The Falls City tribune., 1911-03-31
SCHOOL BUILD
ING QUESTION
NO COMPLAINT Is MADE-ONLY Y
GIVES THE SITUATION
TIE Needs OF The High School is
Ably Presented BY Supt.
s. n. Wood


been presented, and what seems the
best solution Of the building question
from the standpoint of the grades
has been offered The needs of the
nigh school are quite 2s imperative
as are those of the grades. Few
people not in close touch with the
schools realize this But little has
been publicly said on the question.
We have been doing the best we
could, and the high school has been
accomplishing good work, but now
that the question of building has
arisen, it is proper that the long
tet needs should be stated. This
statement is made in no spirit of
complaint. 1t is intended as a
frank presentation of conditions as
they are.
The present high school building
contains eight rooms of the ordinary
size. Three of these rooms are
used for the grades, and five for the
high school proper One of these
five rooms is used for study room
and for general assembly purposes,
and the other four are used for
recitation rooms. This is the equip
lnent provided twenty years ago. But
great changes have taken place in
school courses since tha time. New
subjects, have been added, new
methods of teaching have been in
troduced. For instance, Physics,
chemestry, botany, agriculture, all
the sciences, in fact, must now be
Taught by the laboratory method. This
method requires apparatus and room
to use it. The room which We now
Use for Physics and Chemistry lab
oratory must also be used for a rec
i.ation room. AS consequence it
is so full of seats and tables for
Physics and lockers and desks for
Chemistry, that pupils have little
room for work. The other sciences
also should have more room for
laboratory purposes than is now pro
vided. One of the needs of the
high school, then, is more and better
arranged room for laboratory pur-
poses.
There are other classes not prop
erly provided for. At several per
iods five recitations must meet with
hut four recitation rooms and at one
period six reaitations are in session
at the same time. This necessita-
tes the use of the library for a
recitation room during several per-
iods each week, and for the period
when six recitations are in session,
the superintendent office must be
used for a small class. The heat
ing of the library is very uncertain
in winter, as it is provided only with
an overflow flue from the furnace.
The fitness of the superintendent's
office for a recitation room may be
judged from it's dimensions, since it
is an old hallway 25 feet long and
seven feet nine inches wide, with a
window in one end.
As suggested above, one of the
five rooms occupied by the high
school is used for study and assem-
bly, purposes. This room is practi-
oally the same size as the ordinary
Grade room, intended to seat forty
TO forty-five pupils. One hundred fif-
teen to one hundred forty high school
students must be crowded into this
room for roll call twice each day,
for general exercises once each day,
at the close of sessions twice each
day, and the majority of these stu
dents must come into the room at
the close of each recitation to get
Looks, etc. OF course such a room
cannot be seated with desks for each
individual so tables are arranged that
part of the students may use them
for study; the rest must sit around
the wall. Books are kept in open
tills ON the wall That such an ar
ibhSChChI 10 a 6iGdI lldldlCdp W Tie
accomplishment of best results is an
inevitable conclusion. For
Rirst-The study period is not what
it should be- since the pupil has no
regular place 10 sit. and he is often
crowded so much that he cannot
give his attention to his work. And
more carelessness in written work
must be tolerated because the pupil
has no fit place to keep ink and no
place to use it.
Second - Much needless confus-
ion results from congestion in so
small a room, and from the neces-
sity of all passing to the same tills,