The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-06-23
FREE TEXT BOOKS.

The action of the board Of education
Of this city in deciding that pupils at
tending the high school shall provide
their own text books has aroused in
terest outside OF this city. Thus the
Logan Journal comments at length on
the question, closing its article as fol
lows:
Our view of the case is that in neither
OF the schools should free text books
De provided ulless in case of pupils
" nose parents are. too poor TO furnish
lhenl, AID then only up TO the point
Nhefe education ceases TO be compul-
sorry IL free books are provided fer
the nigh schools, why not for the state
formal school, the University of Utah
AID the agricultural college, A com
mon school education is complete when
the pupil graduates from the grammar
grade Of the district schools, and the
work OF higher education begins. The
work Of the high schools is DUPLICATED
IN the colleges, and if text books are
furnished free in one case, why not in
the other2 Another thing. when par
ents are too Door 10 furnish necessary
school books, they are almost invar-
iably too Door to provide for the sup
port CT a child old enough to attend q
the prosperous who reap the benefit.
a good thing can be carried too far,
and we believe providing free text
books for high school students is going
too far, unless the system is extended
far enough to include the various uni
versity courses. If there is TO be a
limjt 10 liberality in this direction, the
line should be drawn at the entrance
TO the high school.
The Journal in it's discussion Of the
question overlooks one very important
fact, the point upon which the whole
question hinges This is that the board
of education adopted the policy Of free
text books ard the policy met with the
approval of the citizens. The Journal
addresses its remarks to the question
Of the policy Of free text books, while
that is not it at all
Our Logan contemporary says that
the work Of the high schools is dupli-
Gated in the colleges, and if text books
are furnished free in one case. why not
in the other. The colleges presumably
it refers to the ones it mentions) are
state institutions, while the high school
n this city is a city affair. a part of
iJs educational system. and the money
,or keeping it up and buying text
books comes from the taxpayers of the
city ard not &C the state
The matter of free text books for the
nisa school pupils is not so important
f itself as it is an indication of ten
dencies in school affairs. 1t is a dis
tinct step backwards, and when once
4 person or a school system begins to
take steps backwards they may go back
20 the point from which they first
started before stopping. 1t may not be
possible to perfect our city school SIS
tenn as all would like to see it perfected
for some time. and it viii probably be
recessary to forego the erection Of some
really needed school buildings until
such times as the people are in better
financial circumstances. but there
should be no step backwards. The high
school may be said to be the crown CT
our city school system. Remove or
impair it and all the substructure will
be exrosed to the storm and elements.
and nothing can prevent great damage |
resulting to it in consequence.