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Show KNOW YOUR SCHOOLS .... Problems 09 Sr. High Students By Rondo S. Harmon Principal, Altamont High School Not many years ago high school pupils were encouraged to withdraw with-draw from school if they were unable un-able to attain fixed standards of academic achievement. Today the basic objective in most states is to keep youngsters in school through twelve years of public education. This current emphasis on "education "ed-ucation for all the children of all. the people" ennobling and lofty as it is, has raised some important problems. School plant and teacher shortages, increased costs of education, ed-ucation, special programs for the exceptional child, and many other problems are common knowledge in the minds of the average American Ameri-can citizen. Another major problem not so commonly understood is that the above concept of "universal education" edu-cation" has come into being and expanded without a corresponding adustment in the educational program pro-gram and the attitudes of the American public. We have been reluctant, under the pressure of mass attendance and crowded schools, to maintain standards of citizenship and academic proficiency. pro-ficiency. Regrettable Fact It is a regrettable fact, but true that the only thing a high school diploma means to many of our high school seniors is that they have spent the required amount of time in school under the requirements require-ments of the law and are now free of this obstacle to do as they please. The schools are increasingly accepting ac-cepting the responsibility of fur-' nishing to each normal youth an education suited particularly to him in line with his aptitudes and abilities, but the task of setting down and scientifically planning and charting a course of this kind for each pupil is not simple. It requires modem facilities and teachers with more specific train-, ing in this technique. It involves time which is not easy to find with a teaching load. As important as (Continued on Page 2) KNOW YOUR SCHOOLS (Continued from page one) anything else, it requires close cooperation and team work with the youth and his parents. Parents Should Help Parents should assume increased increas-ed responsibility for knowing what a pupil is registered for in high school, and what specific line of preparation he may want to follow. fol-low. Whether the pupil completes a college-preparation course with a satisfactory rating or same course in vocation or practical living he should know what it is and why he wants it. If he is graduated, his diploma should mean that he has learned as much as he can from a program designed to help him become a good citizen and make his miximum contribution to society. It should imply that he has met certain attendance, citizenship citizen-ship and scholastic standards in school and has, therefore, had those basic learning experiences which facilitate immediate adjustment ad-justment to the responsibilities of adulthood. Achievement in line with a student's stu-dent's basic aptitudes and abilities is not too much to expect of any high school graduate of Duchesne County. Each candidate for graduation should be evaluated in terms of this standard and those approved for graduation should only be those students who have met the re-quirments re-quirments for graduation. |