Fergus County Democrat., 1916-07-20
ABOUT COUNTY
HIGH SCHOOLS
"WhAT SHALL eE DONE. WITH
THEM" is CONSIDERED BY
n. S. WOODWARD.
MS IDEA OF the True ANSWER

MSr wtA Ut IHr tWl M5Mtk
The following able article on What
Shall We DO WITH Our coynty High
SCHOOL, vas w..ttel hy T.. g. Wood
ward of Ilobson, member OF the
board OF truti. ces of the county high
! school: 1y
What sha" we do with our county
| high schools" is a question which has
been bothering the 16 counties of
Montana which have them. make it
as useful to Fergus county as the Boze-
man Agricultural college is to the
state" spells the answer given by the
new Fergus county high school board.
When this board was appointed lit
tie over Il year ago they found a coun-
/ ty high school in one of the greatest
agricultural counties in the world
which Wasn't teaching agriculture.
Worse yet-they found that the scores
Of rural schools throughout the coun-
! ty were not teaching their pupils a
single branch OF agriculture. Ninety
five per cent of them are expecting to
make farming their lifelong occupa-
ton, but the rural schools are being
conducted as though they were all be
ing educated for college professors.
So, the high school board started out
by hiring a professor Of agriculture
But there was no class room to give
him, as the high school was already
crowded to the roof. Furthermore,
when he arrived lie stated that the
blacksmith and manual training de
rartments and the botany and chem
istry departments would all have to be
enlarged to install proper course in
agriculture
The farmers had just voted down a
$4,000 bond issue for dormitory and
a $4,000 issue for doubling the size
or the high school. The board felt the
voters were justified in doing SO, be-
cause the old principal had been run
ming the school primarily to educate
boys for college, place where not one
farmer boy in a hundred expects to go.
But they felt that small addition to
the main building would be approved
by the farmers, when rs per cent of it
would 60 for the use of the new course
in farming. So a small, One-story an
nex was built, costing less than $4,000,
and has been given over very largely
to the classes in the new course. 1t
was paid for out of surplus funds on
hand. More recently, plans have been
drawn for forge room and black
smith shop, which will cost about
$2,5O0.
The next thing was to get princi
pal with experience in the work which
the board wanted to commence for the
farming industry in Fergus county.
The old principals contract did not
run out till August, 1916. After much
investigation, it was decided that Prof
F. L. Cummings superintendent of the
Flathead county high school, was the
ideal man for the place. A flatterine
offer was made him and the board con
: sidered itself very fortunate when he
, accepted, after having personally
looked over the field. But then, oil
course, no one could resist the judith
Basin, once he saw it.
Professor Cummings has made a ma
tional reputation at Kalspell by the
way he has brought the farmers into
!, the school and taken the school out tC
! the farmers. He has made the Flat
head county high school an instrument
4
an uplifting influence, reaching every
man, woman and child in that whole
: county. He believes that when {
school has taught the children theil
lessons it has only begun; that i
Should be Of service to these children!
J parents as well and to the communit,
at large. And, being an intensely prac
tical man, he realized that nothin,
makes boys and girls learn so fast al
working out actual problems in ever.
day life, instead of solving abstrac
problems from books. So, when a far
mer in Flathead county wanted a plaI
! for new barn, he would write to III
high school and outline his needs. Pre-
Z fessor Cummings would turn his lette
: over to the class in draughtng, whicl
9 would Get some real practical exper
q ence by drawing UP plan for TIL
: barn. Likewise, the faImer who want
/ cd his cream tested would have hi
/ sample turned over to the class il
. dairying. The miller would have hi
/ flour tested by the class in chcmistr
and the business man would have hi
= bookkeeping or cost accounting prol
/ lcms worked out by the commercia
:. class.
Tho Grown-ups soon got intereste
IN the school aud hundreds of them &c
l. to attending the lectures and takin
short courses designed for their ben.
Fit. Is it any wonder boys and girl
lett Mr.. Cummings school and wer
back to the farm trained so as to b
| :. real help to their parents and equil
d led with knowledge to make it pa
= many a neat dividend which had bee
:. overlooked before?
- But the high school is not earl
enough to start giving children pra
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