The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1906-02-22
Free Text Books

There is now a provision in the
school law OF South Dakota by which
a corporation" can secure free text
books-that is, school books shall be
a part of school room equipment and
furnished at public expense as are
chalk, fuel, maps, seats, etc.
Article Y of the Revised Code of 1903,
Paragraph 2403, reads as follows: pc
tition for Free B~ooks)-"Upon a writ
ten petition of the majority OF the
electors of any school corporation ask
ing that the school books be furnished
free to the pupils, it shall be the duty
of said board to arrange and furnish
the free use of books to the pupils of
such corporation under such rules and
regulations as the school board may
determine"
That there may be no misunder-
standing in the minds of readers as to
what constitutes a corporation" it is
proper to say that the statute refers to
a district township, an independent
district Country or town or a u
ty.
1t is surprising that intelligent pat
rons, school teachers, and even some
county superintendent are unaware
that we have a kind of local option
free text book statute.
The plan of making text books a
part of school room equipment is an
educational question which is receiving
a good deal of attention from educators.
1t has been tested in practice and has
proved both satisfactory and successful.
The real question involved in con-
sidering the matter is: Will the cause
OF education be advanced or retarded
by such a measure? If it's adoption
shall remove from the path of educa-
ton obstacles that would otherwise bar
its progress, considerations of parsi-
mony, prejudice, sentiment and graft
must be relegated to the rear and the
paramount interests Of the common
wealth-the development of its intel
lectual powers, be placed at the front.
Our system of education has greatly
multiplied the subjects treated in every
grade of our schools, and has doubled,
trebled and q~uadrupeled the numbered
text books required. This is a con
slant and burdensome drain upon the
resources of parents who have large
families; these parents are not, infre-
quently, poor, and are often tempted
or forced to withdraw their children
from school and put them to work,
because of the burden of some expense
thus incurred. The frequent changes
in text books greatly increase and
aggravate the first named difficulty.
We have legal provisions by which
text books can be changed but once in
five years, but each county is a law
unto itself; we may have a different
set Of text books for each county. a
migratory population such AS we have
in the Northwest is subject to heavy
burdens and great expence because Of
these conditions. For example: a
common carpenter with a large family,
living in a country town, moves to one
in adjoining county: he is forced to
purchase, entire, a new set Of books
for his family. We have a compulsory
school law, and the poor man who has
the children's interest at heart should
ers his burdens with a groan, believ-
ing that his troubles are over. AlasI
The following year the county board
orders another change and the carpen-
ter is again obliged to shoulder another
burden. In a year or two he mOves to
another county to repeat the same eX-
perience. Result: Children removed
from school because Of insuppOrtable
expense.
As education is at present conducted
the burden and responsibility Of fur
nishing the necessary books is laid
upon parents: many Of these are poor,
parsimOnious, or careless. In the
country districts particularly, children
are but partially supplied; n text
book is made to do duty for two pupils:
borrow books from one another
and great excitement results. School
books are cash, and it frequently hap
pens that parents do not send their
children to school at the beginning OF
the term'because of lack of means, or
in procuring books.
Thus the efficiency, as well as the
attendance, is greatly diminished by
the text book burden upon the
parent rather than on the public. Any
cause of diminution in attendance or
efficiency is to be deplored as a serious
obstacle to education, and its removal
is greatly to be desired.
A plea for free text books is not a
plea for poverty striker, p%enuriOus, or
careless parents, but a plea for the
greater efficiency of the school-"The
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