The Newtown bee., 1903-02-06
LOCAL AFFAIRS.
FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY AND THE
 HIGh SCHOOL.
INTERESTING FACTS PRESENTED BY
 PRINCIPAL TIBBETTS.

It may be we'll, while the question of a free library is being agitated, that a word be said as to the relation of such a library to our High school. In the first place, just a word about educa- tien. Knowledge derived from few text books is not an educa tion in itself. It may be the foundation but it is not the structure. The results obtained by working on such basis would be un- satisfactory to parents as to teacher. Education, in it's brOadeSt sense, means that culture and refinement which comes from wide reading and careful thinking, inspired by an intimate ac- quaintance with the great minds of all ages. It is the purpose of the writer to show that the library is a natural supplement to the High school in giv- ing our children such an education.
 Every High school needs a library of Preference books''-books to which the pupils may be sent for independent in vestigation. While our High school has no such library, there is one in the town, but to that our children have no access unless their parents pay an en- trance fee. Under the course of study adopted by the School Board are such science studies as physical geography, botany, geology and physics. In the NeWtown library there are probably 400 or 500 volumes referring to these pupils. These books probably remain on the shelves year after year without being disturbed. Could our children but get at these books, nearly every one of them would be reclaimed from idlenesS and would be an invaluable aid to the pupils in their High school work. Nearly every day in almost every study pupils meet with histor- ical characters, mythical legends, scientific allusions, and quotations from literature. All these must be passed over in silence, or else the teacher must do the work that the mental good.
 Within a few days the writer had the following experience: In the rhetoric text book, which is used by the sophomore class consisting of 2l pupils, chapter was devoted to the subject of books and libraries. At that chapter there was given list of 6S books for young people and they were said to be "well worth reading'- books as ''Tom Browns School DayS," Scott's ''Ivanhoe" and Wentworth, ," Dickens "Tale of Two Cities' and "David Copperfield," Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and "Julius C;psar," Steph- enson's ''Treasure Island," Wallace's Ben Hur," and many more as well worth mentioning did space allow The pupils were asked to make list of the books they had read, and then to make note of the number they had not read because they had no oppor tunity to get the books. The result was Startling. One pupil had read only one of the 68 and had not read 63 because he could not get the books; five had not read between 6O-64; seven between 50 and 60: six between 30 and 50. One pupil, the only one in the class who had had access to the Newtown Library, had had chance to read all but IA. Of the 68 books all but six are in the NewtOwn Library.
 These figures mean simply this: Our children cannot get good books to read. because, under the present conditions, they have no opportunity to get them. They arehere in our very midst and yet they might as well be a thousand