The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1919-12-25


dicate very large range in the num-
ber of days attended by children in
school. The average attendance is as
varied among the districts and differ
ent parts of the county as it is among
the children in school.
Why does one child attend school so
| school under similar conditions attends
100 to us days? Why is the average
attendance of one school 6O& and in
another 9O%3 Who is responsible?
The parents of the non attending
child are responsible. 1t may be cold,
it may be raining, it may be two or
more miles to school, the roads may be
bad, the child is not strong, etc, are
the problems for you to solve and non
attendance is not solving the problem
but shirking 1t. No matter what the
difficulty is, overcome it, and get your
children to school. Is it fair to expect
your child to learn in two or three days
what your neighbors' children learn i n
five? You send your children to school
three days a week or for several
months in the fall and in the spring
and expect them to pass with their
grade. Is that square deal to them?
And when they leave school to earn a
! living, can you expect them to do as well
as those Of equal natural ability who
attended regularly at schoolH Would
you expect two boys equal in every
way to saw an equal amount of wood
/ If you furnish one with q dull saw and
/ the other with sharp saw? And isn't
it strange or shall | say queer that you
taxsyourself to have good school and
pay good teacher to teach it and then
rob your children of the benefit of at
tending it2 There is about as much
sense i'll that as there is in buying your
boy pair of shoes and then not allow
ing him to wear them.
! The teacher is responsible. She owes
it to herself that she insist on good at
tendance. A poor attendance means n
repetition and slowing up of the work
to allow these absent pupils an oppor.
tunity to catch up. The pupils attend
| ing regularly are without new work
and become mischievous and disorder
! ly. All this is extra school work for the
teacher with the added problem of dis
cipline. Everything she can do in the
form of personal calls on the parents,
honor rolls, and other devices to devel-
op sentiment for good attendance is a
saving to her ofmuch work and trouble
The parents of the child who attends
regularly are responsible. DO you
know that every time your neighbor's
child is absent that your own child is
losing part of his education? DO you
know that the teacher must repeat for
the benefit of the absent one, thus us.
ing up time belonging to your child in
which he should be learning something
new? DO you know that this loss of
time in waiting for the absent one is
training your child in habits of idle
ness and idleness means mischief or
wrong doing? 1t is your right and
your duty to call the attention of your
neighbor TO the non. attendance of his
children. You wouldn't think of al
lowing your neighbor to steal your
cattle and crops, then why let him steal
your children S education2
All you other property owners in the
district are responsible. Do you know
that your neighbors' children will soon
be voting, holding office, or performing
other duties of citizenship and that if
they are not prepared to perform these
intelligently, you will suffer in taxes,
in poor government and even to the
extent of losing all your property il
Bolshevikism becomes popular enough2
You know that Bolshevikism is un-
bridled Ignorance and that we begin to
prepare potential BolsheyiH by not
sending our children to school.
The county superintendent Is respOn-
sible. If pupils between the ages Of
and IA do not attend some public or
parochial school at least 100 days a
year he is required to notify the sheriff,
who Is the county truant officer. The
sheriff Is required to prosecute the de-
linquent parents. The superintendent
as a rule notifies the parents of delln-
quency and If no results are secured
the sheriff is notified. Failure to heed
a letter from him results in prosecu-
tion. The only excuses for non attend
ance acceptable are doctors certificate
of sickness, feeble -mindedness, or
distance to school. Children living over
two miles from school are required to
attend at least 90 days. Work athome,
attendance at parochial schools for in
struction only, poor roads, etc, are not
acceptable excuses The only trouble
with the superintendent response
bility IS, that he can compel pupils to
attend only 100 days, number alto
gether insufficient.
We are all responsible for good at
tendance in our schools. At least a
common school education is necessary
to mako good citizen of this country,
country that we made ourselves and
are making to-day If we cannot as
sist intelligently in making 1t what we
want IL to be we will make costly mis-
takes. There are important problems
in our government arising every year
and we must prepare our children by
teaching them to read and think inteli-
gently 80 that they can solve these pro-
blems successfully and with the few est
! possible mistakes. We owe IL to our
country ~ ourselves that we create IA