The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1912-03-28
County School Letter

StottC iuo ~
and II.
Mr.. Ben A. Boese has made such
q success as principal of the high
school of Calvin, N. d. that the
board of education of that school
has raised bis salary $25 per
month for the coming year.
1t is far wiser to put the best eff
fort and the best talent into the
lower schools where all of the pu-
pills are benefited by the better
qnality of school rather than to put
the best paid teachers and the best
equipment into the higher schools
where only a small per cent of the
pupils attend.
Very creditable work is being
done in Highland school in charge
OF Mrs. Alice Shroll.
Men who we're interested in rural
school improvement in Minnesota
got into the legislature. They saw
that mere local work in improving
the schools was not enough. State
aid would not come unless they
went after it. Once in the legisla-
ture they found conditions the
the same as obtain in South Da-
kota-the representatives of dis
tricts where state institutions are
tioeated more or less organized and
pooling for the benefit of those in
stitutious. No one paid much at
~tention to the country schools.
They could ego hang" The men
interested in the country schools
got together. The work they had
already done in improving their
own schools began to count. The
public was waking up. The farm
ers saw a light and began to talk
| about it.. The legislature heard
| and listened attentively when the
men working for the rural schools
said, "From now on you've got to
reckon with the country schools"
We don't object to ample support
for all the state schools. They are
doing good work and we want them
o keep it up. But we are not go.
ing to let them hog off the whole
field when it comes to getting state
aid. Be fair to the country schools.
Here all our boys and girls go,
most of them from the farms, and
it is only right that they be given a
good education and an understand.
ing of their own business. Only a
few ever get to the higher schools
Primary education touches practi-
cally all, high school and collegiate
education touch but a small tract.
ion. To neglect the many in favor
of the very few is rank injustice,
You have been putting hundreds OF
thousands of dollars into state
schools for the training of a few
thousand students, usually the
brightest and most fortunate. You
have been turning a cold shoulder
to hundreds of thousands of child
rem, many of them unfortunate
and backward, the very ones that
need the schools the most. From
now on the many must be con.
sidered, and given good schooling"
Minnesota is now fully and def
nitely committed to this policy. So
strong has the movement become
that at the last session of the legis.
lature provision was made for the
establishment of forty schools we'll
equipped and purposely organized
to give the pupils efficient practical
instruction for pupils in the village
schools. Many more such schools
would have been provided for, had
there been teachers properly equip
ped for the work. Finding good
teachers is the problem. Think of
it, the farmers and business men
of Minnesota have inaugurated a
great forward movement in educa-
ton, and now they are forced to
halt till the supply Of teachers
catches up. But it is a movement
that will carry the teachers along
IN u wXtE r. - w ST. I