The news & observer., 1905-12-17
ANENT THE HIGH SCHOOL.
Better Wait Two Years For New Build
inc Than 10 Make Il Mistake for
Lack Of Funds.

repeatedly in your columns recently
an announcement which cannot have
failed to give great pleasure to Raj
eigh'S citiZenS--eSpeciallV to those oi
hem that are bringing up sufficiently
numerous children 10 meet the RooSc-
Veltian standard of patriotism and
decency!
Hats off To our worthy city fathers!
They want plans for Hioh School
building i'm the city of Raleigh to ac.
commodate 500 children; same 10 be
on a lot 90 feet front, 210 feet deep;
building To be two stories and base
ncnt with an auditorium and DEPART
ments for manual training. cooking
and sewing; cost complete with heat
ing plant. lights and water, not t1
exceed $4,000"
AS for myself / read that announce
ment not only with great pleasure,
but also with great disappointment.
/ take it that the education that is 10
be given in the High School is TO be
modern, not medieval merely If ii
is to be modern, then, whatever else is
left out Of the courses of study. the
modern sciences. TO the extent of good
elementary training in chemistry,
physics, plant and animal life, are no.
merely not tn be left ont. but to have
a prominent place. To attempt to
tea on those sciences WHnOul IdDOId-
tories and laboratory accessories is
farcial in the HIGHEST degree.
My disappointment, then. consists in
this: that whereas, / find in the call
for plans for the High School building.
snecific mention Of departments for
manual training, coking and sewing,
nothing is said about laboratories for
the teaching of the sciences. Was this
an oversight or wos Il intentional? If
the latter and if there are to be no
such laboratories it is a pity.
|Nine-tenths of our high school,
lads and lassies will never enter COL
lege With the high school will end
their school days. 1t will be nothing
short of a calamity if they are sent
out into Gods world without having
been taught the elements that at least,
of the laws on which the world is
built. Surely our high school building
is not to be without ample laborato-
ries..
And. then there IS another disap-
pointment-the lot on which It is pro-
posed TO place the school. That lot is
an ideally unfit one. Jammed in be-
tween q water tower on one side and
la large church on the other, and
in few years to be further shut in
on all other sides by business house or
residences whose back yards will butt
up against 1.-THE school will sit in
gloom. Centrally located? Fudge!
1t little matters whether youth walk
mile o. two more or less to school;
it matters much that, having walked
thither he spend the day in cheerful
surroundings. OF all houses. a. school
house should sit four square to free
heaven with plenty of space around
for fresh air. floods of light. bit Of
green grass and a flower.
VERY kind of you, DR.. Pickel, very
kind of you. indeed to mention all Of
those matters. The fact is we had
thought of them ourselves. weighed
them most seriously. We admit the
exceeding deSirableness Of those lab
oratories-one for the study of plant
and animal life; one for chemistry,
and one for physics. We know full
we'll that our course in cooking, for ex
ample, can not be properly taught
without knowledge of composition OF
foods and their function in the nutri-
ton of the body, and that this knOWl-
edge can be gotten only in the chem
ical and the biological laboratory.
And that brings the argument down to
mutton. Perhaps, dear doctor. now
that you are about it. you will kindly
hand over to the city the eight or ten
thousand additional dollars necessary
to insure those laboratories in our
plan Our building would need to be
a three-story one. The city hasn't
twenty-five thousand dollars 70 spend
on the high school building"
There now, esteemed city fathers,
YOU are most assuredlly a body of EN-,
barraSsing gentlemen. l come to you
with suggestions and criticisms-and
good ones. too-whereupon you inti-
mate that you are long on suggestions
and criticisms. but short on cash,
Such being the case. another SuggeS>
ton or. two will not add much to my
already great offending! Don't build
at all now. Our accomplished high
school principal and his worthy asso-
ciates would l doubt not. be quite
willing to peg away" year or two or
three longer in their present quarters,
provided only at the end of that time
thev can have a thoroughly up-to-date
high school complete in all parts, in
Guiding the aforesaid laboratories and
y SPACIOUS site. Is It not our proud
boast that Raleigh is. par excellence,
the educational centre of the State?
Can we afford to let Greensboro. Char
lotte and other aspiring villages get
ahead of us in the matter of high
school, as they most assuredly will il