Norwich bulletin., 1911-07-24
MORE COUNTRY CHILDREN
 THAN CITY CHILDREN
Are Attendants of the High Schools
 in Connecticut.
Special to The BulIetin.)


 Danbury, Conn, July 23.-In Secre- tary Hines lecture before the school supervisors yesterday at the state nor mai school. he emphasized the inn portance of the primary school, and he dwelt at some length on the retarda- tion of bright pupils because of the prevailing systems of promotion. Among other things. he said that school authorities should avoid organ ization which sacrifices the interests of primary educat tion to what is known as advanced education. MT. Hine said that we should build our educational systems from the. bottom up and not allow the higher insti- tutions of learning to shape the work of the primary grades.
 He stated that not more than SO per cent. of the children go beyond the sixth grade. In the first year of the high school there are 10 per cent. Between one and three per cent. finish the high school work. By investiga- ton MT. Hine has discovered that a larger percentage of the country chill dren are attending high schools than the percentage of city children.
 The speaker said that the primary schools might do more work than they are now accomplishing He deplored the plan of passing the promotions of children on the time spent in the schools instead of by subjects or work actually accomplished. MT. Hine said that even in the elementary schools it would be well to train children in practical subjects and the useful arts as soon as they finish the usual sub jects in the curriculum. He said that in planning the work of a school the supervisor should consider the needs of the community in which the chil- dren are living.
 I,- yai hot c1iaY rt,4 t<~ be taught in schools, not only for the knowledge which it illustrates but for the practice in thinking which it in wolves.
 Among other school questions. Mr Hine believes that the following are worth consideration by supervisors. How much should schools do in tech nical education? Should agriculture as an art be taught in the public schools of rural communities? Shall we teach arts which contribute to- wards gaining livelihood or shall we teac hsubjects which may affect social levels? Shall we teach domestic sci ence?
 At a special session of the super. visors there was conference on school attendance and how to improve it. State Attendance Agents c. N. Hal1 w. s. Simmons. Henry J. Pot ter, M. D. Marks. and s. P. Willard were present at this session. The at tendance agents told the supervisors how they were carrying on their cam paign to improve the attendance in schools. MT. Simmons, who has worked in some of the towns in eastern Con necticut, said that in 1895 he discov- cred that twenty seven Der cent of the employed children between four teen and sixteen years old were illit- crate. This is 8 matter of record and the figures are based on children who had left school to go to work Last year he found only two children of this age who were illiterate and under em- ployment. Another interesting state- ment of MT. Simmons was that the records show that dn 1895 the average attendance in our public schools was only seventy nine per cent. of the pu- pills registered. and during the school year which has just passed the attend ance has been ninety one per cent.