Perth Amboy evening news., 1912-09-17
HIGH SCHOOL
IN COMMUNITY
How Il Can Best Serve
the People.

now Gail inc HIGH SCuOOl DOob
meet the needs of the community?
The people of Colebrook, New
Hampshire, think they have solved
the problem. Their experiment is
interestingly described in a bulletin
Just issued for free distribution by
the United States Bureau of Educa-
ton.
Colebrook Academy is located in a
town of about 1000 population in
northern New Hampshire. Starting
in the first third of the century as a
private school, it later became part
Of the public system of education.
For years it has successfully done
the work expected of a high school
in the traditional branches of the
New England school. Now it is try
ing to do something more. Without
lowering its standards, without
ceasing to furnish the training
necessary for those going into the
professions, it is endeavoring 10
provide an adequate education for
the great mass of boys and girls who
ought to remain and grow up with
the country. 1t is seeking, in other
words, to readjust itself to the needs
of the particular community in
which it is. Just what this readjust-
ment means may be seen from the
following four significant additions
to the school plant: the greenhouse,
the dairy laboratory, the domestic
arts department, and the workshop,
including a carpenter and black
smith shop. Complete courses are
given in agriculture and domestic
science. Colebrook is the center of
a rural district, and these are the
vital interests Of a large part of the
population.
Colebrook Academy does not pro-
pose to become a vocational school.
1t remains a general high school.
The courses in agriculture and DOM
este science exist side by side with
thorough courses in the traditional
high school subjects, as well as the
commercial branches. Its purpose
is not primarily to make good farm
ers, or skilled mechanics, or pro-
fessional housekeepers,' says Hon.
H. c. Morrison, state superintendent
of New Hampshire. THE primary
object is the education Of the boy
and girl to become a sincere and
efficient and happy man and woman,
capable Of becoming an educated
worker with material things, capa-
BILE of getting life's happiness out of
work rather than out of the leisure
| which comes after work, if indeed it
comes at all. A further purpose is
to educate the strongest youth to-
ward the farm and the Industries in
stead of toward the professions and
business exclusively" In the work
of the school it is repeatedly en-
phasized that the new curses are
established in the belief that there
is just as truly a cultural develop
ment of the individual to be had
from competent instruction in agri-
culture or domestic science as from
competent instruction in Latin.
The significance Of the Colebrook
movement lies in the fact that it
demonstrates the basic principle
upon which the American high
school must stand or fall; that it
shall be a direct source of strength
to the community that pays for it.
The feeling exists that secondary
rural schools have in many instances
weakened the communities which
supported them; that by the very
efficiency of their work, they have
trained young men and women for
other fields of usefulness and have
thus frequently deprived the COM
munity of the services of it's best
citizens. 1t is said that New Hamp-
shire has been a notable sufferer
from this process, and that readjust-
ment is necessary if the process IS
to be checked and the upbuilding Of
the country districts is to go on
again. All over the country there is
the same problem. 1t seems obvious
that if the public high school is to
justify itself it must constantly put
back into the community the best of
each generation as permanent resi-
1 dents.
Particularly important is the part
to be played by the reconstructed
rural high school in the country life
movement. The Colebrook Academy
dignifies the fundamental arts of
agriculture and home-making. Given
schools of this type, with a program
of studies matching the real inter-
ests of the community, and rural
civilization may in truth be made as
efficient and satisfying as other civil
| ,y,tiNr