The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1914-02-10
Other Directors of CONNER
cial Organization Are
Reelected.
SUPT. GILES TALKS
ON LOCAL SCHOOLS
Outlines Points in Which
Present Day School Is
Superior.

An address by Superintendent Giles
OF the Richmond schools, and the
election of a new board of directors
were the two features of the Rich
mond Commercial club meeting last
night Those receiving the highest
number of votes for directors are as
follows: S. E. Swayne. J. F. McCar-
thy, II. A. Dill, w. H. Romey, E. M.
Haas. G. H. Knollenberg, J. T. Mich
olson, Richard Sedgwick and Fred H.
Lemon.
The new board of directors will
meet next month to elect a president.
All OF these men, with the exception
of ]. Fl. Nicholson, were members of
the former board. Mr.. Nicholson was
elected to the place held by Sharon
Jones'
At the conclusion of Superintend-
ent Giles address, Fred H. Lemon
was called upon to give a report of
the tax conference recently held at
Bloomington, Ind, under the auspices
ised that he would have a written re-
port to submit, and said 'It was one
of the best conferences on the sub
ject ever held in the United States,
l am anxious that the Commercial
tion. You probably will have a con-
stitutional convention in which the
reorganization of our tax methods will
be discussed, and I am hoping that
the Commercial club will be able to
bring that about"
Tax Continues to Grow.
"The Relation of the School to the
Community" was the subject of the
address delivered by Superintendent
Giles. He pointed out the fact that
school expenses are constantly in
creasing, but this In itself was not
an evil, because the schools are con
stantly producing more. And just
because the school system will be
more and more called upon to do more,
We may expect the growing school tax
to continue growing"
The speaker outlined four points
in which the present-day school is SUI
perior- to and more comprehensive
than the schools of previous genera
tions. "Our schools are educating
practically all children. AS William
Hawley Smith said, We are educat-
ing all the children of all the people
This may not be true throughout the
United States, but it is true of In
diana.
The second regard i'm which oul
schools are superior to former schools
is that they are teaching the Three
Rs'-that is, the fundamentals of edu
cation-better than ever before. How
can this be proved?' you say. The
Springfield (Mass) test has proved it
A school principal in that city dis
covered in an attic series of exam
ination papers fifty years old, He
gave the same series ON questions as
found in those papers to corresponding
classes of the same schools of the
same city. In arithmetic, writing
spelling and geography the present
day pupils made a considerably higher
per centage than the pupils had fifty
years before.
Schools Teach More.
I'm the third place, our schools Of
today are superior to those of yester
day because they are teaching much
more. They are taking over many
functions formerly performed by the
home. The home once taught voca
tional training; but now it is neces
sary for the school to teach it. 1t was
formerly the function of the home tt
teach sex hygiene; the home is MOI
fulfilling that function today as il
should, consequently, we are in the
mandfng that the school teach tha
subject. 1t can't be done so we'll il
the school as it might have been done
in the home, but the home is not doint
1t at ALL hence the school is obliged
to do it.
In the fourth place. the school to
day gives different thing from tht
school of yesterday. This is the
schools response to changed condi
tion in society. The aim of education
ten years ago was always expressed
in terms of the individual, but the def
inition everywhere accepted today il
that the function of education mus
be fit to the individual for his place
In society; it is preparation for socia
efficiency, training for citizenship.
This movement toward the socia
view Is the result of deep seatet
causes, one of which is that we hav,
passed through the generation of pic
neers. In frontier days and condition
the individual was everything, but tC
day We have become a nation of cit
dwellers, and the social bond grow
stronger all the time. Our social re
lationships have become the most i'm
portant thing.
Another cause of this change i
the enlarged perfection of our mean
of producing the necessaries of life
IT was not possible formerly to max
enough food and clothing to g
around Some one had to starye. Blu
today we can make enough for every
body.
Others Respond to Movement.
"Other institutions are respondin
to this same movement. The Progress
Oive party was not an accident, bu
was called into existence by these ney
social conditions. The church is re
spending slowly to the same move
ment, just as the school is.
mot only is the theory of th'
school changing; the practice is chans
Ing as we'll"
Prof Giles then explained how phys
iology is no longer an abstruse an
lifeless subject, but has been mad
over into personal hygiene. He ais
cited the case of civil governmen
which is taught in an entirely diffel