Bogalusa enterprise and American. (Bogalusa, La.) 1918-19??, 1919-11-13
STRIKING SCHOOL CHILDREN
ONE SUSPECTS, ON READING THE NEWS TIL
" the students in the High Schan at Raleville Ill ha

ONE. SUSPECTS, ON READING The MEMS THAI
the students in the High School at Bellevlle Ill., have
determined to strike unlesscertan demands in the way
of shorter study days. holidays off, lower passing grades
and forth met that the youngsters of that commn
iy perpetrating joke the elder statesmen The
absurdity of some of these demands berays them. For
while the Xhourday is perhaps more than IN keep
ing with the spirit of the times in Beeve and elsewhere
the call for teachers under Is years of age has the hall
mark of jolly prank and that for pool tables and phono
graphs rises to height of extravaganza hardly compa
BILE with serious purpose in going to school at ALL Yet,
if it shall anspre that all these demands and others that
accompany them seriously made, our educational a-
thorities cannot hold themselves wholly without blame
There is royal road to learning, whatever the fad
dss may say about it, and far schools depart from
the sound principle that the student must do his
learning they only store up trouble for the years to
The tendency to make the pupil believe that the teacher
responsible for his shortcomings has its logical outcome
in the notion that social system or the government at
Washington some other extraneous influence is to
blame for every individual who fails to adjust himself to
his surroundings the student fails to pass the eXana
ton is not his fault it is only that the examination is too
severe. And the young hopeful finding later that
no employer wants him because he can do nothing WE'LL
assumes not that he ought to make himself efficient but
that the relation Of employer and employed ought to be
abolished and that the Interests are in conspiracy
against him. good deal of the growing spirit of boil
shevs be traced to denial of personal responsibility
which educational method of devotng itself always to
finding the easy way has done not little to foster
1t may be that the radical program developed in the
Illinois town is due in part to the propaganda of imported
anarchists is suggested in the news dispatch This
theory receives color from the well known attitude of Rus
sian radicals toward education But it is not the Amer-
can theory the AngloSaxon theory and could find
no support in any community imbued with the indomt
able spirit of the forefathers of this republic One anti
dote for the High School soviet is thoroughgong course
in Amercanism in the grammar and primary grades This
would include of course study of the lives of great
Americans It be stated without fear of conradic
ton that no American who amounted to anything ever
achieved emnenee through six-hour study day, or so
of them threatened to strike for pool table in the
school room; and that to they would have gone
hungry before they would have demanded that the public
authorities provide free lunch
These youngsters in Illinois are either induging in
the merry pastime of hazing somebody or other or else
they are furnishing sad commentary the decline of
the old self reliance and logged perseverance in the face
selves.