The daily Alaskan., 1907-02-09
STATES CASE
Skagway School Board An
 sWer Critics
Office Board of Education,
 Skagway, Alaska, Feb. 4.

that the town council Of this city hao been petitioned to right certain wrongs abuses, etc., which, it was alleged, were being inflicted on the pupils at our pub lie school. The petition was signed by l3 persons, six of whom are patrons of the school, and was by the council referred to their committee on judiciary. This committee turned the petition over to the SC lool board with the statement that they lthe com' mittee) recognized the fact that they had no jurisdiction whatever in the matter and that the correction ot the abuses, If any existed, was entirely in the hands of the board. h this VIC concur.
 Believing that some of the patrons of the school are expecting that the board should take some action and believing, further, that the columns of the press provide the best and most public way in which to reach the people at large, we have ssxed the editor of the Alas kan to give us space in which to ans wer the above mentioned petition. This he has kindly consented to do.
 The petition !s composed of misslead ing statements from beginning to end and has apparently been written with but small regard for the facts. The following are the allegations therein contained:
 lst. That the pupils are graded in music, painting and drawing, resulting in low averages to those who have no special talent for these subjects.
 2nd. That the seventh grade has been abolished, and that those pupils who were compelled to skip the seventh grade are being kept in after school as a result.
 3rd. That penmanship has been dropped.
 4th. That pupil has been kept out of school ou account of inability 10 sing, an acton that is preposterous and without precedent in school manage ment.
 9th. That time which should be de- voted to ";he three R's,' is wasted on useless matter-presumably drawing and music.
 In the petition the first three alIega- tious are stated as facts; the last two are assumed to be facts.
 Taking up the statements in the petition in the order given above, the facts are as follows:
 lst. We do not teach "painting: ' some water color and crayon work is done, but isis in connection with and forms part of the regular drawing lessons. This is branch of public school work that is being taught, prac' ticslly all over the United States. Leading educators believe that the in- troduction Of colorS inte the drawing lessons stimulates the interest of the pupil in the work. No pupil ID any room has been given a grade in draw ing this year. All pupils except those in Mrs. Rosenberg's room were graded in music the second Quarter; those in Mr. Telford's and Miss Doerrer's the first quarter. The degree to which averages are lowered in these grades by the study of music may be judged from the grades given MT. TeltOrd's s pupils the last quarter Of the 29 pupils whose report cards are on hand now, Feb. 4th) g received a grade equal to or higher than ;their average. Ia the Iother six cases, the grade in music being given first in each case, the grading follows:
 70, Tt: $, 78g; 80, Sls:8O, S3g;75, Fl; 30, s3s.
 h no case was the average of any pupil in this room lowered more than fve-eighths of one per cent. by his or her grade in music. It would be man. ifestly unfair for us to grade one p0pil "periect" in music because hesOr she can sing we'll, and to grade another child "poor" in the same study flor the same reason tbsC be or she cannot sing The pupils are simply graded according to the knowledge of such music as it $ taught to them in the school room, GLG any pupil, whether unsteady inclined or not, can answer such questions as are put to them along these lines. The question as to whether or not a child actually can or cannot sing does not enter into the matter in any way what ever. We will say further that the study of music is included in the public schools throughout the country.
 2nd. The seventh grade has not beer abollshed-only postponed. This actior was taken by the school board in the Fall before school opened, and at tha' time circular describing the proposed change was sent to every family affect ed as far as the names could be secured the idea was also outlined in an article