Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1911-04-28
MUST ATTEND SCHOOL
Continued from page u

moral, and intellectual we'll being as to
demand from society protective meas
ures. This form of exploitation took
children from their homes for the en-
tire day, worked them in gangs, de-
prived them of play, subjected them to
the oppression Of the monotony OF ma
chimes, and defeated all the growth
processes of childhood. In the COM
pulsory attendance at school not mere
ly for the purpose of education, but to
preserve a more favorable environment
during childhood, humanitarians have
found an important measure of social
economy.
Examples of legislation affecting
compulsory attendance show much
variation among different states.
Nearly all states have at sometime
placed on the statue books some law,
but nearly all of them likewise have
found their first efforts in this direc-
ton quite without effect. Because
this represents field in which social
economy and inherited traditions as
we'll as selfshness clash, progress has
been slow and legislation has so far at
times outrun public opinion that the
laws have remained quite unenforced.
But there has been in all civilized
countries more or less steady growth
of wise opinion, and the results are
found in legislation that is enforceable,
and in large measure is actually be-
ing carried out Some digests of the
laws of states prominent in this regard
will exhibit the progress made up to
date
(Here Miss Noteware gave synop
sis of the laws of New York and Mass
achusetts bearing upon the subject.)
The history of the development of
laws regarding compulsory education
is varied, and illustrates the difficulties
encountered when legislation, resting
on general principles, tends to outrun
the progress of public opinion as to its
enforcement in particular cases. Every
step in the laws represented above,
which exhibit the best of legislation on
compulsory education, has only been
attained as the result of long effort,
by the consciousness of the
failure of the laws that had been in
vogue before. Summarized, the above
legislation represents acceptance of
the following principles, without which
compulsory education can hardly be
said to exist:
(a) Age.-All children should be
compelled to attend school until they
are fourteen, and, if they have not
reached certain standard, until they
are sixteen. This means that all
should attend public, private, or state
schools (for delinquents or defectives),
or be taught under approved private
auspices.
(b) State Oversight of Private School
Attendance. Where private schools
are accepted as meeting the needs of
attendance, and ultimately of passing
on the quality of work done Similarly
for private or home teaching. The
logic underlying all attempts at en-
forcing compulsory education demands
this.
(c) Amount of Attendance. Attends
ance at school must be defined by
amount of time. In the early history
of Legislation in most states it was
customary to prescribe certain num-
Der of weeks. But without prescrip-
ton as to when these weeks should be,
the parents were always able. to pro-
vide excuses and to put off enforcement
of the law with promises. The best of
the recent laws recognize that only full
attendance during the entire time that
school is in session can effectively pro-
vide for the necessities of the compul-
sorry education.
I'D Safeguarding Exceptions. In all
cases the law must provide for ex-
ceptions. Children who are not we'll
physically, those who cannot find places
in the schools, who have too great a
distance to travel, and children who
are mentally unfit for the ordinary
school, and cannot be Accommodated in
special institutions, must be considered.
In many states with weak legislation
it is also customary to provide for
exceptions in the case of families that
need the aid of the children for self
support, or in case of children who are
taught at home. Modern and pro-
gressive legislation refuses to recog-
nize parental need as a factor in the
case of children under fourteen. If
parents are needy, other means must
be found to provide for them, than
through depriving the child of it's
educational heritage. AS to the auth
critics to decide on the validity of ex-
ceptions, practice is yet much divided;
but the need of wise and disinterest-
oH for tI,se, seo