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Show Gov. Geo. H.Dern Discusses School 2 People's Slogan :t in. At the recent meeting o the Utah Educational association in Salt Lake i city Governor George H. Dern ad-lb ad-lb dressed tlie school people on the association's asso-ciation's slogan, "A Square Deal For Sjit Every Child." The governor pointed 1$ out some of the weaknesses in our prcs- eni school administration system that public men, although they know $ of their existence and privately de-fJ de-fJ plore them, are afraid to discuss them i-sj publicly. Lack of space forbids the publication of all of the governor's exits! ex-its! ccllent speech, but some of the high-t high-t lights are herewith quoted: "Your association has for its slogan It 'A square deal for every child.' Does this mean that you are humble about $ your work, that you are not satisfied 18 with what you are doing, and that you are determined to do better? Or b, does it mean that you are complacent B about your part of the job, but think j, somebody else is derelict, and that j. you propse to bring him up to the w scratch? It makes a world of difference dif-ference whether such a motto is applied ap-plied introspectively or with an incli-? incli-? nation to find fault with others. .iT "In education, what is a square deal for every child? Even so exceellent a motto as this may lead us far afield ;s if it is not carefully analyzed at the start. fsj "I apprehend that some of you !i might interpret a square deal for ev- ery child to mean a high school edu-nj edu-nj cation for every child. Others might I insist that every child should have a 51 college education. Still others, more a given to generalizations might hold H that every child should have an equal educational opportunity with every ;i other child, and I suppose that is what It. your excellent slogan is actually intended in-tended to mean. As such, it opens the way for a discussion of taxation and any number of other practical subjects. sub-jects. I shall allow myself the liberty K of referring very briefly to only a few a of the manifold ramifications of your a! seductive motto, and possibly some of j, the tilings I shall say will invite in-d in-d trospection. B "To begin with, a sauare deal for ,jj every child demands mat every child a shall have competent teachers. The state is not treating its children fairly if it does not unrelentingly impose the j highest practicable standards for the certification of teachers. The mem-jli mem-jli bers of your association should appre-a; appre-a; ciate the importance of this requirement require-ment better than anyone else; and, even at the risk of being accused cf trying to form ' an air-tight union you should exert your influence toward to-ward giving every child a good teacher. teach-er. The boys and girls of Garfield county are entitled to efficient teach-I teach-I ers no less than are the boys and girls of Salt Lake County. Children should not be victimized by being put into the I hands of flappers who only want- a ;0 pay check for a year or two until they tl can get married. Nor should the daughter of a school board member or of some other influential citizen be employed unless she has had sound i training and is thoroughly qualified to teach the voune idea to shoot in the right direction. Indeed I think educators edu-cators are generally agreed that it is poor policy in a small community to employ a home-town teacher. Cer- I tainly it is not a square deal to the children if the sohool board hires an " inferior teacher because she will work for less than it would cost to get a first-class teacher. "With capable teachers there will be H less danger that the children will not receive sound instruction in the funda- ; mentals. It may be a bit old-fashioned to talk about the three R's but nobody has yet invented a system that makes them non-essentials. In my' business I have several times em- j ployed young stenographers from the high schools, and their spelling was abominable their punctuation was atrocious, and their vocabulary was i juvenile. I have run short of ad- l jectives or I might also say something (Continued on last page.) Governor Dern j Discusses School People's Slogan (Continued from first page) , about their arithmetic and penman- j ship. These girls had not had a ; square deal or they would not have j ; Uen turned out or school so illy pre-,, pared for the work they were under t.:king to do. j "As further evidence of the lack of r snua.c deal to every school child. I have only to remind you of the ex-tracrdinary ex-tracrdinary mortality in freshmen i:nfiish at the Univevsy or man. U j- most regrettable, not to say disgraceful, dis-graceful, that so many high schools in 1 he state are failing to give their si.udi.ius proper instruction in English Eng-lish The graduation requirements ol the "high schools of the United States today are supposed to Be nearly as lrgh as were the graduation requirements require-ments ol Harvard, Yale and Princeton Prince-ton seventy-five or a hundred y;ars ago but every colieze graduate m Mi so times could use his own lauguage n p correct and polisr.ed manner. "I do not like to repay your gracious hcspilalilv tonight I? finding faul:. lint this is a matter about which so many of our people are grumbling that venture to make a plea for a square d-al for every child in the teaching a' English, the first requisite of a cultured cul-tured American. "And so. teachers, your high mission mis-sion is not simply to cram the child's head full of facts, but to inculate m him habits of openmindedness, of study and analysis, of investigation and reflection, of reasoning and cour-aeou- self-reliance. Make lr.s soul adopt the admonition of Paul: 'Prove rll things; hold fast that which is good.' If you accomplish that you will be happy in your service, for you will be contributing wonderfully to the prog ress of the world. Occasionally 'God lets loose a thinker,' and he may fall into vour hands. If through your guidance and encouragement and inspiration in-spiration his powers unfold and develop, de-velop, yours, too, will be the joy, the glory and the reward. |