The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1902-10-28
A Step in the Right direction.
Communicated.

Ae<~SS WSuhOoNdy evening FOUS
was taken in the Willis School dis
trict upon the question of building
an addition to the present school
house. and having a graded school,
The ballot stood "a to Is in favor of
the graded schools.
This action was the result of an
attempt by some of the citizens to
have the district divided, their plea
for division being that there are too
many pupils in the present school for
one teacher to do them justice, and,
also, that some of the pupils are so
far from school that they cannot at
tend regularly in bad weather.
Those in favor of the graded school
brought out the following points be
fore and at the Wednesday night
meeting:
1. That dividing the district would
not make either of the resulting
schools much better than the present
one on the point of time for recita-
| tons. BY making two schools there
would be the same eight grades in
each of the new schools and conse-
quently the same number of recita-
tons, while by making the present
| school into two departments, each
department would contain but four
grades and have but half as many
recitations.
| 2. The expense of establishing the
two new schools would be much
| tho. bod nF fob 1ic1,i hn
| graded school. In the former case
two new school houses would have to
be built, as the present school house
is not strong enough to be moved.
The cost of the two buildings would
necessarily be, at the least, double
line of division abou two-thirds of the
taxable property would have been in
the old or eastern district, and under
the school law this district would
have held the present school proper
ty The result of this would have
been, as a title calculation shows,
that the taxpayers in the western
district would have paid 81 for sep
arate school house. where they will
now pay 81 for az graded school,.
That is, if the cost of the addition be
$500, the cost of a new and equipped
school house for them would have
been about $500 Having one-third
OF the property in the whole district
their share of the $500 will be 200,
thus the one-room school would have
cost them four times as much as the
graded school and then not have
been so good. Those in the eastern
part would have got off easier as
they would have had twice as much
property and retained the library,
seats, charts, ETC., of the old district.
However, it would have cost them
not far from twice as much to estab-
lish their school as the graded school
will now cost them. The total cost
to both districts woul have been
considerably more than double what
it will be under the present plan.
8. AS to some pupils being too far
away to get the benefit of the graded
school, it was held that the principle
of "the greatest good to the greatest
uumD0F SuOulu prevail anu CudL Lie
interests of 40 pupils should not be
sacrificed for those of five or six, and
besides the increased efficiency of the
} graded over the one-room school
would more than make up for a
pupils being obliged to stay out dur
ing the severe storms of winter
The action of this district is step
in the right direction. Educators all
over the United States are advocat-
: ing graded schools in the country,
, and in many places districts are COM
!. bining in order to have graded
schools. It is to be hoped that more
districts will follow the example of
this one, and instead of dividing,
i grade their schools. 1t is only by SO
doing that they will be able to pre-
pare their pupils for the county high
school, and to do any measure of JUS
tice to the pupils who are never able
= to attend school but the first three OIL
four years of what should be theil
school life.