The Oskaloosa herald., 1915-08-26
EIGHTH GRADE PUPILS
One Hundred and Twenty Eight are
Presented With Diplomas.


the assembly room ob,the Oskalooss
High school last Saturday Afternoon
was one of the largest rural com
mencements ever held in Mahaska
county The large assembly room
of the high school was filled to ca
pacity and many were unable to fine
seats. The one hundred and twenty
eight graduates and their parents and
l friends completely filed 4 the room
The Rev. c. d. Loehr gave the invo
cation, after which J. c. MeGlade
State Inspector of Grade and High
Schools, gave most excellent ad
dress. During the course of his ad
dress he stated as follows:
Members of the class of 1916
friends, patrons and parents of Ma
haska County: 1t is my utmost pleas
ure to perform the duty assigned to
me. r. We live in an age of modernity
where all the modern advantages of
the inventions have made their way
and have made one of the greatest
ages ever known to mankind Less
than one-half of the population of to.
day lives under rural conditions, but
closely connected with the largest
cities of the world. The city of New
York with its miles of subways where
one may travel for miles and miles
under the ground, is wonderfully con-
structed. The ships on the water
make the city of New York as close
ly connected to Europe as she was 20
Boston fifty years ago. New York
mas population equal to the popula-
ton of Australia, an island as large
as the United States. Chicago is
the wonder of the age. In all it's
wonderful improvements it is a place
Of beauty and modernity. 1t is only
lapse of from eighty to eighty-five
years since the first of our ancestors
came to the beautiful state of Iowa.
And yet all the blessings of this won
derful state have come in the lifetime
OF man. 1t has been no more than
twenty years since the first telephone
was placed in Mahaska county and in
Oskaloosa and only fifteen years
since the first automobile came to the
city. The people of the rural COM
munities have better homes, better
live stock, better machinery on their
farms than ever before, and yet with
all the betterments of the rural life,
the one-room school house has preva-
lence to the more improved consoli
dated schools. Isn't it reasonable to
think that the rural school should ad-
vance the same as other industries of
the world are advancing? Isn't it
just that it should advance? The
rural school is the only thing in the
rural communities which remains
stable, and yet there is a marked inn
provement in that. If the larger
consultations were not the best
thing. would cities like Des Moines
be spending five hundred thousand
dollars for one single school build
ing? The little town of Fremont
with its new thirty-five thousand dol
lar school building is the personifiCa-
ton of Improvement Twenty years
ago a town double that size would not
have thought of building such
school. Does the common school
pay" The war across the sea makes
US ask, Is civilization gone? Does
it pay to keep up the common school?
If the common schools did nothing
more than to teach the pupils to
count and read it would repay all the
expense. The art of reading Is truly
a divine blessing Writing is a sim
pie art, but the student who goes out
into the world able to write a good
hand has one of the best weapons
with which to fight the great battle
of life. Arithmetic, the third of
the three arts, is a wonderful thing.
But the more modern methods of
teaching arithmetic are much more
effective than the old ways. The pu-
pills are being taught problems of the
home, the farm, etc. Foreign ele
ments are being introduced into this
country which the young Americans
will have to compete with and which
the father did not have to work
against. The great National Cash
Register Company makes the state
ment that the boys and girls should
be taught to write, spell, and to talk.
History, geography. language and
grammar, nature study and science
are taught with increasing success.
You should learn that there are
tongues in trees. sermons in stones,
books in the brooks and good in ey-
erything =, The teacher who teaches
square dealing, righteousness, kind
ness, respect for womankiIid, virtue
and respect for the law, is the best
teacher the young girls and boys may
have. The public school exists for
the preparation of students to go out
and take part in this great democracy
Of which we are part. The treas
IRE house of truth is the greatest
for the big business man
Of. the tomorrow The county schools
are changing in many ways, There
should be high school within the
reach of every boy and girl in the
county. A condition which will ex
st with the cooperation of all the pa.
IRONS, parents and fTiends..
THE diplomas the students Teceiv-
ed today will enable them to enter
any high school in the state. Char
acter Is the most easily destroyed
raft, may be tornsapart by any one,i
put no nlImbesr of people can replace
,rlrepair It, Resist every tendency
which does not bring you nearer to
our Maker. Select your own goal,
observe your own guide, weight your
,wn abilities and thOughts and make