Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-03-06
HIGH SCHOOL NEEDS
Teachers With Understanding
Chief Among Them.
TRYING PERIOD FOR PUPILS
Many Drop Out Through Lack Of
Proper Encouragement.
TRAINING VITAL TO NATION
DIR. Carroll Pearse of Milwaukee
Lectures Before Association of
Teachers.
TRYING PERIOD FOR PUPILS
TRAINING VITAL TO NATION

Need of teachers with the understand
ing heart and a closer personal touch be-
tween teacher and pupil to remedy dis
couragement was emphasized by DR.. Car
roll Pearse, superintendent of the public
schools of Milwaukee, in an address last
night at the Business High School before
the High School Teachers Association OF
the District of Columbia. upon the subjec,
of Mortality in the Early Years of the
High School" The mortality referred to
by DIR. Pearse was mortality of school
life and not of the individual.
After referring to the conditions con-
fronting the pupil upon his transfer from
the elementary school to the high school
the. new and strange studies he must take
up the lack of the closer social life which
prevailed in the lower grades and the
general lack of joy DR.. Pearse de-
clared many pupils are actually crowded
out of school by the lack of understand
ing on the part of young and inexperi-
enced teachers, whose ego was large and
who looked at things subjectively from
their own standpoint rather than sympa-
thetically and with the desire to give the
right impulse to the pupil and smooth his
pathway in his new field.
Demand for Men Teachers.
DIR. Pearse said that from some
sources came the demand for more
men teachers, and, of course. he had to
stand by the men; but he said, There
is not one of you present here tonight
who cannot trace in your early school
life the influence upon your future OF
some one or more of your teachers who
had the soul to understand and the
heart to help in time of trial and need.
sympathetic. understanding heart that
was the effective and potent element in
a teachers influence for good.
Pupils leave the high school more.
perhaps, from a feeling of discourage
ment than anything else. he said. They
may have the brains and the ability to
advance if given the right kind of help
and encouragement. Often he said Il
was necessary for the teacher to go
beyond the pupil and into his home to
study conditions there and influence
the parents. Many children in the high
school he said, come from families
whose traditions had not led them in
the way of higher education, and who
getter for the family benefit as soon as
possible, not because the money was
needed but simply because that hal
been the rule with the parents and
those of the generations before them.
Sometimes, he said the very efficiency
of the high school was one of the rea-
sons for the shrinkage in the number
of pupils from year TO year. This was
especially so in commercial or business
high schools. A boy or girl entered
them with the object of attaining some
business object ahead. Every good
stroke done by the teachers made such
a boy or girl mote valuable to the en-
ployer, and that vas an element that
contributed to the shrinkage from the
first to the fourth year classes.
Then. he said, we have not yet es-
tablished social educational standard
in what ought to be given a child in MS
education