The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1913-11-04
Teachers institute.

The Teachers Institute for Burlington
county was held in the High school,
building, Mount Holly, last week, and
the sessions ended Wednesday afternoon.
The meetings were well attended and
there were some very entertaining and
instructive lectures and some that were
not of that character. One Of the teach
ers, who has attended three educational
meetings within two yeafs-two of them
being Institutes heard the same lecture
at each one. She is now almost ready
to repeat the talk from memory.
That is a pretty fair sample of the
value of these gatherings. A date is set
for the Institute and teachers are notified
that the law requires them to attend.
The schools of this county were closed
for three days last week and the children
were allowed to roam at will, with the
opportunity to learn much that would
not have entered their heads if they had
been kept in school. In addition to the
sum paid for carrying on the Institute
the state allows an amount for daily at
tendance of pupils which, of course, is
not earned, SO that the affair is rather
costly. The state appropriated 1900 fol-
the Institutes this year.
One of the features of this years meet.
ing was the attendance of Mr.. tombstone,
superintendent of the Home for Feeble.
Minded at VineIand. He spoke at length
on the subject of the condition of life in
several districts in this state. AS he was
not able to get through with his dis
course Miss Kite, who has paid particular
attention to the ''Pine district of this
county, came up and gave vivid de
scriptiOn of the conditions she claims to
have found in the locality named
While she showed the picture 'as nc
artist could paint she failed to recall
another visit which she recently paid to
Burlington county, appearing before the
grand jury with generalities. but without
single particular on which criminal
indictment could be found.
There might be beneficial change in
the matter of conducting Institutes il
they are to be continued At present
speakers are called upon a short time
prior to the date for their appearance al
a place and no effort is made to discover
what particular subject needs attention
any old thing seems good enough, and
as noted above, the same speech is re.
peated time and again.
Truant officers in various parts of the
state have been making study of the
causes of non-attendance at school and
they report that a percentage of the
truancy is due to a lack of suitable
clothing by some of the children. Al
every meeting of the Boards of Educa-
ton reports are received of cases where
absences from school are excused by this
plea. Usually the want has been sup
piled by officials who have appealed to
friends for money. The most common
want is shoes.
1t has been urged that if the state
compels attendance on the part of chill
dren whose small earnings may be
needed to aid in supporting widowed
mothers and younger sisters and broth
ers, either the Estate or the city should
contribute to the maintenance of the
families and provide suitable clothing.
Perhaps in the future such plan may
be adopted. For the present some other
method must he found
Continued absence from school by a
child for an entire year results in the
loss of between SIS and 500 which will
go long way toward paying for the
clothing of an eight to ten-year-old boy
or girl for year.
The state could divert the money APP
propriated for the time-honored Institutes
and put it in fund for supplying the
needs of children who are unable to get
the necessaries of life in order to obtain
an education.