The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-11-09
POLITICS IS
A HANDICAP
School superintendent POliti-
clans More Than Educators.
Miss StradaI Voices Opposition
to the Existing System.
SHE IS HERE TO MAKE FIGHT
For a Change in Kansas School,
Administration Methods.
Has Introduced the Movie Into
Her Work i'm TregO.

TT is a shame that county school
superintendents have to be political
schemers and have to do everythinI.g
by trickery because they hold politi-
cal office" declared Miss Carrie
Stradal, county superintendent OF
Trego county, this morning Miss
Stradal is a member OF the board OF
directors of the Kansas State Teach
ers' association and is the first teacher
to reach Topeka for the annual con-
vention which will open here Thurs
day.
ing rapidly just like wOman's suf-
frage'' said Miss Stradal. And when
the county superintendent and the
office of the state superintendent OF
public instruction are taken out of
politics there will be a great advance
in the schools. AS it is now the su-
perintendents are handicapped very
much They have no power or no
laws behind them True they have
influence but they have no way of en-
forcing their ideas, for they are poll
ticians rather than educators"
One of the resolutions for adoption
at the meetings this week will be that
calling for the removal of the school
offices from partisan politics. From
the comment d. "A. Ellsworth, secre-
tary of the association, has received it
is apparent that majority of the
teachers in the state favor this resolu-
ton and Miss StradaI says that Trego
county can be counted in the list of
affirmative voters.
Another thing we need is longer
terms for the rural schools said
Miss Stradal as she told of the condi-
ton in the western part OF the state.
In place of our seven to nine-month
terms we should have ten or eleven
month terms, for in our county
eighty per cent of the children must
get what knowledge they can before
they are Is years old. After that age
they are wanted on the farms to help
and as a consequence the older chill
dren now get but about four months
school a year.
Crops Regulate Attendance.
"Our school attendance is regulated
by the crops to a great extent. When
we have a big crop the attendance is
bad but when we have poor crops all
the children come to school because
there is nothing to do on the farm.
Help is scarce out west and our
truant law is no good. The younger
children come to school regularly but
the older ones are very irregular in
their attendance"
Miss Stradal is a Bohemian girl but
she takes no stock in this hyphenated
American talk. There should be but
one nationality, she says.
In the Sixth district Miss Stradal has
revolutioniZed the school system and
has put it on a more cooperative ba-
sis. She spent $400 of her first years
salary of $500 for an automobile so
that she could visit the fifty-five
schools in her county more often than
she could driving a horse. Last year
she persuaded the school board of the
county to spend $500 for a moving
picture machine to take pictures of the
county graduation. These pictures
were shown in all the towns of the
county and greatly increased the in
terest in educational work.
But Miss Stradal says that she
would rather get out of politics and
school work and go back to her farm.
IF had a million I could do some
thing, or if I were a Mark Twain I
would ridicule this wretched system"
she said. ''but as it is what can I do? 2"