The Grangeville globe. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho) 1907-1922, 1915-01-28
SCHOOL NOTES.

Last week closed the first semester
of the school year, and since we now
have the half year system in the first
six grades, promotions are made with
in the grades from the B to the A
| classes and from grade to grade. The
half year system makes it possible to
classify more accurately and thus to
bring the grades up to standard
grade. In the beginning, in order to
institute the system, we had to grade
rather loosely but now that 1t is in
stalled, we feel that we should use 1t
for the purpose intended, viz, more
| accurate classification.
For the reason here mentioned there
was a larger number of failues than
usual Out of 242 children in the first
six grades there were As failures. This
may seem large but 1t is not unusual
in many excellent schools. Among these
| failures there were several who were
| incapable Of carrying the work in the
regular time, some entered school late
and did not have time enough to COM
pete their grade, and others came from
schools where they were graded too
high. At the end of this year l pre-
dict that the failures will not be more
than half this number. Parents and
|
the fact that failed pupils do not have
| to repeat a whole year as before. In
many instances this extra time will
enable pupils to catch up in their work
so that they may be able to do good
work thereafter.
In the upper grades the big cause of
failures was the lack of home study.
The teachers labored hard to get their
| lie IN In ha n
motion. In some cases they were as
sisted by parents and others they were
not aided at all. In general, however,
a big majority of the parents are
assisting us in our endeavor to do
thorough work They feel as we do.
that shallow, careless work is worthless
and that a school which does that sort
of work is wasting the public money.
Some other schools may yield to the
popular clamor BY lowering their stan
dard and giving high grades for poor
quality of work, but the Grangeville
school, IL 1t stands for anything, stands
for thoroughness. 1t Is true that all pu-
pills don't do thorough work, but can
truly say that a majority Of them do
Nine-tenths of the pupils coming here
from other schools and entering this
school at the point where they left of
are below the average of the grade
they enter. What does this show In
regard to our standard? We find invari-
ably that our standard meets the stan
dard of pupils coming from such a stan
dard school as Portland. This conclu-
sion Is drawn from study of the case.
Of more than sixty pupils who entered
this school this year from other schools
In the past few years there has beer
much criticism of the schools in the
magazines by people who were seeking
} notoriety. For a time 1t has been 6
fad to criticise the schools and every
one has been qualified for the job Elk,
cept the big majority of conservative
thinking American citizens. Just nov
they are beginning to take the leat
and the schools are beginning to com,
out from under the influence OF pain
less education" and the belief tina
there rs no one thing in school which
will take the place Of work is making
itself felt
The Grangeville school believes in tn,
principle Of work. For years 1t hal
labored for a place among the bes
schools and at the present time Their,
, Is no fear lest an official in educa
ton shall some day examine the school
weigh 1t and find it wanting. 1t ma.
be shown that some grades or depart
: ments are doing better work than other
: but on the whole the character Of tn
work will be shown to be equal Z
: that OF the best of schools.
! Next week l shall discuss basketball
D and other school activities about whic
Z there Is a great deal Of misinformation
: d. F. r. RICE.