Omaha daily bee., 1883-06-25
RESTLESS BOYS.
They Cannot Wait to Get Even a
Common School Education.
The Girls Cling to tho Books q Little
Longer-Some Facts and Figures
From the City Schools.

The fact that but one boy has been
graduated from the high school in two
years, while about sixteen girls have won
that honor, directs attention to the fact
that few boys avail themselves of the full
advantages offered by the public schools.
Many queries naturally arise as to
causes and remedies, and the facts and
figures should excite thought and lead to
action of some sort. The census shows
that there are about an even number of
boys and girls of the school age. In the
lower departments, the primary rooms
especially, this proportion is pretty well
maintained, but as they advance the boys
drop out much more rapidly than the
girls. Taking the statistics of the school
on the big hill, and the Bloomer
building, it appears that of those
entering the grammar department at
the beginning of the school year
there were 90 boys and 66 girls.
Among the lower classes in that grade we
find 81 boys and 90 girls in attendance
during the year, but during the last
month only 40 boys and 40 girls. In the
next grade higher, in the grammar de-
partment, there were 81 boys and 81
girls in attendance during the year, but
the last months report shows 80 boys
and Al girls. In the next higher grade,
the b grade, there were during the year
81 boys and 81 girls, but the last month
only % boys and az girls. In the A
grade, a still higher grade, of the gram
mar department, there were during the
year % boys to 80 girls, and during the
last month of the year only 10 boys to 43
girls.
Thus it is seen that in the grammar
department the boys drop out Of school
in much greater numbers than do the
girls. Many of these boys probably end
their school days with this dropping out,
leaving school at from twelve to fourteen
years of age, and with only a
knowledge Of the fundamentals of arith-
metic, able to write a fair hand, to read
%intelligently the more ordinary and com
monplace literature, knowing something
Of local geography and with some general
ideas of the country at large, and able to
construct common English sentences.
Advancing into the grades Of the high
school department the same falling off Of
the boys is ever more noticeable. This
year in the first years course there were
Ii boys to 40 girls; in the second years
course, 10 boyr to 10 girls; third years
course, A boys to 10 girls, and fourth
years course, or senior year, l boy and
0 girls.
The figures gathered from the reports
show that only about two-thirds
of the children of the city
avail themselves of the priv.
leges Of the public schools. When one
considers that out of all the boys in the
city, only two-thirds attend school at all,
and then that 80 small a per cent of these
attain even a grammar department edu.
cation, and that this percentage is SC
whitfield down compared to the girls,
many questions naturally arise as t. how
the boys are being fitted for the activities
and responsibilities Of life, and whether
the defect is in the public
school system, or in society and the
homes. These figures are in about the
same proportion in all cities of the west,
and hence the problem is one common t.
all. In this connection one fact may b.
stated for the encouragement of Council
Bluffs. The attendance at the high schoo
in this city is about as large as that il
Omaha, and consequently much larger il
proportion to the number of children il
the city.