Perth Amboy evening news., 1906-03-14
SUPERINTENDENT SKULL
MAKES HIS REPORT.
CONTINUED from Page IL

CONTINUED from Page IL
of them in school. ! am firmly Of the
opinion that many children are given
employment contrary to law, and am
equally firm in the belief that it is
the intent of the law that this COM
munity. all communities, should com
pei the attendance of this class of
children.
General.
The number of pupils entering the
high school department is rapidly in
creasing each year. Last September
we were obliged to vacate one of the
rooms in the high school given TO
grade, in order to accommodate the
incoming freshman class. At least
one hundred pupils of the present
classes in the eighth grade will be
admitted to the high school in Sep
TENDER, thus requiring the vacation
of two rooms now occupied by pupils
of the seventh grade. The pupils
of these two grades will be assigned
TO schools Nos. l and I, which will
completely fill all the available space
in those two buildings.
The condition of Nos. 4. . and 6
has been called to your attention
from time to time. 1t was impossible
during the year to conduct those
schools on the whole-day plan. The
impossibility of finding any rooms
that could be rented for school pur-
poses necessitated our resorting to
the half session plan in the lower
grades of those buildings,
New Teacher for Maurer.
The number Of pupils in the Maui
rer district was stationary until the
past year. The building activities in
that section have increased the pop
ulation to an extent that will compel
the employment of an additional
teacher in September.
Revise Courses.
The raising of the standard of ad-
mission to colleges and normal
schools has made it advisable to re
wise the courses of study in high
schools. This was pretty generally
done two years ago. and sufficient
time has elapsed to enable school
authorities to determine the results
of the revision. It is true with US,
and equally true elsewhere, l think,
that the courses now pursued put to
the highest test pupils of normal abil-
ity in their efforts TO complete the
work in four years. Like army 9th
ers, educational fashions sometimes
work great harm. This is true, ! be-
lieve, in the one that has fixed four
years as the time in which a high
school course should be completed
AS mental power cannot be weighed
in a balance, so also it cannot be
measured off by a f~our-year ward
stick. A course of study should be
considered as completed when the
student has fairly well mastered the
work of the course chosen, regardless
of the time required in years.
Mental Powers.
Parents are very slow to recog-
nize that mental power is not meas
] ultN " IN dSt Vi AAAIAL ia NHf
and hence do a great deal Of needless
worrying when their children are not
so rapidly advanced as their neigh
boris children of equal age; they do
recognize their inability to discover
a process by which all children Of The
same age may be made to attain the
same weight or height, but will close
their eyes to the impossible process
OF an equal mental development.
Every self-respecting parent not
only loves his children. but desires
that his offspring be enabled to meet
the problems of life with better
eouipment than his own. These TWO
feelings far too often generate an
ambition that is detrimental in the
extreme to the best welfare of his
children. The most serious trouble
and the greatest number Of misunder-
standings between teachers and par
ents are traced TO the fact that the
latter either can MOI or will not see
that their children ought 10 be con
sidered solely with reference to theiT
own mental strength and ability, the
relative advancement of other child
rem being utterly d~isregarded. When
people can once bring themselves tc
a realization of this truth, they viii
appreciate how beneficial it is to theil
e1Aildren to get all there is in any
, cofTse of study even if its completion
, shoSNld require a year or two more
tharN is required by the children o
thei 4 neighbors.
! "sStated in a more abncise form,
fourtyear course OF s. Idly can be GOV