The Springfield herald., 1916-11-03

attend the district normal, ne
makes an admission for which
the Herald has all along contend.
ed, that they can't any of them
afford to attend the district
school, as. so far as salary is con
cerned, one teacher can attend
as well as another; and there is
MT anyway to get around this
proposition.
Now let's notice his contin-
ual rehashing OF the state being
divided into thirteen districts, of
which the smallest consists of
three counties, he bolstering VI,
his contention of these districts
being the right size by wanting
to know if we would divide this
county into half dozen counties,
or would have two or three coun
ty seats TOR it.
An argument in the opposite
direction would he just as plaus-
abie-that the whole state should
be made into a district normal,
or that several states should be
joined in Observation-Disclosures we
have forty eight states imthe un
ion, and each state has one capi-
tai as has the United States.
Jones, counties are made in
size to accommodate the people
In them, and likewise normal ter
ritory is made in size to accom-
mDdate the teachers; and the size
in either case may be changed at
any time W hen change in num- :
bers makes change in condi-
lions.
Let US carry the change we
have had here to the extreme of
having 1000 teachers in the
county, would you still emit the
twaddle that you might as well
talk of three or four county seats
or haly a dozen counties in this
county as to talk of legal nor
nal for the county?
AT the time the district nor
NAL was created, Baca county
had nine schools, averaging less
than half dozen pupils, and
there were about as many teach
ers as schools-and that tells the
condition at that time all over
the state.
Not having enough teachers in
the county at that time to hold a
county normal. the state did the
next best thing by throwing a
few counties together. the num-
ber of schools and teachers be-
ing the discriminating factor as
to the size of the districts thus
made.
Jones, can you tell why they :
don't have district normals in
Kansas, and other rain-belt states
where it would take four of their
counties to make one Of ours?
Why, just because they have
enough teachers in the counties
themselve for that purpose.
Since the creation of the dis
district normal, conditions have
changed all over the state, their
being in Baca now anywhere
from eighty to one-hundred
teachers and others who could
and probably would attend the
county normal-which is probab-
ly twice as many as attended the
district normal during the time
of the sparse settlement of the
country.
Now as to the actual benefit of
the district normal, while it was
probably right for Baca county
to help support it, the facts are
that Baca actually never got
more than about five cents worth
of good out of it, as her teachers
practically never did attend said
school-there being from absolut-
ely none at all to two or three in
attendance while the conditions
remained as when the school was
esta blished.
AS stated before, if the school
were always at Lamar it would
MT be so bad, but even that dis
tance is prohibitive to the most
of our teachers, as only twenty
last year were able to attend it.
Now as to Jones' awful cost"
of running a normal--isn't that a
remarkable excuse for wanting