The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1909-04-02
PUBLIC COUNTY HIGH SCHOOLS
Brief Summary of Reasons for the Es
tablishment and Maintenance.

tablishment and Maintenance.
l. The opportunity thus offered for
the better education of teachers for the
elementary schools. With good public
high schools in every county, it will be
easy to make graduation from high
school, or an equivalent education, a
minimum requirement for teachers S
license, and thus to increase immensely
the value and efficiency of the elemen-
tary schools This would alone justify
any county in establishing and main
tanning public high school.
2. The influence on the attendance
and interest in the lower schools. ...
Without a high school the county
school system is incomplete. There is
no goal toward which all pupils in the
public schools of the county may work
hence, many quit school, falling out IT.
regularly before the elementary school
course is finished The maintenance OF
good public high schools strengthens
the lower schools, increases their at
tendance, and deepens their interest,
8. In every county of the State
much time is lost by the teachers in the
elementary schools by attempting tC
teach few pupils in advanced subjects.
Two or three pupils in district school
of forty or fifty children take up much
valuable time of the teacher, which
should be given to the studies of the
larger number of pupils in the lower
grades. To teach class of two or three
in these advanced subjects requires as
much time as it does to teach twenty OF
thirty in the lower and larger classes
g, Nor is it to be expected that this higher
work can be done satisfactorily in these
lower schools. There is always danger
that these older pupils, out of sympathy
with the work and play and discipline OF
the younger children, may become dis
turbing elements in the school. Plain
ly it will be good economy, both for the
schools and for the individual children,
to transfer all such pupils to central
high schools, where they can be taught
more effectively and at less cost in larg-
er classes with others of their own age
and advancement, thus leaving the ele-
mentary teachers their own proper
work, for which they are better prepar-
ed.
f. There is an ever greater demand
for men and women with the education
and training of colleges, universities and
technical schools. Such men and wo-
men are sought for leadership in all our
social and industrial life, and to them
90 the most liberal rewards for service.
In democracy such education must be
accessible to all alike. But without
the public high school, this is impos-
sible. Few farmers, mechanics, coun-
try merchants and professional men are
able to send their sons and daughters
away to private preparatory schools for
three or four years and then give them
the assistance necessary to make even a
beginning in college. By giving the
opportunity of adequate college prepa-
ration at a minimum expense, the pub
lie high school will become an open
door to the colleges and universities.
5. But only few will go to college
or the technical school. The great ma
jority must depend on the local high |
school for a knowledge of the elemen-
tary principles of physics, chemistry, |
biology and economies, and their appli-
cation in the home, in the shop, on the
farm and in the store, which our boys
and girls must have if, as men and wo-
men, they are to hold their own in the
competition of modern in
dustrial and commercial life and do
their part in the worldwide co-opera-
ton through which all life is lifted to
higher levels. The rural high school
should give special attention to the prin- |
ciples of agriculture and home econom-
les. Upon the public high school must |
most of our boys and girls depend for a |
for citizenship and the cul-
ture and refinement of their own souls, |
both of which are certainly not less inn
portant than to be able to do their part
in the industrial world and to make an
honest support.