Western Carolina Democrat and French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1913-1915, 1915-03-11
REPORT OF REPATRIATION
AND ELIMINATION OF PUPILS.
Flat Rock School Reports on III Ef-
fects of NOn-Attendance at school.
Some Interesting statistics.

AAeCAO6tAUR Dt8B16llCSo
-
Most of our children enter the first
grade at six or seven years. Some of
them are promoted from year to year
and reach the seventh grade at thfr-
teen years of age; others fail of pro-
motion and find themselves not in the
seventh grade at fourteen but in the
fifth or sixth. This we call retarda-
ton.
The evil effects of this are readily
seen when we think OF a boy studying
and reciting withthe kids, as he COM
monty terms it, while on the play
ground he is with the more advanced
pupils. This gets him out of sorts
and d~iscourages him; and the final
outcome is not hard to imagine. At
the hrst opportunity he leaves school
with just the bare mechanics of read
ing and an incomplete knowledge Of
the foul fundamental operations of
arithmetic.
I have endeavored to find the causes
for this as they are here and then
seek a remedy or whatever remedies
seem applicable. But before we seek
O remedy let us examine the causes
that would lead to such an outcome
as already mentioned.
The number of ~Fepeaters by grades
were found to be as follows .os53
First grade II boys and Z girls.
Second grade, 3 boys and 8 girls.
Third grade, 2 boys and 5 girls.
Fourth grade, 4 boys and 1 girl.
Fifth grade, 1 boy and o girls.
Sixth grade. 5 boys and 1 girl.
Seventh grade, 2, boys and 0 girls.
Eighth grade. 0 boys and 0 girls.
Ninth grade, 0 boys and 0 girls.
Total % boys, II girls.
Total of all As or 20 per cent of all.
"a per cent of all boys and Is per cent
Of all girls,
The average attendance of these re-
peaters was for the first grade boys SO
days or "a per cent of the time, girls
81 days or 81 per cent of time.
Second grade boys, u days or As per
cent of the time, girls lit days or 73
per cent of time.
Third grade boys 81 days or SO per
cent. OF the time, girls SO days or 81
per cent of time.
Fourth grade boys 80 days or 20 per
cent OF the time, girls 100 days or 68
per cent Of time.
Fifth grade boys 80 days or 81. per
cent OF the time, girls 90 days or 90
per cent of time.
Sixth grade boys and girls, so days
or SS per cent Of the time. u
Seventh GRADE boys and girls, so
days or 80 per cent of the time.
Eighth grade boys and girls. 20 days
or 43 per cent of the time.
aItA5was found thatJthe retaxdation
was greatest in the first and sixth
grades; there being about so per cent
Of the first grade retarded and SIS per
Cent OF the sixth grade: All other
grades ranged from this4to nothing.
s3HishseeW thhtainn no case Aasqasre-
peater attended as much IS Is per
cent Of the time, which means that
they were trying to do the impossible
work less than IS per cent of the
time and, get.the required 75-per cent
OF pay. But how much of this non-at-,
tendance was the school, the teacher
and the home responsible. Certainly
the schools were not responsible un-
less it could be in the course of study.
for the schools are better equipped
than the average home from which it
draws it's pupils. Granting that the
teachers are responsible for a part OF
this, and it cannot be greater than 25
per cent there is Is per cent unac'
counted for and l feel that the par
ents are responsible to that extent
This is borne out by the fact that :
large number of parents take their
children out of school in early spring
and put them supposedly at work
when in reality one nan working ten
days could do as much as they do il
the two or three months they are out
of school.
And to come to the final outcome Of
this retardation,. we find the real bu-
sad end-the elimination, which we
find greatest in the sixth and seventh
grades. At present four or 9 per ce~ ;
of all ~repeaters have dropped out and
that number will very probably be
doubled before the end of the year.
l ID EEn DrinNino1 |