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Show Parents Of School Children Krcow What They Desire By Farrell J. Humphreys During this past year the people of Duchesne County were asked to participate in a Rural' Education Conference at Altamont with the purpose of expressing their views on the "aims, purposes, objectives and philosophy of education in our county." Approximately 260 people showed their desires by using a questionnaire as a means of expressing ex-pressing themselves. These Duchesne County people know what they want, evidenced as follows: The people who support the schools have the right and the duty to expect that children will be taught by well educated and professionally trained people. Yes, said 98 per cent of the answers. The schools have a profound concern to develop the personality of each child as an individual, to provide guidance services, to explore ex-plore for talent and to develop the same. Yes, 99 per cent. If a child has mastered reading, writing, spelling and arithmetic and has learned how to study, the task of the school, has been fulfilled. No, 79 per cent. The schools should teach every pupil to know how to act appropriately appro-priately in social situations. Yes, 90 per cent. Good citizenship training is a major goal in our educational program. pro-gram. Yes, 99 per cent. The schools should have the responsibility of providing a well balanced hot lunch. Yes, 96 per cent. Pupils of all ages need to be housed in buildings that will contribute con-tribute toward successful, educational educa-tional programs. Yes, 89 per cent. The high school program should be just as concerned with the students stu-dents who are not going to college as those who are. Yes, 98 per cent. It is interesting to note that the schools are expected to provide students with training not only in reading, writing, spelling and arithmetic, arith-metic, but also they are expected to provide citizenship training, guidance services to explore for talent and develop it, social training, train-ing, health training, character training, and to house students in adequate buildings. Our schools are organized with these objectives in mind, and much is "being done to fulfill all these obligations. However, let us not rest on our laurels, as there are problems yet to be solved. It is with some concern that the following fol-lowing facts are mentioned: (1) Vocational agriculture is not taught in two out of three high schools in our rural area. (2) Out of 283 students starting in the first grade in 1941, only 128 graduated from Duchesne County schools in 1954. This loss includes withdrawals and transfers. (3) Each year for the last fifteen years there has been an average of 67 students withdraw from school. This withdrawal figure does not include transfers but refers to those students who quit school. (4) Not enough of our high school graduates are getting additional ad-ditional training (college, vocational, vocation-al, business) to better prepare them for the years ahead. A sample graduating grad-uating class (1954) was studied to see what had happened to the graduates. 65 per cent ended their education with high school 7 per cent went to vocational school, 7 per cent went to business college, 21 per cent entered college. We need to encourage our young people to not only finish high school', but to seek additional training train-ing to better prepare them for the years, ahead. |
