Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1915-09-09
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
OPENED TUESDAY
Attendance Figures Show
Few Less Students Than
1o14-15 Record Year
TO GIVE AGRICULTURE COURSE
Department is Established For Abb
normal And Backward Children
in Manual Training Room

With a slightly decreased enroll
ment, Alma's public schools began
their years work Tuesday morning
with excellent prospects for a very
successful year. BY Wednesday noon
eight hundred ten had entered. 1t
was hardly to be expected that this
years enrolment would match the
unusually large enrolment of last
year which was a ten percent increase
over the year before The redeeming
feature of it is that il will facilitate
and greatly assist the efficiency of the
whole system. Had similar increase
marked the enrolment Of this year
more teachers and further room would
have been necessary.
The most noticeable decrease was
in the High School proper which had
received one hundred eighty nine dur
ing the first day and a half With
out a doubt this will be increased by
twerty five more during the next
two or three weeks. One of the
marked features of the enrolment in
the High School is the large percent
age of foreign students. Between
forty and fifty per cent hail from the
rural districts about Alma and the
small towns nearby. Breckenridge,
located twelve miles east of this city,
sends over large number of High
School students.
The Union School of which Miss
Dunlap is principal, has three hun
dred ten pupils, while the ward school
of which Miss Annette McLaren is
principal has just exactly one more
pupil--z.Qae fourth of the students in
Alma's public schools are in the High
School and three fourths in the lower
grades.
An attractive course has been es-
tablished in the manual training de
partment with Mr.. Floyd Maxwell as
the instructor. A complete five per-
iod week course will be given in
agriculture throughout the year
Among the branches to be taken up
during the years course are: Seec-
tions and Care of Seed Corn, Soil
Formation, Care of Stock, Tree
Spraying, prevention of Crop Dis
eases, Care of Milk etc. In the con-
nection with the latter subject a ma
chine for testing milk will be installed
in the manual training room and daily
tests will be made. Prof. Maxwell is
well equipped to teach this course as
he has completed the full course Civ
en- at Mt. Pleasant Normal. Between
fifteen and twenty have already en-
rolled. 1t is the only agricultural
course in the schools of the county.
An innovation of signal Importance
has been made which should have a
distinct influence upon the trend Of
education in the city is the establish
ment of a department for the classi-
fcation and training of abnormal
children. This will also be taken care
of by Prof. Maxwell Children who
are unusually backward or too old
for the grade in which they are plac-
ed will be taken in the new depart
ment and special attention will be
paid to their cases. Their mental
or perhaps physical weakness will be
noted more easily and special train
ing will be given. Nine pupils have
enrolled in this department.
Some of our figures in the story of
the public schools given last week
were incorrect. Supt. Schultz has
given us the following correct figures
of enrolment for last year: High
School 229, primary 439, Grammar
327, while there were but eight in
stead of nine teachers in the Union
School building last year.
High School
Seniors Al, Juniors AZ, Sophomores
4S, Freshmen 5S-Total 1S9.
Union School
7th and Sth grades 1876, 6 A 33, 6 b
80, A 80, B 3S, 4 A 39-Total $40.
Ward School
4 B 40, 3rd As, 2 4 33, 2 b 81, A
20, BIB Sub primary Al, A Sub pri-
mary 33, kindergarten 56-Total 311.