The Oskaloosa herald., 1900-12-06
The Report.

submitted herewith Is the best we
have made so far this year, the aver
age daily attendance being higher al
80 by 1875 than that of any month last
year.
Rooms reporting no hardness the
past month are the following: Nos.
6, 7, and at First ward; Nos. 4,
and 6 at Second ward; Nos. and 6
at Fourth ward and Nos. and 3 at
Fifth ward.
Rooms showing the highest percent
of attendance in the different build
ings are: No. at First ward; No. 7
at Second ward; Nos at Third ward;
No. Fourth ward; No. Fifth ward.
While comparison might be carried
forward indefinitely it is to be under
stood, of course, that there are cir
cumstances beyond the control of
teachers operating to cause hardness
or absence thus reducing the percent
of punctuality and attendance in a
given room. While Third ward re-
ported only Ia cases of hardness, no
teacher escaped getting one or more
of them.
Our object in publishing these
monthly statistics, as suggested here
tofore, is to create, particularly among
the pupils, real live interest in at
tendance and punctuality. Results
have seemed to justify the means
used.
Classification.
The schools of Oskaloosa are graded
according to the plan in general use
in towns and cities throughout the
country except that in a few city
schools the grades are not divided
into junior and senior divisions or A
and B classes as it is generally ex
pressed.
| AS there are so many reasons favor
able to the half year or even shorter
interval between classes we have
wondered why any school still ad
heres to the older plan of year inter
walls or the solid grade plan of class
itcation, particularly if the number
of pupils permit of the subdivision.
According to our plan, while each
grade represents years work in the
schools, 1t is divided into two classes,
junior and senior, work half year a
part, and the course of study cuts off
and carefully outlines the work for
each half year. Promotions are made
semi-annually instead of annually. A
pupil beginning junior sixth in Sep
TENDER if doing average work is pro-
NOTED to senior sixth in the middle
of the year. Beginning grade at the
middle of the year the pupil finishes
that grade at the middle of the 70 .
lowing year, so that if there are no
missing links in the chain classes are
always just a half year apart. The
advantages of short intervals are OBJ
vious when we think of classifying
new pupils, of transferring from one
building to another, of classifying
large grades and.of placing those who
are ahead of their classmates or those
who fall short of the requirements
and who must go over again the work
of class. The year interval is too
much of a leap for the few who are
able to be promoted ahead of a given
class and usually it is an unneces-
sarily long review for those who have
fallen behind.
In order to get the full advantages
of our plan there should be no miss
ing classes and the half year step
should be continued on through the
High school.
This leads to the principal thing we
wished to say in this connection, viz
that we are trying to fill up and pro.
vide remedy against missing classes
and that we are now preparing to
take the senior sth grade, A class, Of
about 80 pupils to the High school
when the usual promotions are made
in January.
At the present time the following
classes are missing in the various
wards: First ward senior fifth, Sec,
ond ward senior seventh, Third ware
senior seventh, Fourth ward senior
second and Fifth ward junior sixth
and senior seventh grades. Thes,
missing classes have all along oc
casioned much inconvenience es