Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1907-05-17
Compliments for Schools.

= Compliments for Schools.
. That the splendid public school sys
tenn of Newport News made an exec
lent impression upon the members Of
the state board of examiners on the
occasion of their recent visit we gath
cred from their own words of praise,
but it now appears that they think
we'll enough of it to tell other COM
munities of the rapid strides made here
and the prospect for further develop
ment along the same line. In the
Roanoke Times appears the following
testimonial from the president of the
board, which is good enough to frame:
''An interview with the president of
the state board of examiners and in
spectnrs shows Newport News to have
one of the finest systems vi schools in
the state.
The board recently held a meeting
10 that city and was much pleased with
the schools There were many fine
features of the school work there that
especially commeDds it to those capa-
BILE of judging. One of the features is
the Introduction of departmental In
structi0n in grammar grades. In ex-
PLANTATION. it might be said that the
work of the grammar grades is divided
into schools or departments. In de.
partment there are grouped those stu
dies most related. and the teachers, in |
stead of teaching an entire grade, teach |
a department.. They thus become spe- |
cialists, and the experience of those |
schools that employ the departmental
system, is that the work done by these |
specialists is of higher order than |
that done by the teacher who cannot |
specialize
Another good feature of the New
port News schools is this: The seventh |
grades of the grammar schools and the !
High school devote two periods a
week, the boys to manual training,
and the girls to cooking. There are
rooms well fitted out for this work and
it is proving to be very successful.
"And still another feature is this
there are general supervisors for the
Of music and art, and for
the department of manual training
mentioned above. Of the two periods,
one in each department is taught by
the supervisor.
''All these feature, among others no.
ticed by the board, are characteristic
of the best city schools. And so it re-
mains to be judged that Newport
News, though she has done little talk
ing, must, indeed, have fine schools"
The officials of the city schools or
ganization-trustees, superintendent,
principals and teachers-are to be COLI
graduated upon a showing that made
an impression sufficiently strong to !.
draw forth such an unequivocal ex-
preston of praise. The new method
which has been adopted and is operat
ing here with capital result was con.
celved by Professor Willis A. Jenkins,
superintendent of schools and
until recently president of the state
board of school examiners 1t remain 1
ed, however, for Superintendent W. Z.
Morton to work out the details and
place the method on working basis
that makes it impregnabIe against
flaws and criticism. When Professor
Jenkins relinQuished his duties as su-
Derintendent of city schools for the
position of examiner the work that he
had undertaken was taken up by Pro.
fessor Morton and the theory was put
into practice Today it is operating
with splendid result. 1t is constantly
being augmented and improved and J
the progress that is being made here In
The direction of new and more modern
methods of instruction is attracting at
tentiOn from state instructors general.
ly.
Now that the members of the state
board have directed public notice to the
superiority of the Newport News sys.
tenn, interest will become greater. 1t
is safe to say that the principal fea.
lures of the plan in vogue here will be
the foundation of the new uniform
method Of tea ching, which it is prOpos
ed to arrange as soon as practicable. Il
Newport News Times Herald.