The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-04-06
MIR. BEEDE ON SCHOOLS.
AN INTERESTING PAPER READ
 AT UNITED CHURCH

 termining the CitizenstIp of the Future.
 F. H. Beede, superintendent of the public schools, read paper of absorb ing interest to very large audience at the United church last evening. The meeting was under the auspices of the Mems club. The subject of MT. Beede's paper was Some Problems and Needs of the Public Schools" Among other things MT. Beede said:
 During the calender year 1902 about 1S,5O0 children attended the public schools of this city. This number does not include 5000 others who attended private and parochial schools at that time. These 1S,50O public school children were little more than II per cent. of our entire population. That is, seven teen persons in every 100 who resided in this city were in our public schools last year, or rather more than one in every six. If these 1S5O0 children could have been organized into separate municipality, such community would have been nearly as large as Norwalk, about 1000 larger than either New Lon- don or Norwich, 1000 larger than Dan- bury nearly 5000 larger than Stamford, more than twice as large as Walling- ford-and as large as Middletown and Willimantic together. This number, moreover, owing to the natural growth of the city, is, year by year, rapidly in creasing. During the decade 1890-1900, the population of New Haven increased 32.S per cent. The average annual in- crease in the number of pupils in the public schools for ten years ending 1901 was 255, that for five years ending 1901 was 372, while the increase in the num- Der of public school children the present year over last year was S97. These statements suggest one of the most troublesome problems that the public schools have to meet, namely, that of providing adequate accommodations for largely increasing number of school children every year. Counting forty eight children to a room, a larger num- Der than really ought to be assigned to @ single teacher, S79 pupils, the increase of the present school year last year, would require school building of eigh- teen rooms. while 800 or 600. which would probably be a more normal an- nual increase would require a building of ten or twelve rooms. In other words, if the school department is to keep up with the constant increase in the num- Der of school children of the city, it must erect large school building every year. No other plan can meet the con- ditions which exist. Neglect of these conditions one year only produces a more embarrassing situation the next year. Owing, however, to lack of ade- quate appropria tions for this purpose, it has not been possible to erect, during the past ten years, school buildings as rapidly as they have been needed, as a result, at the present time, nearly all our school houses are crowded, basement rooms utilized. and stores and dwelling houses are rented for school purposes. Forty-three school buildings, containing 370 school rooms. ten additional base ment rooms. seven stores and four rooms in a dwelling house are now oc- cupied by the pupils in our schools. This policy Of renting outside rooms, while forced upon the school department by lack of appropriations for erecting school buildings is not only 8, bad one educationally, but it is also a short sighted one financially. At present we are paying a rental of $2,470 for eleven outside rooms. At per cent, at which rate the city could easily borrow money, this is the interest on $61, ,750, an amount for which modern 1S-room building could be built and furnished, including the lot. At no extra expense, therefore, such a building would provide seven additional rooms and the expense for heating and janitor service would, doubtless, be less than in case of rented rooms which arc considerably scattered in location. I do not think that the city intends to be niggardly in providing suitable school accommodations for its children, but like most large cities, New Haven has not yet adjusted itself to some of the conditions which are incl dental to rapid growth.
 "The two school districts in the city which are most distinctly foreign are the Welch and the Wooster. The for mer is the Russian district and the lat ter the Italian. Of the four schools in the former large per cent. of the chill dren are of foreign parentage. This is especially true of the Zunder school, situated at the foot of College street, where 9S per cent. of the children are of parents born in foreign lands, while in five of the twelve rooms of the build ing every child is of foreign parentage. 1t is a strange and significant coinci- dence that of all our city schools the one which is almost wholly foreign is situated on nearly the exact spot where on that April morning, 163S, the early settlers of this city first landed from their little sloop and where, under a large oak tree, MT. Davenport preached the following day on The Temptations of the Wilderness In these schools the regular course of study and the general outline of work of the other city schools are followed. It is, how ever, understood that certain subjects, e. g., reading, writing, spelling, lan- = guage and United States history, are more important than others, and upon / these especial emphasis is laid. In the last, for instance, not only is the regu- lar work of the different grades done, but also much outside reading is car ried on and the children become famil- jar with the events of our history, with the lives of our statesmen, generals and pioneers and with the many traditions and popular stories which children so much enjoy. It ought to be said that