The copper era and Morenci leader., 1914-03-20
MORENCYS SCHOOLS ENJOY INCREASING
 ATTENDANCE
Comparison of Attendance Six Years Since With That of the Present. Manual Training Branches are Pro- ductiVe-SuccessfuI Conduct of Schools Illustrated.

ance and that the management of the
 schools is resulting beneficially, is
 well illustrated by a comparison of
 figures showing attendance six years
 ago with the attendance today, and
 with a brief review of the present
 courses of study.
 At the time Prof. c. A. Goggin was
 placed in management, six years since,
 the attendance was three hundred and
 twenty-four, while today the number
 of pupils in daily average attendance
 is more than eight hundred This
 great increase in attendance is to be attributed largely to a more syste-
 matic enforcement of the compulsory education law, and by satisfactory re-
 suits of the following of the system of courses. The increase in popula- tion of Morenci during this six years time is not in proportion with the in- crease in attendance. Not only in at tendance, but in all lines of work, are the schools indicating prosperity. The present teaching force is strongly in union, and under the guidance of the present superintendent iSachieving profitable results, as is evidenced by the attitude of the parents of the pupils. A well planned system of instruction in all branches, as far as possible within the authority of the local management is being consistent ly followed.
 and commercial branches, are being taught, with very pleasing results. These departments, with the excep- tion of the commercial, were inaug- urated five years since, and the eX- perience of the teachers and parents is that the future of the work is as sured, the progress in teaching and results being steady since the begin ming The Morenci manual training and allied departments are perhaps the finest ill equipments of all the nigh schc, Is o.f Arizona. In the bovs' sec ti..:I are 1s,toe.s. benches, an abnnGance of tools, and splendid machine that serves ;lry purposes including all the more important operations of sr- piled n.e-hanics. The girls are sup 1.ia't in ,Le:r domestic training sec t:cL with sewing machines, and tre Otber necessities of practical 1nslric- ton in cooking sewing, and other conduc: of tho home.
 Mechanical drawing is taught in inc instruG: ion of the boys, number Of whom are already proficient in this line. Professor Earl P. Sharp is di- rector of the work of the boys in tire manual training department. Miss Mosher is in charge of the work in do nestle science The manual training and allied departments are proving so popular that more equipment will gradually be added, this having been the course pursued since the inaugur- ation of the course.
 The number of pupils, all boys, in the manual training is 40, while in the domestic science work are 11O girls. A limited number are in the branches, which were es- tablished one year since. and as the number of high school pupils is limit ed, the pupils of this work are not so numerous as in the two other practical training departments. Most of the pupils of the Morenci schools begin a vocational career before reach ing the more advanced grades. About eighty per cent of the pupils are MeX1- cans, and they as a rule do not ad- vance into the last grades Of the schools. Miss Johnstone is in charge of the commercial work which in cludes bookkeeping, stenography, and 
 The entering of the manual train ing branches upon the part of the pu- pills is not obligatory, although no parents, they apparently being in ac- cord with the movement.
 The Morenci schools are occupying two splendid buildings, and both are now, through the large attendance, taxed to their capacity. Some years since, upon deciding to erect the sec ond building, the opinion was that several years would elapse before the of the building would be needed, and yet almost before the buildings occupancy ,all of it's rooms
 i'd of increased room is imperative.
 In the city's schools a total of twenty-one teachers are employed, Professors Goggin and Sharp are the only men of this number.
 Professor Goggin is of the opinion that the texts of both geography and arithmetic should be abandoned in favor of texts more in harmony with the courses of study as outlined by the state board of education, a serious being experienced in this respect, especially in the coordin- ation of the mathematics text with the work of the manual training de- partments With these two texts more logically arranged, as regards steering material and fundamental operations in the mathematics, and with the omission from both texts of subject matter that is not material, the work of teaching the two branches could probably be reduced in time to one-half The subject matter of geo. graphy could be cut in half, and then be taught in one-half the time now devoted to the work.
 However, all branches are being taught with precision and results that are beneficial, the whole city schools, as are the schools of the county, ex- Deriencing what is probably the most successful year in their history. A discipline is resulting in good work here, and to witness the re- suits of the schools conduct is to ap- 1reciate the gradual and systematic planning of the management.