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Show Former Teacher i Gives Views On I Lambert Project Editor Mt. Pleasant Pyramid, i Mt. Pleasant, Utah. Dear Sir: A mere matter of thirty-six years ago, I taught the fifth grade in the Moroni Public School. At that time I had 55 pupils, all from Moroni, and all lull of the deviltry and the irre-sistable irre-sistable charm of youth. Vester- 1 day I again visited the Moroni ! fifth grade, and to my conster- I nation and surprise. I learned that Moroni contributed a peak enrollment to this grade 01 only 22. Although this is an exaggerated exag-gerated decline compared with the school population as a whole, it does establish graphically graph-ically the enormous decline in population that this section, and this entire county, has suffered. suf-fered. By absorbing the pupils of small adjacent communities, which have had to completely abandon their schools, the fifth grade reached a total enrollment of but 32. Obviously this district is faced with an inescapable crisis. There is no increase of school popula tion in sight; the upper six-grades six-grades of the Moroni School draw 1-15 pupils from Moroni while the lower six grades draw but 151, so that normal attrition v.ould indicate that there will he still further decline in school population. Dr. Lambert, in his recommendation recommen-dation of consolidation, has drawn up a plan that is statistically statis-tically unassailable. If we are to give our children the advantages advan-tages for schooling that the day d. mauds, and that other communities commu-nities generally afford, there must be a complete change of situation. Below a certain min- imum of school population there is a continuing decline of physical physi-cal advantage: beyond a certain maximum there is a decline in effectiveness due to the resultant !os of persona! contact between teacher and pupil. We are considerably con-siderably below the minimum, and if we are to improve this situation, it must obviously be by means of consolidation as , suggested. j However, cold statistics alone! can hardly expect to solve this ! intimate persona problem. Fac- , tors concerned with human emo- ' tion do not lend themselves to! statistical analysis, and there-are there-are many of these factors to be considered in this situation. No community with any local pride at all is going to abandon its schools or transfer them to another an-other except as a last resort, and this applies to the little communities commu-nities presently under the necessity ne-cessity of sending their children to school at Moroni and Mt. Pleasant. The rule that must1 govern in all these cases is that j the community must be allowed to retain all the classes it can j reasonably support. ' I m iui una or, a t i 1 1 1 1 1 je I'l.c how can we solve the present' problem? According to the survey sur-vey of Dr. Lambert, there should be a separation of Junior High and Senior High if best results are to be obtained and add;tion-al add;tion-al facilities are going to be required re-quired whether both sehools are located in Mt. Pleasant or else-wh:re. else-wh:re. Then what is the lord'' back of the insistence that both be located at Mt. Pleasant? There is no particular preponderance prepon-derance of population on the east side of the valley; why must the west side be asked to surrender the entire advantage? Mt. Pleasant already enjoys facilities that must serve the' entire en-tire district, but that are located exclusively in Mt. Pleasant Among these are the only bank in the district, the only armory, the only Academy, the only air' field and excavation is' already. al-ready. under way for a fine hos-pital hos-pital at Mt. Pleasant which must serve that need for the ent;-r district. Must we also vield BOTH high schools to Mt. Pleasant Pleas-ant on the basis of "Unto him that halth shall be given"? Or may we ask that Mt. Pleasant also be required to conlrihu'e to our common distress, in that she consent to leaving one or the other the Junior High or the Senior High to the west side of the valley? As pointed out by Dr. Lamb.rt. the transportation problem is o.' trivial importance a matter of twelve minutes difference whether the schools be located at Moroni or Mt. Pleasant bu' if one of the schools b; left en each side of the valley, BOTH sides will be contributing to the solution of our common problem which is far more equitable than asking the one side to make all the contributions. This must in no sense be con sidered as on attack on Mt Pleasant or her citizens; the writer is aware that thev had no part whatever in suggesting the plan outlined by Dr. Lambert. Nor is it an attack on Dr. Lambert, Lam-bert, who has made a splendid lujunnuiion toward solving a very vexing problem. It is merely the writer's opinion as to the most just and equitable way of distributing the advantages advan-tages and disadvantages of an inevitable readjustment. Scholastic standards of the d;s-triet d;s-triet are far superior to any that might reasonably be expected considering the lack of funds the lack of facilities, and the various handicaps that beset us ;in this sharp decline in population. popula-tion. Thanks to the sacrifices of our teachers, we still make r. satisfactory showing in comparison com-parison with more populous and richer communit..s. but we can j not always rely on litis good for ;tune, and in the pending readjustment read-justment we will all be called upon to make sacrifices. .Lets make them in good grace. Yours very truly, J. O. Christensen, Moroni. Utah Apri 1 15. lillS |