Willmar tribune., 1909-06-09
SCHOOL BOARDS
IN COUNCIL

IN COUNCIL
Successful Meeting Of School Of
ficers Held At Court House
Last Saturday.
In spite of muddy roads and
threatening weather.. the meeting
of school boards held at the court
house last Saturday was decided
success. speaking we'll for the inter-
est taken in educational matters by
the school officers of the county.
There was a fair attendance at the
morning session. far better than
anybody could have expected under
the circumstances, and after dinner
the attendance was greatly in
creased.
Supt. Frederickson opened the
morning session with a few remarks
explaining the purposes of the
meeting. Supt. P. C. Tonning of
the Willmar schools was the first
speaker on the program, and he
gave an interesting address on the
value of education to the nation
from a utilitarian standpoint. He
showed by statistics that the states
that spend the most money on edu-
cation show the greatest produc-
tive capacity per capita, while the
states that spend the least for edu-
cation show the smallest productive
c ap a city. Thus Massachusetts
spends over five dollars per capita
for education, and the average val
ue of products of all kinds of in
dustry in the state is over four hun
dred dollars per capita; Alabama,
on the other hand, spends seventy
four cents per capita for education,
and the average value Of products
per capita is fifty-nine dollars.
Several other states were men,
toned, the proportion between ex-
penditures for education and the
productive capacity proving the
same as in the extreme instances.
Having proven the momentary val
ue of education, the speaker called
attention to the great waste in the
common schools, especially in the
country, caused by irregular attend
ance or non-attendance of pupils.
He pointed oft that the expenses
of maintaining the schools is the
same whether the pupils attend or
not. While the average length of
school the past year in the county
was 140 days, the average attend
ance per pupil was only SO days.
Thus practically half the time was
wasted. Another speaker later on
pointed out that the waste was
greater than indicated by this per-
centage Of attendance. for the pupil
who attends irregularly does not
get the same benefit from the time
spent in the school as he would if
he had attended the same number
Of days in regular sequence, and be-
sides that he hinders the members
of the class who do attend regular
ly and takes some extra time from
the teacher. Besides this, the ir-
regular pupil misses the most i'm
portant thing for him to learn In
order to be successful-the habit of
regular and systematic attention to
his duties.
Attorney Elias Rachie next spoke
of school laws in general and spe.
cially of new laws passed at the last
session Of the legislature. He
showed that the legislature had at
tempted to correct the evil spoken
of by Mr.. Tonning, by passing an
amendment to the compulsory school
law. This new law requires the
clerk of the district to make out q
list Of all pupils in the district that
are Of the ages included under the
compulsory attendance law, making
three copies Of the same-one for
the teacher, one for the county su.
perintendent and one for himself.
These lists. will then be used in
compelling attendance of all who
are not legally excused. 1t must
be remembered that the law re.
quires attendance. of such pupils
EVERY SCHOOL DAY, unless they
have some legal excuse.
The principal speaker at the af'
ternoon session was Supt. L. P.
Harrington, who spoke on industri.
.al education in our country schools,
and explained the agricultural con-
test inaugurated for the purpose o1
interesting pupils In practical
agriculture. The contest also in.
cludes homework Of various kinds
for the girls. The speaker ex.
|plained that educators had come te
the conclusion that much Of the ed,
ucational work done hiterto had
been faulty In that It educated the
pupils away from work instead ol
helping them in the lines that most
of them would have to follow thru
life. The city schools are now ed
ucating the boys in manual arts and
tho oir1s IN hn,1aoworle an1 II ie