Milford chronicle., 1918-04-19

advance or retreat. We must adOp
such a school system as will brinl
the children who attend our public
schools, real education, and the Stat
get all that is TO be had from public
: school education for the money ex
pended. At present as the cold facts
OF school records show, the State o.
Delaware and the individual tar
payers, who supply the money for the
public schools, are throwing about
twenty per cent of their money away
Whose fault is this? Who is respOn-
sible for this waste? The answer is
quick to find, and it is also incOntro-
vertible, as the proof from any school
records will show. The reason for
this waste is THAI the people who use
the schools, or should use the schools,
are the offenders. They fail to require
their children TO attend school regu-
larly, and take no interest in enforc-
ing the school laws. The people, and
we mean all the people, are equally
guilty of this great waste of probably
one hundred thousand dollars each
year in Delaware. thru this negligence
and apparent opposition TO educating
the children. Lack OF steady attend
ance is the greatest loss in money.
1t costs the same to operate the
schools with FIVE children as it does
with twenty or more, and worst of
all, the children absent from school
are not getting the education which !
the State and the tax payers are pay
ing for. That is the serious loss. It /
is loss which will result in lower |
sense of public duties; OF a lower
sense of the value of all education |
and loss of ability TO do greater
things for the child, en- of the future.
These people are thoughtless in all
Of what they are response
bic for in permitting the absenteeism
Of pupils from the schools, but there
is another deep-Tooted opposition
which manifests itself, and it is found
engrafted upon nearly all classes of
people. and that is a seeming antipathy
to conforming to any Of the school
laws or school regulations. The peo-
pie seem 10 forget that it is their own
child against whom they are operating
when they oppose betterment Of the
public school system.
Like the entire policy of govern
ment of the United States generally,
he people seem to have lost patriotic
pride in a democratic form of govern
nent, and have grown to believe that
4 few dollars can accomplish anything
o be desired; but we are now at the
parting of the ways in more things
han in political government in this
great country, and Delaware must and
will have an awakening which will
bring bout a higher, better system of
public school education. The small
pay Of a teacher has robbed
The schools of men and women who
would have helped the people OF Della
ware to a higher moral and educa-
lional standing. Standing at the end
Of another school year the people must
think well, and go below the simple
fact of the money cost of having bet
Ter and more public school education
in Delaware, First put the schools
upon basis away from the petty
Individual district management. and
hen educate all the people TO the prac-
ical results Of education upon their
Individual affairs and business, and
hen apply practical business methods
n managing the schools. The ignorant
md viscious frequently direct the :
policy OF the rural schools under the /
present system, and this must not be t
possible. Compel every man or woman
o educate the child which they bring