The Newtown bee., 1904-11-18

fostering in their minds disregard of law and rebellion against all authority. Children kept from school in such cases frequently develop truancy later.
 Greed on the part of some parents and guardians causes children to be kept from school to work, to the neg lect of their education. This, when unrelieved by the plea of extreme pov- erty, is perhaps the most detestable conduct of which parents are capable, and unless corrected at once should be promptly punished by prosecution.
 CONDITION OF SCHOOL BUILDINGS.
 The utter neglect of schoolhouses and OutbuildingS continues to disgrace some country towns. SchoolhOuses are found which in outward appear 1 ance resemble dilapidated sheds and
 whose interiors are, miserably fur nished, poorly lighted and heated, and
 badly ventilated; and outhouses in such unsanitary condition as to consti-
 tute a menace to public health and morals.
 The only remedy for such conditions
 must be sought through appeal to To- cal authorities, and many town and l county health officers have responded l admirably to such appeals from the agent and with excellent results in inn proved sanitary conditions. The school 1 house should be the most attractive
 ana best-cared-for building in each community, but the exact opposite is often found, and there is good reason for believing that some authority out side and independent of local selfish l ness and meanneSs is needed to bring about even decent school conditions in some communities.
 COUNTY HOME AWARDS. During the year there have been 121 children from various county homes living with families in the territory covered by this report and the school attendance of these children has been closely watched.
 Many families take these children with the honest intention of giving them good homes and adequate school ing, but in too many instances they are taken by persons whose only inter- est in their unfortunate charges is to obtain from them the maximum of work for the minimum of food, cloth ing and schooling. In many instances in the past little or no official oversight has been given these children after leaving the home, and the conditions in which they lived were little known outside the immediate neighbOrhOOd in which they were placed; but under the present system of card reports inaug- urated by the secretary of the State Board of Education land which should be made a statutory obligation upon every county home) it is difficult for any unfit guardian to escape detection, since by this system the location of fhn child ic O r,oo1n fn t1a agent of the board and the school at- tendance reports then present an un- failing index as to the kind of family in which the child is placed.
 If the attendance is regular during all the hours of school it is almost posi- tive proof that the child is we'll cared for and in the hands of those who have an interest in his welfare; if the at- tendance is marked by habitual irregu- larity and tardiness the inference is plain that the child is overworked, ,and investigation almost always shows abuses other than the deprivation of the agent always results in better con- ditions for the child or in it's return to the home.
 No greater duty rests upon the state than is that of caring for these chil- dren who, in the language of the Stat- ute, ''are neglected and dependent and have none to care for them," and in assuming their temporary guardian ship the state is morally bound to faithful execution of it's trust. It were far better to leave these children in their original homes; however neglect ed, poor, and mean these may be, than to transplant them to others where the neglect is as great and with added hardship of conscienceless and cruel taskmasterS. It is a satisfaction to the agent to know that his efforts have frightened the burdens and made brighter the future of these helpless children.
 LEGAL EXCUSES FOR ABSENCE.
 Children are legally absent from
 l. When over fourteen years of age and regularly employed all the time.
 2. When prevented from attendance by mental or physical disability.
 3. When the parent or guardian is l unable to supply suitable clothing. The first of these excuses can not | be improperly used, as the con- ditions alleged are open to inn mediate investigation and proof; but the excuses of disability and lack | of clothing are often sought to be fraudently used to cover illegal ab- sences. During the current year it has been my practice to require phy- sician's certificate of disability in eve ry case where such disability was not and beyond doubt. A consid- erable number of such certificates have been satisfactorily furnished, put in some cases the parents have ,ound it more convenient to send the :hild to school than to apply for the certificate, and some speedy and re- narkable cures have been effected in his way. Some parents and guard ans who claimed inability to furnish clothing found means to provide the anne when the agent proposed imme- Hate application to the selectmen of he town; other families, in which the xcuse was made as the result of real lestitution, were relieved by public or 'rivate charity on application made y the. agent.
 HOME INSTRUCTION.