Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1912-01-08
SCHOOL And COLLEGE WORK
Features of Educational Progress
During the Past Year.
TENDENCIES IN SCHOOL LAWS
Limitations on Holidays and Com
centratiOn of Weak Schools
Activities of Nearby In
stitutiOns.

James c. Boykin. chief Of the editorial
division of the federal bureau of educa-
ton in Washington, discusses the educa-
tional events of 1911 in an interview in
the Boston Transcript. As a whole he
considers the year "one of peace, pros
perity and unusual freedom from political
strife.
There was no overshadowing interest
to distract popular attention. the time
vas ripe; able men we're ready for the
work; and the results are apparent upon
the statute books as the hlgh-water mark
of legislative achievement in behalf of
education.
In 1911 forty-three legislatures were in
session, and in all OF them, practically
without exception, an attitude of marked
frlendliness was shown to the cause of
public education. One not often empha-
sized reason why it was possible to make
excellent progress was the fact that the
public school system no longer occupies
a place of minor Importance in legisa-
lures.
Mr.. BoylIin notes signs of reaction
! throughout the country in relation to the
matter of school holidays. The summer
vacation, the Saturday holiday, short re-
cesses, sundry legal holidays and days of
/ special observance have so lessened the
actual school time that as a rule scarcely
| more than half of the days in the year
ere given to regular school work. Seventy
years ago the schools of Boston were in
session 224 days in the year; those in
| Buffalo all the year round; those of
Brooklyn, Baltimore and Cincinnati eleven
months, and so on
To counterfeit this tendency several
states have passed laws. California, for
example reduces the number of holidays
to Saturdays. Sundays, January I, May 30,
July 4, December % and Thanksgiving
day. All other legal holidays must be
observed by appropriate exercises, but
not by closing the schooN. .t..
| The salaries of school teachers have
been raised in a number of states, among
them New York, Indiana and Wisconsin.
Not only is the teachers salary showing
a tendency to rise, but her prospects of
retirement upon living annuity when her
usefulness is past are growing steadily
brighter
For some time the practice has been
growing, especially in rural, communi-
ties, of consolidating a large number of
weak schools in a given district into a
smaller number of strong ones Mr.. Boy
kin notes that a number of state legisla-
lures have passed laws in 1911 which d.
rectly facilitate this practice. Thus, ad-
ditional provision was made during the
year for the free transportation OF
pupils living at distance from the con-
solidatcd school. South Dakota voted
TO pay Il chld's own parents for bring
ing him to school, the amount of this
INSTRUMENTATION,
to forty-five cents per day Of actual at.
tendance. In Minnesota the school board
of a consolidated district was authorized
to pay a reasonable amount for board
and lodging in lieu of transportation
Other states granting transportation aid
include Iowa, California, Kansas, Mis-,
souri,. New Hampshire and Pennsylvania
with the Capitalization of the schoo
district has come a corresponding cen.
tralization OF school management, as was
evidenced by law passed in Oklahoma
creating one state education board L
take the place of no less than fourteer
other bodies then existing. In line will
, the same tendency, the proportion o
school expense borne by the state tends
steadily to increase, and the authority /,
gradually being transferred from tn,
local authorities to those appointed by
the state. AS another indication Of the
growing movement to centrali2e boil
education centers and their manage
ment Mr. Boykin notes that the formel
inclination to multiply the number o.
tate normal schools has waned percep
tibly," only two new ones being estab
ilhed in 1911, namely, one in Maine an,
one in California.