The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1908-02-21
SOME BARE STATISTICS
Some Leading Statements Made Con
corning the Situation in the
High School Department.

High School Department.
When the new school building in
the second ward is completed there
will be twenty-nine school rooms in
the city. Three of the twenty nine
are in the garrett of the high school
building and were never intended for
school rooms, as no provision. was
made for beating or ventilating
these three rooms, and trey cannot
be properly warmed nor ventilated
now though they have been in daily
use for the last four years. The
high school enrolment is two
hundred fourteen students and the
assembly and study room was in
tended .for less than one-haIf that
number OF students. Besides this
study room the high school has the
use OF five recitation rooms for the
accommodation of the classes reciting
to the seven high school teachers,
and n of these recitation rooms is
a garrett room too small to .commo-
date The average classes. The room
where fifty students are trying to
do their laboratory work measures
oply twelve feet by eighteen feet.
Under existing conditions seventy
seven students are seated in the two
recitation rooms on the second floor ;
hnf. ,pI,op c1occoc .op,o RI %ho,o ,oo~,
to %recite, the ones seated there must
vacate their seats and hunt for others
for that recitation period and may
not be able to occupy their own seats
again for two or three periods
though they have no Rotations
themselves.
1t is the heritage of every Ameri-
can boy or girl to have a free seat all
his own In d public school. The
Mitchell high school denies this right
to it's students and puts two in each
seat, and fully half the time when a
student returns to his seat he finds
it occupied by some other student
who is reciting Or has himself been
driven from his own seat by class,
or by some other "honeless'' one
who is glad to find a place where he
can sit down and Try to think Of his
lesson.
The net results Of such a condition
are confusion, disorder. lax work,
lack of seriousness, poor scholarship,
etc.
For music the two hundred four
teen students are crowded into the
assembly room, two in every seat,
the air is ,,yiciously bad and the net
results in by-product, are headaches,
lassitude, WEAKNESS, dullness and
meanness.
The students cannot be assembled
oftener than is absolutely necessary,
thus opening exercises have been
abandoned. This period should be
the most helpful OF the whole school,
but is all gone by force Of conditions.
TIE impossihility of proper order
and decorum has put on the whole
school an aspect of a joke and
definite school work OF a creditable
grade is out of the question. aud yet
the puhiic %ill censnre The teachers,
if the Mitchell high school falls from
the accredited list OF the North
Central Association Of Colleges and
Universities: but do not forget that
the injury to the boys and girls is
much more serious than the loss of a
place on said accredited list.
The above condition as to cfeditable
work is made manifest by the nun Der
of failures. Wrecked SCHOLARSHIPS.
wrecked mallh, wrecked habits are
surely "ht ming in many cases now.
The amAunt of absence on account of
sickn $, i, amazing. 1t can be
shown .ila1 sickness is far more
prevalent among the students than
among others of the city.
The new school building in the
Second ward has six school oorns +:
the building 10 the Third ward has
four school rooms; the frame bnild-
ing in the fourth ward has five school
rooms: there are four grace rooms in
the high school building aud the
building in the first ward has four
rooms counting the two in the garrett
OF that building, hence there are
nov only twenty-three rooms for
eight hundred forty nine grade
pupils, making an average of Thirty
seven pupils for every room: and
there are many pupils on the streets
or loafing elsewhere VINO should be In
school.
Will the friends OF the children
remember them?
About Turning in Fire Alarms.
To the Public: In turning in a