The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-06
EDUCATION IN
 THE NEWEST STATE  OkIahoma's Schools In Highly
 Efficient Condition HOW THE SCHOOLS ARE RUN Oldest Citizen of Oklahoma City Is Young Lady IS Years Old, Who
 Will Graduate From High
 School Next Spring.
HOW THE SCHOOLS ARE RUN
BY FREDERIC j. HAsklN.


 Oklahoma City, Okla, November G. Oklahoma believes in schools. It comes into the union offering educational advan- ] tages to it's boys and girls which are surpassed by but few of the older states. Its educational system is already de- veloped to a high degree, and plans have been made and money provided 10 fur ther increase the efficiency of the free institutions, from Kindergarten to uni versity. Taxes do not alarm the Okla homan when the revenues are to be eX- pended for schools, for he is a liberal spender. The little town of Perkins, for instance holds a school meeting each
 July. Every taxpayer and patron of the schools, man woman, may vote. In
 the past P years that district has always voted a school tax of 20 mills on the dollar. This is the highest levy permit ted by the territorial laws In all these l2 years there has never been one vote against the proposition to go the limit. The new constitution limits the school tax levy to 17 mills and many votes were cast against statehood on that account. As the rate of assessment will be raised under statehood, however, the school reve- nues will not suffer
 The federal government gave the terri tory of Oklahoma two sections in each 1 township. or one-eighteenth of all the land., for school purposes It has also given a great deal of land for the sup port of the public educational insttu-
 tions which rank above the high school, so that more than one-sixteenth of the old territory of Oklahoma is held for school pun poses. This amounts to over 3,0O00Oo acres, an area greater than that of the original Oklahoma. If 1t were sold now |, would produce about $50 000,000 In the Indian Territory portion of the new state the government could
 not, in justice to the Indians. reserve the lands for school purposes. Congress, however, appropriated S5,O00,010 in cash in lieu of the school lands, and Wle new state will start out with that much cash school fund. The Oklahoma common
 school lands are leased for farming and i grazing and now produce about $6O0.00 i year. Under statehood these lands may
 be sold, the resident lessor having the preference. The million acres held for the colleges have not yet been leased,
 and they will add materially to the an l nual income.
 The University of Oklahoma at Nor
 man has more than 800 students this year, while the three state normal schools ! have 2500, the University Preparatory school has over 400 and the two agricul- tural and mechanical schools, one for whites and one for negroes have an. other thousand. Collegiate institutions not Dnder territorial control have nearly 1 2000 students. All of this Is exclusive of | the Indian schools in both sections of l the new state.
 The city high school at Oklahoma City has 75O pupils. Two years ago 1t had less than 50O The building which it could not fill five years ago is now so crowded that two schools days are al- | lowed to each calendar day and half the pupils attend in the forenoon and the others in the afternoon. A new high | school building to cost a quarter of | million is on the cards and will be built | next year.
 Woe unto the teacher of geography in l that high school if he knows not his l business. For inf the classes every state l in the union east of the Mississippi is | represented, and only 10 states in the | union are absent. The teachers of the | public schools of the city come from s | different states, not to mention two Euro pean countries. Even the lkindergartners | are travelled and they demand cosmopoll- | tan advantages.
 1 The oldest native born inhabitant of Ok | lahoma City is Miss Bessie Land. She \ IS clSuIeen ana ana IS pid1iiluS | for the best effects in white gowns for q | day next June. when she will be grad- uated. The "oldest inhabtant' is the 1 label we stick under mental picture or | q bent old man with long white beard. | Their mental pictures are different here. | Miss Land was born in Oklahoma City | just a few weeks after the first great ! rush. But it is rather novel to hear the | oldest inhabitant of hourishing city say: Sn1,r iS Ina haS in, fhn
 we will have a hundred thousand popula- 1 tion by the time am 21 years old" The new constitution requires that the l clements of agriculture. horticulture, i stock feeding and domestic science shall | be taught in the common schools. Free l kindergartens are to be required in all
 towns of more than 250O population The | high schools already have extensive courses in commercial education, and an l Oklahoma high school graduate knows | how to write shorthand, manipulate a l typewriter and keep books. Modern Ian | guages are required in the courses of ! most high schools. and the tendency everywhere is to accentuate the practical l in education.
 At Guthrie there is model county high | school which will be copied by other ! counties throughout the state. Of it's 100 | students. more than 200 are country boys | and girls. Indeed, this school gives as | much attention to the country pupils as ! it possibly can. Its head master. Snow 1 den Parlette, came from Kansas by way | of Harvard. He is man with ideas and | knows how to work. He has obtained | light work for more than fifty country l boys and girls that will enable them to | pay their board while they are in school. | From this high school a pupil may enter | any of the western and central universi- l ties on certificate. In equipment and scope this high school will compare favor | ably with any eastern school in county | of it's size, while in attendance there are | few eastern counties which can show so | good record in proportion Township 1 high schools such as are maintained in ] states like Indiana are. of course, a long way in the future. but Oklahoma will see | to 1t that the boy and the girl in the ! country have equal educational advan-
 tages with the town-bred youths.
 These county high schools have all the 1 trimmings that small colleges can 1 boast of-athletics of all kinds. school and class publications which appear monthly. 'annuals'' just like | real c6llege. and
 all the rest except Greek letter fraterni-
 ties. There was a start toward their in-