of them, least of all respect for them. I didn't want to learn about them. They have also kept me from doing the things that I do best, and that is truly bad. They have stunted my intellectual growth. To me this is not the American Ameri-can way nor the best in education. educa-tion. I wish my parents and society so-ciety would let me fail certain classes, or better still, not take them at all. The only thing they are accomplishing is a plentiful waste of my time. I don't care if we ever get to the moon. I doubt very much if the moon will look better to me upon closer inspection. I want to enjoy the good and beautiful things on earth, and perhaps make it more good and beautiful. beauti-ful. Let the people who like science sci-ence and who are thus certain to be good scientists, be scientists. You'll never make a scientist of me. And to force literature upon my scientist friends at the expense ex-pense of science is equally wasteful waste-ful and senseless. I am not suggesting that students stu-dents do only the things they want to do. Rather it is my point of view that students should have the opportunity to grow in terms of their strengths their desires; not be forced by way of their weaknesses. this broad function. For purposes of consistency, direction, and common understanding, it is essential es-sential that the school board establish es-tablish written policies and that it be left with the Superintendent Superintend-ent and his staff to execute the administration of these policies. The complex problems confronting confron-ting school boards are staggering to the imagination and the gap between recognizing a real need and actually being able to meet it in a constructive way is sometimes some-times frustrating. Let Ime site just one example. In recent years school costs have been rising at a rate which has been the cause of considerable consider-able concern. The question is often of-ten asked, "Can the economy of our state and local community continue to provide increases for schools at the -rate these increases in-creases have been occurring in the past ten years?" Sohool revenue receipts have increased at an average annual rate of 9.4 per cent. It is important im-portant to note, however, that not all of the revenue receipts of schools are spent for current expense items. About 11 per cent of the money is used for capital outlay and interest charges. Current Cur-rent expense costs per pupil in average daily attendance have risen markedly in the past ten years about 7.2 per cent annually. annual-ly. The national average per pupil pup-il -cost in 1948-49 was $197.65. In 1958-59 it was about ?340.00 School enrollments have grown rapidly (Alpine Sohool District has about 5 per cent increase over last year) but not as rapidly as school costs. This fact is causing alarm in some quarters, but it must be remembered that total costs can be held to a growth level paralleling rising enrollment only in an economy in which the value of the dollar remains constant. con-stant. Financing is only one of the many problems which has to be solved in order that our youth may be properly educated. How can we make our youth want to excel in their studies? Some talk about motivation, how to make education desirable. Other complain com-plain that our education is too soft, that it fails to challenge the talents of the students. Bu( aren't they all expressions of the same thing? The attitude of parents and of the community ? Don't we always have to look to the adult community for our ideals and our values? Isn't our education edu-cation like our politics, just a reflection of us, of the prevailing attitudes and ideals of the adult community? Won't our schools mirror the respect for excellence and the intellectual motivation of parents and community? Isn't it the community that decides whether the school board issue passes and the school board has the money it needs? The accomplishments of the Alpine School District certainly reflects the positive concern and cooperative attitude of the citizens citi-zens of this community. As a school board member I wish to |