The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1916-10-12

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their afternoons of the year before had
been spent in bicycling and roller-skat-
ing when they should have been in
school. ut was very simple" said one
girl, "you climb out the window of the
/ cloak room and had your skates and
just before the afternoon roll call was
taken you climbed back again. The teach
er never knew the difference. In spite
of this seventh grade handicapp how
ever, the majority of these children had
no difficulty in completing their eighth
grade work and making high school the
next fall.
Now many cities have removed the
age requirement of fourteen years for
entrance into high school, and if a
pupil Is naturally bright enough to
skip grade or two, or by study dur
ing the summer is able to do so, he is
not held back if he happens to be only
twelve. Moreover, in many cities now
there are junior high schools. Instead
of the old system of eight years of
elementary education and four years
of high school, the seventh and eighth
grades have been added to the high
/ school course so that there are six
grades and six years of high school
This new organization, which is call
ed the siXsix system, has proved a
/ big success wherever it has been tried
out, so far as the educators can tell
from the limited time it has been in
practice. According to the Bureau of
Education the junior high school is an
improvement over the old school divi-
sion in four ways: 1t makes greater
provision for individual differences in
the pupils; it makes the break from the
graded school to the high school much
easier; it decreases the number of
pupils at the end of the eight grade;
and lit furnishes an opportunity for
various reforms in instruction.
Perhaps the most important result
accomplished by the junior high school
Is the third qualification made by the
Bureau of Education. 1t keeps pupils
in school who under the old system
stopped at the eighth grade. Concern
ing this feature, DR.. Dean, of the Uni
versity of Cincinnati, makes this estl-
mate: IF all school children under
eighteen years attending schools in the
United States We're put in q straight
line one foot apart, the line would ex-
tend diagonalIy across our continent
from the northern part of Maine to the
Pacific Coast at Southern California
and if those were taken away from
this line who dropped out at the age of
fourteen-most Of them bread winners
those remaining would extend only
across the state OF California.
Another Improvement to be adopted
. by several schools this fall is the ex-
tension of the course to eleven months,
beginning in September and expiring in
August. Knoxville is among the first
to try this experiment When this
measure is called an Improvement. nc
account is taken Of the many chile
authorities who think that a three
months vacation is necessary to the
health OF the normal child Under the
. present circumstances, however, the
average school year is l65 days; hence
in eight years of his life the child re.
ceives about four years of schooling
The eleven month course will doubtless
afford much better opportunity for
thorough instruction as well as several
additions to the curricula.
Other schools this year are planning
to wage toothbrush campaign" among
their pupils. The amazing facts brought
to light by a school dentist in Kansas
City last year have startled the school
authorities into this Innovation. Out
of l7024 pupils examined in Kansas
City schools, Is, coo had never used a
toothbrush; just 1,005 out of the 17,02i
had mouths that We're clean and in good
condition.
Thus the modern school is loosenine
itself from the tradition and gradually
fitting its equipment to the changing re.
quirements of the public The child is
told how to wash his face, what to eat
for breakfast and is advised as to his
life occupation. This year Ashtabula
has started promoting its children by
subjects the nearest attempt at in
dividual education vet, Worcester is
teaching craftsmanship in Its high
schools and seven buildings are to house
junior high schools in New York. Next
to the preparedness issue, and as a
part of the preparedness issue, educa.
ton today is the most important reform
on foot in America. At the suggestion
of DR.. P p. Claxton. Commissioner of
Education, Uncle Sam is contemplating
establishing national experiments sta.
lions for experimental education in
i every state in the Union.