The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-08-28
TIE SCHOOLS TOMORROW.

The public schools Of this city open
tomorrow. We think it would have
been better if they had not opened until
the following week. Still, the board
has settled il and tomorrow they open
1t is to be hoped that all will go well,
and that every one will be found pre-,
pared so far as possible for this early
opening.
The grade schools will undoubtedly
show increased attendance, especially
after few days. Some of the workers
have contracts that hold them until the
end Of the month, but next week un.
doubtedly the grade enrolment will he
at its maximum. The primary enroll
ment can of course take on its full
proportions at once. The high school,
unfortunately, must remain in its pres.
ent quarters for the full school year.
possibly longer. The difficulty of Sc
lecting a proper site for the east side
high school is one that taxes the in
genuity of the board and indeed of all
concerned, to the utmost The board
first voted TO put the school on the old
Twelfth ward school site, but the diff
Guilty of obtaining adjoining property
sufficient, and the high price at which
that realty is held, caused the board TO
reconsider its vote to put the school on
that site; but whether this will have
the effect of bringing down the price
of the property contiguous so that the
board can buy at a reasonable price, or
whether the selection of another site is
imperative, time alone can tell.
In the meantime, however, the high
school will start off with greater num-
bers than ever before, and under
auspices most satisfactory and favor
able. Under the management of Prin
cipal Eaton, the high school has not
only attained great proportions. but it
has attained a standing and celebrity
in every way advantageous to itself and
to the city. The high school work under
his management is we'll and thoroughly
done, and TO him is very largely due the
formation of the famous Cadet Corps
which has shed so much luster upon this
school and has been such pride to the
city.
The public schools should be, and they
are, a pride to everyone in the city.
This, however is not to say that we
must rest with what has been accom-
plished. Improvement is the order of
in the school work, even though il seems
TO some that the so-called improve
ment is retrogression. The fact is that
we have too many fads, too many no.
tional and improved courses to the detri
ment of the solid foundations of educa
ton. 1t is almost proverbial that the
pupils in the. public schools today do
not know how TO spell, and there seems
to be no way under the present formu
las of instruction to get them to realize
the Importance Of their defect in this
The "phonic SYSTEM of
reading is destructive Of the knowledge
Of spelling, and in fact is contrary to
the whole alDhabetical system. The
phonic idea harks back to the old
symbolic forms of writing which the
alphabet is usually supposed to super
sede. But there appears TO be reac
tionary tendency in the human mind,
a disposition to hark back TO discarded
ideas and forms; and this appears to be
the basis of the vogue Of the ''phonic
method - of reading.
1t is to be hoped that reaction to-
ward real progression may ensue be
fore long. and that the schools will
throw off lot of fads and get down
TO actual service to the people, not con-
fning themselves so much as hereto
fore TO theoretical study and textual
for the university and col
lege courses, which so few of the pupils
ever reach, but to which the real stress
and aim of educational life has been
heretofore too much directed.
But the schools as they are. we must
all support, and bend our best energies
to making them the yet better schools
of fbp future