The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1911-07-10
STANTON FOR BIG SCHOOLS
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Continued from Page ~ "
schools will have a
far reaching influence for good from
every viewpoint and upon every cit
izen, both old and young, in every
where they exist. They
will constitute the centers from
which will radiate the influences
that go to make happy, contented, in
tellectual homes, so imperatively de-
manded if we will perpetuate the
great, free, independent republic of
which we are all so proud. am
not unmindful of the fact that large
schools cannot be maintained with
out good roads and l anticipate the
objection by some that the roads
must be first provided. True, to
some extent, but permit me to sug-
gest that disposition on your part
to establish the schools will be the
greatest incentive to the construc-
ton of good roads that your ingen-
uity can conceive. One will demand
the other, and together they will
the biggest boon to North
ern Minnesota that can be devised.
Makes Practical Schools Possible.
Such schools will make possible
the advantages of industrial training
in every communicable teaching
of manual training, domestic science
and the elements of agriculture.
These cannot be taken up in the iso-
lated country school, and it is now
generally conceded that our educa-
tional system should have a practi-
cal as we'll as a mental side; that it
is the duty of the state to train the
hands and bodily faculties of the
children as we'll as the purely men,
tai.
Today, the idea of education along
industrial lines is being thoroughly
discussed and considered. 1t has
passed through the experimental
stage and is now generally admit
ted to be wise and practical. All of
our boys cannot become professional
men, Probably not more than one
out of a thousand would make a Sue
cessful lawyer, and in any event,
that percentage of lawyers is all that
we have any legitimate use for. Some
of our boys must become business
men, farmers, mechanics and labor
ers. Then, why not educate them so
that they will have the proper knowl-
edge to fit themselves for the duties
they will have to perform? Give
our educational system a practical
as we'll as a mental side.
Putnam Law Proving Useful.
The future prosperity of Mime
sofa depends upon it's agricultural
and industrial resources. Our chill
dren are the men and women who
must take up and carry on this work.
Then how important it is that we
shall educate them to do their part
intelligently and we'll. The system
is working we'll in Minnesota under
what is known as the Putnam law
enacted in 1909 and there is no
doubt but that the state will sub
stantially aid in adding agricultural
and trade departments to hundreds
of country schools in the next few
years. Farming is fast becoming a
science, in which brain will count
more than Drawn, and we must give
it the attention in our schools that it
deserves. But to do this we must
keep the children at home on the
farms, and the only way to do this
is to make the attendance of the ru-
raj school large enough so that the
required equipment and faculty can
be provided.
Prof. Alton, state inspector of high
schools, in his last annual report
commends this department in school
work, and says, "A common sense
combination of academic and indus
trial work, the latter to include do
nestle science and agriculture, is the
type of school that makes a hit with
the public, and is the kind of school
that will do the most good"
How to Keep Them on Farm
| can express my own views no
more clearly than to quote from an
address before the Associated School
Boards of Minnesota last November
by Mr.. George E, Perley, of Moor
head. Speaking of the tendency of
the boys and girls to leave the farms
and go to the cities,-and lamenting
1.-THE offered this solution of the
problem: ''Give the country good
schools, where country boys and
girls can be educated at home, at
least through the eighth grade, edu-
cate them toward the farm and not
away from it, consolidate districts
where practicable, build three and
four room school houses, furnish free
conveyance for pupils, establish grad
ed school work, furnish free text
books, hire skilled teachers, buy a
few acres Of neigh hOrinp land and