The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-07-23
SCHOOLS ARE OPEN AGAIN,
An Unusual Rush Of Pupils
Attend In the Various
Classes.
A GOOD PROMOTION RECORD.
Superintendent MouIder Is Much
Pleased With the Prospects for
the New Term.

The summer vacation days of the school
children of the City, which began on the
8th of June, are over, and yesterday the
schoolhouse doors yawned wide to admit
the thousands of scholars who had for
saken pleasure paths to once more wrestle
with textbooks and the scholastic prob
lens contained in readers"
From the innumerable happy-looking
faces that were to be seen at all the schools
and the exuberance of cheerfulness dis
played it was evident that the children
had enjoyed their vacation and were re-
turning to school duties quite willingly.
AT all the schools there was tremendous
rush and many of them overflowed with
the excess of numbers.
~ am surprised and pleased with the
vivacity which was displayed all around,
said Superintendent Moulder yesterday
afternoon in speaking of the experiences
which he had gone through during his
trip around the schools. "Why, don't
know what we will do for accommodations
in some of the buildings. There is a limit
fixed on classes of forty-five members each,
and vet in the Croker School there are
seventy and seyenty-five in some OF the
classes. We will have to wait until the
hustle of the opening day is over, and then
segregate the best we can. We may be
able to locate them all in the school with
out transferring. 1t is the same in some
of the other schools. Wherever l went to-
day heard reports OF wonderful rush OF
new scholars"
Superintendent Moulder and Assistant
Superintendent Babcock were around early
in the morning and visited about dozen
schools each in order to see how arrange
ments for the accommodation of the pupils
were carried out. At the Crocker, Whit
tier, Hearst and Horace Mann grammar
schools the rush of new pupils was heavi-
est, although accurate reports had not
come in from some of the schools in the
Western Addition and Mission districts.
There is another thing" continued Mr..
Moulder. (which has swelled the number
of new pupils somewhat, and that is that
during the summer vacation two private
schools of considerable size have closed for
good, and of course their scholars, or ma
jority of them, will come into the public
schools. Our department is now in excel
lent shape and it has the confidence of the
parents of the City beyond a doubt. OF
late years its efficiency has been improved
by the efforts of some of our prominent ed
ucators. They have put into practice some
of the ideas of education which have been
tested in the East and developed beyond
the experimental stage, and they have
proved very successful,
ct is gratifying, too, to know that the
percentages of promotions this year have
been high, and there are very few hold
over scholars in the classes. This is due to
an increase of consciousness among
the teachers and principals. l feel sure
that promotions are based on real merit
and ability. Several cases which confirm
me in this opinion have come to my
knowledge personally. In speaking with
Of ho |
they are pleased and encouraged by the in
crease. They like to have a good start at
the beginning of the term, as toward the
end of the school year, through various
causes, the classes become somewhat de-
pleted. The teachers were somewhat dis
there was falling off in the classes, and
they did not anticipate seeing them filed
up as they are.
The unavoidable hustle and confusion
which predominated in the classrooms
yesterday will have disappeared in the
main to-day, and the routine of school life
will go on as though it had never been
interrupted by vacation and the entrance
of new pupils.
There will be but few changes in the
various grades, except as noted in yester-
days CALL regarding the use of readers.
Just how many new classes will have to
be formed is not known as yet, but no
time will be lost in arranging them. Sew
eral new teachers will also be required, but
they viii be selected from the substitute
BODY.
The superintendent stated yesterday
that ne would begin at once to collect pho
tographs of school children and school
buildings for the Photographic exhibition
at the Atlanta Exposition. There are many
hundreds of copies of classes of children
which have been taken during the past
few years, in existence, and these will be
got together.
There was a photographer" said Mr..
Moulder, "who for years made it his bust
ness to photograph classes and school
buildings under permission of the board. l
don't know whether we will use the pic
lures he made OF the buildings or not
many of them in my opinion are not as ar
tistic as they might be. Perhaps we will
pet some new onesn