Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1914-12-29
NEW MEXICO HAS
DONE WELL, SAYS
SCHOOL EXPERT
H. W, Foght Writes Letter
Of Appreciation and Gives
Views on Conditions People
of State Must Meet.


Santa te, Dec. 2S.--Supcrintendcn
of Public Instruction Avian n. White
today received letter from II. w.
Foght OF the bureau OF education,
expressing his appreciation of the as
sistancc shown him during his sur
vcy Of the schools In New Mexico. He
has sent brief preliminary report Of
his findings to the commissioner of
education and expects to make his
final report very soon. Mr.. Foght
writes as follows:
when | take into consideration
the newness of your state and many
difficulties under which you are la
boring as "a result of the bi-lingual
situation and the comparative isola-
ton of districts in the open country
| feel that you have made remark
able progress in educational affairs
In the last few years. II is true that
the schools OF the open country and
the mining camps are not. on the
whole. what they ought to be. but
real progress Is being made in many
places. The mining camps. so far as
! saw them, appear to have good
teachers, but the equipment, especial
| ~ the buildings, is Insufficient These
are overcrowded. much to the detri-
ment Of classroom instruction. In the
open country many OF the school
buildings We're Inadequate. although
| II was surprising to see. that progress
Is being made In school architecture
in some counties
in a general way. ] would recon-
mend that the town and village
schools classed as county high
schools, do experimental work in ag-
riculture. in plots Of land under irrI-
cation as close as possible to the
school premises. In this way you can
make this kind of school do real and
effective community work"
! another thing which struck me as
very necessary at the time is the ex-
tension of the inspectorate OF the
state department of education. BY this
| mean that your department should
have In its employ at least one or two
state Inspectors or supervisors whose
duty would be to inspect and classify
rural and other elementary and high
schools OF the state. | appreciate that
the state superintendent and his small
force of Office assistants cannot pos
sbly cover all the ground Of such a
large state as New Mexico as effec-
lively as they should. To begin with.
possibly one man might cover all the
schools In general way. II would be
better, however, to have one man to
devote. all his time to the rural
schools and another to the elementary
and high schools. Most up-to-date
state departments have such assist
ants at this time. In few states the
high school inspector Is attached to
the state university: in many others
he Is found in the state department.
Personally, | believe such officials
lshould be found in the state depart
ment OF education.
II was very much pleased with the
lthoroughness of the organization and
filing OF all documents and statistics
in your office. l am surprised that so
lmuch has been done with so small an
office force.
II feel keenly that one of the
greatest needs in your state at this
time is thorough reorganization of
the state district unit. New Mexico
should try to get away from the
primitive district unit, making the
county the basis for organization in
stead OF the many small districts.
There should be one strong county
board of education Of three or five
DltlubtlCs WHICH tiiieht NC tittt't
from the county at large or from
electoral districts. 1t is high time that
your county superintendent be re-
moved from party politics The new
lcounty board of education should
lchoose professional superintendent
who might be elected from the coun-
lty or state or nation. much as we now
elect city superintendent.
These superintendent should then
nominate all the teachers required in
the rural and village districts
!. throughout the counties, these TO be
ratified by the county boards, The
lcpunty and not the local district
should be the basis for the school tax
alton. This would be eminently fair
as all just people know that the pre-
valent system Is unjust | found In
your state rural districts. strung OUT
along the Santa Fe railroad taxing
that railroad to the limit and making
ii run the schools In other districts
not touching the railroad, the people
had to tax themselves to the limil
even then not getting good schools
The railroad belongs to all the coun,
lty and not a small part of It, Under
the modern system all the people ir
lthe county would get their share.
II would not abolish entirely thu
local board, but retain II. or at leasl
one member, to be the custodian oi
local property and be the local rep.
Preventative of the county board which
he should advise and place local ed
ucational affairs.
Another thing which has interest.
ed me intensely and on which hest
tate somewhat to speak, is the bi
lngual situation. Whatever you d.
with the two languages. English ane
Spanish, they must be handled In tn,
, schools in such a manner that out o
! II all We get the strongest possbl,
american citizens. If this can be don,
In a manner to perpetuate all tina
Is good and best in the Spanish, a
well as In the English. II should b,
done. From my own experience | fee
that we do not make the best Ameri
) lean citizens out of the Spanish-speak
, ing people by forcing them to throw
aside as quickly as possible thei
lgreat heritage which they have re
: ceived from old Spain. At the sam
i time it should not be made use of t
4 the disparagement Of the Engls
0 Language, literature history and Gus
s toms. / believe sincerely that in thos
isections of New Mexico where Span
: ish-American children are in the ma
9 ljorty. they may most quickly b
: lAmericanized in the true sense of tn
e word by making use of the dual sys
item OF language in the schools. e
( by having teachers capable of usn
e both English and Spanish and havin
n the children use readers and languag
: texts making use of both languages.
vi I'm the communities where tn
Americans prevail. of course. | woul
leave this out of consideration. In a
Ifhn hlrh schaols hnxra..nr L u.a..l