The Kennewick courier. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1905-1914, 1912-01-12

n UIlC1 ISNlCW VI CllC oCIlOOl
work for the first semester is in order
at this time and the purpose of its
mention here is to bring about neces-
sary reform in some instances of failure
on the part of the students and to give
others the commentator which their
work has justified. While teachers and
pupils have been working under diff
culties during the past four and half
months, owing to the badly crowded
conditions, the whole fault does not lie
here This will be remedied very soon
when the high school and several of the
grades are transferred to the new build
ing with its superior equipment and
wealth of space
Supt Lewis, speaking for the high
school faculty, stated that the work of
the four grades as whole is much
poorer than that of last year in that
there is larger percentage of failures.
The record of the Freshman class is the
worst o. all and has occasioned no little
anxiety to the teachers and to few
individuals of the class whose work is
up to the right standard and who unite
with their instructors in desiring that
their class and their school should rank
among the best in scholarly achieve
ment. There have been more failures
in this class than any other and it's
work is the poorest done by any Fresh
man class in the past four years. Two
pupils have failed in every one of the
four subjects carried, a number have
failed in three out of four subjects
carried, and still others have not re-
ceived passing grades in half of their
work. The Sophomore class, while by
no means up to the proper standard, is
better than the Freshman, and the
Junior class ranks higher than either
the Sophomore or Freshman classes
while the Seniors are doing the best
work accomplished in the high school
this year.
Failure notices, which have grades
below passing marked in red ink, have
been mailed each month to the parents,
in addition to the regular reports. In
many cases parents and teachers have
co-operated in an endeavor to secure
better work from the pupils who con-
stantly lag behind the more ambitious
ones of the class and are a detriment
to the welfare to the school. In the
city schools throughout the state it is
the rule that any pupil failing in half of
his work shall leave the school unless
there is some just reason why he can
not keep up with the work of his fellow
students. Here the board has been
more lenient and it is their policy to re-
quire those who fail, tostake the work
of the previous year over again.
Possibly the choral practice, dancing
school and other social affairs have
played their part in interfering with
the work of the school, but the main
secret of low standard of scholarship is
lack of study on the part of the pupils.
The teachers earnestly request that
parents do all in their power to aid in
securing better application to studies
and by so doing raise the grades of the
pupils to a required standard. Supt.
Lewis said, Il question whether regu-
lar home study during five nights of
the week has been properly insisted
upon in sufficient number of cases. s."
If some of the parents will awaken to
their responsibility in this matter and
the pupils will respond to the efforts of
the teachers, the unfortunate condition