Show HIGH PRAISE FROM AN ABLE MAN dr kirk lauds utah on her fine school system in the november number ot of the utah educational review Is 13 the following letter from dr jno jao it kirk president of the normal school a at t mo dr kirk was in utah a few weeks ago and spoke to teachers and at high schools in various parts of the state my purpose in speaking before your high schools was to encourage and stimulate as much as possible your very promising generation of young high school students and to open their eyes to the tremendous possibilities the future has tor for those young men and young women who will learn capabilities gain control of themselves and learn something of the material and spiritual forces of the world in addressing the large audience of teachers my purpose was professional and somewhat specific with a view to immediate service I 1 enjoyed especially meeting that vigorous and boulant group of men and women constituting the teachers of salt lake city and what a wonderful city and state you 1 ave I 1 would rather spend a week in utah than read the best book on sociology ever written I 1 like best those remarkable people who constituted the pioneers of utah they have made a murk mark that the world will some day I 1 think my studies and observations al ng with some few years ot of experience exper lenci ienco enable me to look a high school boy in the face and aad know something of what he has back ot of his countenance I 1 studied intently the features ot of your high school boys out there in the south end of 0 salt lake county and in some halt half dozen high schools in utah county judging from their clear countenances their upright manly looks boks and their frankness in expression I 1 do not think I 1 have ever seen saen quite so clean minded and clean bodied a lot ot of high school boys boy S as I 1 saw out there in those two wonderful c counties of 0 the jordan valley 1 I wonder how long the sin simple itile p plain lain living and the high and clean thinking ot of your present sturdy community leaders will hold out I 1 wonder whether your marvelously rich stafe now being so rapidly cosin cosmopolis cosmopoli will another generation from this time have as clean blooded and ilean clean minded high school boys ayou as you have now I 1 do not the missouri hoys boys whom I 1 meet dally daily but I 1 believe myself to be in contact with some problems of social life that have not yet come to be the daily problems ot of the schoolmaster in utah where the community ideals kave have anticipated those problems here in the middle west and all over the east cast the school men are puzzled with the the problem of better community life we never have an important educational convention wit th out a debate over S sex e X byg hygiene to ne your community leaders who have given utah its great start havo have solved the problem ol of social life bl otter better than the people of any other 6 tate state 0 of f our U union n I 1 0 n your recreation centers in or near your churches where the old and the young commingle and rejoice together are superior to what we have in other states you have got at the sex hygiene problem better than we have done and that without much mention of it 1 I did not overlook the high school girls many hundreds of whom I 1 saw in your high schools they seem to me fully the equal of your boys I 1 hardly think they are more healthy or more buoyant or more wholesome in thought manner and attitude than our high school gals of the middle west but the older community while protecting its gals pretty well has to an unfortunate e extent lost control of the freshman high school boy and thereby in considerable sid erable measure lost control of the mental activities the attitudes of mind and the habits of the boys t brough the high school period in about all of those smaller an and d MOM medium sized high schools of your state that I 1 saw there were as many boys as girls that la Is a thing which we seldom see in the older states the girls tar far outnumbering the boys in most of our older high schools the visit to your state was to MO me a vacation an outing it was highly enjoyable I 1 hope I 1 may yet ba have ve the good fortune to visit TOY my friends in utah many times and it if any ny of them ever come this way my latch string Is always out and e easy aay to reach |