Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1898-04-28
EDUCATIONAL COLUMN
GUY STANTON FORD, Editor.

sHOutu give some consideration to the
question of their children taking par,
in so MANY of the numerous entertain.
ments gotten up for purposes that are
good enough, it is true, but which dc
not have the best effect on the ideals
and health of childhood. Children's
minds are easily led aside from the
really important interest of home and
school by the excitement ami display
OF the amateur entertainment Aside
from the ideals it implants, the question
of time consumed and energy used in
drills and rehearsals should make every
parent give the matter more than
passing notice. In a recent entertain
ment were several pupils whom we had
thought of asking their parents to with
draw because the pupils school work
seemed to be making too heavy calls on
their vitality. This is very mild
editorial compared with the first one
penned on this subject. However
after one spends several weeks in
passing from room to room, high school
and grade alike, finding each with its
quota of yawning, day dreaming, stage
struck pupils, they are we'll qualified
to say, and eminently justified in saying
some rather sharp things to somebody
who is or ought to be in authority.
| ~
1t seems too bad that there is not
some sort of arrangement by which
the competent teacher desiring a posi-
ton or promotion could be located in
the community where he or she could
do the most acceptable work The
shower of applications that deluges
school officers every spring forces one
to conclude that either teaching is a
very attractive profession or teachers
are very ambitious or there are large
number of non-competents in circula-
ton or that teaching is an itinerant
occupation or that Grand Rapids is a
very desirable place. You can read
over the applications on file, pay your
money and take your choice of explana-
tions.
~
There is nothing that gives one so
much real satisfaction, that makes you
surer the old world is not so bad after
all as when you see some demagogic
project knocked flat. State uniformity
in textbooks, the state to buy the
manuscripts and publish the books at
the state prison, has received setback
in the Iowa legislature. The local patri-
OF who was saving his constituents from
the competition Of convict labor should
have provided that the manuscripts for
the textbooks in arithmetic should be
prepared by imprisoned embezzling
bank clerks, the Biographies to be
written by some of the many much
travelled residents of Anamosa or Ft.
| Madison and SO on to the end of the
list.
There has been a slight delay in
the arrival of the new primary seats.
Miss McClellan's department will start
this week with an enrolment of forty
one leaving Miss Reeves and Mrs. Voss
each forty-foul.
~
| When the main building was erected,
educations architecture had not reached
it's present high appreciation of the
value of commodious Railways and
wide stairs. AS arranged it is now
next to impossible to dismiss any of
the rooms in that building as they
on the contrary is admirably arranged
for rapid and orderly dismissal This
arrangement together with the presence
of the piano in the eighth grade makes
the noon and afternoon dismissal of
Mr. Brazeau's and Mr.. Green's rooms
a pleasurable sight.
~
1t would undoubtedly be as well
if we all appreciated more fully the
truth of the following from William
Dean Howells: 81 know, indeed of
nothing more subtly satisfying and
cheering than knowledge of the real
good will and appreciation of others.
Such happiness does not come with
money. nor does 1t flow from fine
| But it IS the keenest Joy, after all, and the
toiler's truest and best reward" We
say the sharp words with readiness and
relish but the words of true apprecia-
ton that feeds anoIher's soul-famine
never lives to leave our lips.
| ~
Educationally speaking too many
towns are simply drifting-ships with
out chart, compass or, commander.
Nothing can come of such lack of policy.
There must be a goal to reach and
constancy in the effort to attain it. The
educational policy of this city is in it's
formative period but the fact that a
policy is even forming is hopeful sign.
To appreciate its significance just ask
a teacher or citizen or director of a
neighboring city what they intend
doing for their schools the next year
or so.
We never sit down 10 prepare this
column without wondering how many
people read it. The prevailing feeling
about it in our mind is much as though
we had dropped stone in bottomless
pit and were leaning over the edge
straining to catch the slightest sound
from the last pebble. AS you know,
there is occasionally a personal applica-
ton of the general truths We state and
of course that is satisfactory as far as it
goes. What we would like to feel is
that this column, for the sake of the
interests it touches, was read by every
patron of the public schools. Ask your
neighbor if he reads it and then tell
the editor his reply.
~
The people of Grand Rapids, contlnu-
ing their present progressive policy,
before the neginnIng of the twentieth
century, should have:
l. Made permanent the policy of pro-
fessional supervision by one man who
makes supervision his sole work.
II. They should have made minor
improvements in the high school build
| Iing-hardwood floors, single seats
throughout and, if possible, better
lighting facilities.
III. Each grade should have either
its own reference library or wide
range of supplementary books. This
work should provide the seventh grade
with good equipment of books in
geography and the eighth grade should