The Lamar register., 1919-03-05
HIGH SCHOOL-THE NEW WING

Education is no longer a luxury.
Education today is a prime necessity.
This fact is now being felt and COM
pretended as never before. At the
very outset of the period of recon-
struction following the World War,
the whole world is unmistakably awak
ing to the necessity of universal edu-
cation. Not mere parlor education,
but an education for accomplishment
in the worlds constructive tasks, an
education for individual efficiency, an
education for democracy.
America already glimpses vividly
necessity. In the matter of physical
fitness alone, the operation of the
selective draft law has revealed as
tonishing facts, in kind and degree, as
to the neglect of physical education.
Movement is now on foot to procure
federal and state aid for this and
other needs in educational progress.
Soon a Secretary of Education and
Health Welfare will sit in the Presi-
dents Cabinet. The legislatures in
practically all the states of the Union
are dealing seriously with educational
and school problems. Cities and towns
are vying with each other in building
up their schools, both for the cause
of education and as a substantial busi-
ness asset in their communities.
Several Colorado towns are now
ready to take from Lamar the financ-
ial aid our school receives from the
federal government to help carry on
our agricultural and industrial courses.
We have already been informed by the
State Inspector that our facilities and
equipment must be enlarged and made
adequate for the work, if we are to
retain our position and continue to re-
ceive federal aid under the Smith
Hughes Act. Several schools in Colo
RADIO are now standing ready to meet
all the requirements of that law and
to take Lamar's position in that work.
should we fail to rise to the occa sion
If we let conditions stand as they
are now, some other school will take
this work from us, and Lamar will
lose its opportunity to stand as an
apostle of high-school agricultural
training in this corner of the state.
The issue squarely confronts us. The
present one little room for agricultural
courses, serving both for recitations
and for laboratory work, does not and
cannot suffice. The proposed south
wing of the high-school building is
necessary, to provide adequately for
this work, and to keep these courses
and retain the federal aid for Lamar.
In similar manner, the other depart
ments of the high school are hampered
by lack of room. We have no sewing
room for the household arts depart
ment, and the sewing-machines are
placed in the hall and wardrobe. One
little room has been partitioned to
serve as best it can for two rooms in
the commercial department. One lit
tie end of hall, boarded off under a
staircase, inadequately serves as a
principals office and classroom. There
are no dressing rooms for either the
boys or the girls. For the want of a
storage-room, boxes are stored in the
corridors. Neither the boys nor the
girls have adequate wardrobes for
their hats and coats.
These and other needs suggest and
indicate the imperative necessity of
the proposed wing to the high-school
building. The new wing will provide
for the exigency of the present time.
1t will assist also to relieve the con-
gestion in the elementary grades, by