The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1912-09-10
Children Cry
FOR FLETCHER'S
= a 6 TO RIA
School Matters.

County Superintendent Stees has sent
out to the various township boards of
education letter on subjects of vital in
terest to all. The letter is as follows:
Medical inspection of pupils is required
by law. In very few Of the school dis
tricss of the county do we have anything
resembling thorough medical inspection.
In some districts the law is ignored; in
others, physicians are employed to do
this very necessary work, bit nothing
worth while is accomplished becadse of
the perfunctory manner in which the
duties are performed. 1t is the duty of
every board of education 10 employ an
efficient medical inspector, and then to
require faithful service.
Compulsory attendance - There is a
wicked waste of money and opportunities
in many districts through failure to COM
pei children of school age to attend school
every hour of every day the schools are
in session. Schools, teachers, equipment
are provided, but little or no effort is
made to induce or compel children to at
tend the schools Let me show how fool
ishly the school money is wasted in one
district, and this is but typical OF many
others. In this district the cost of edu-
eating child, the calculation being based
on enrolment, is $15.72. The cost If
average daily attendance is made the base
is $27 80. venture to assert that If every
child Of school age in this district were
kept in school as required by law, the per
capita cost of education would be less
than SIo. The foregoing shows the waste
t.. Ava xufll to
shoulder the responsibility of lost oppor
ntnities to children whose parents do not
realize the benefits of educationf You
are empowered by law to place the child
rem of your respective districts IN school;
if you fail to perform your duty in this
matter whatever of loss or waste occurs
is due to your neglect. 1t is fact, the
county as whole considered, that the
number of days lost through non-attend-
anee equals nearly the whole nuMber of
DAYS attendance. This statement applies
ouly to those children who have been en-
rolled, and by no means expresses the
whole truth; it does not and cannot in
clude those unfortunate children in every
comma nity who never have attended any
school, because, forsooth, those persons,
to whom the law ifltrusts the welfare of
irresponsible children fail to perform a
plain duty. Why provide schools and
teachers and equipment, and allow those
for whom these things are provided to
continue in ignorance? most parents
know the value of primary education and
send their children TO school vita some
degree OF regularity; with this class you
have little or no trouble. 1t is that other
large and seemingly increasing class who
care for none of these things with whom
you should deal; with whom you should
use oompulsion when mildsr means fail.
Transfer of pupils = Every child of
school age is entitled to attend school If
he is remote from school in his own
district, he should be permitted and in
structed to attend the school less remote
even though it be situate in another dis
trict, and the board of education of the
district in which he lives should arrange
with the board of education of the dis
trict in which he should attend school to
pay fair rate of tuition. The law pro-
vides that boards of education should
4 meet and agree upon an equitable rate of
| tuition; and if they fail to agree to apply
| to the Commissioner of Education to fix
\ the rate. All this, however, should be
done at the very beginning of the school
year. There is no more fruitful source of
annoyance than failure to adjust tuition
rates at the proper time.
The individual child is the unit in which
we should be interested and for whose
benefit we should exert all our energies.