The Mena weekly star., 1919-02-06
FOR IMPROVEMENTS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Polk County Teachers Association Gave Hearty Approval to Plans of County Superintendent T. J. Will
 banks-Circulating Library.

Enthusiastic approval was given by the Polk county Teachers Asso- citation at the meeting Saturday morning, to County Supt T. J. Will banks plan for real progressive im- provement in the city and rural public schools The association of in- structors agreed to cooperate with Superintendent Wilbanks in his ef- forts to get standardization of one and two room rural schools, larger rural schools and accredited high schools.
 An important work started was that of establishing a circulating li- brary for teachers. A committee con sisting of G. M. Wood, Miss Louise Durham and 1. B. Jones, was chosen to supervise this movement. Ten com mittees were named to arrange a county course of study.
 It was decided to have the school contests held on March 21-22, at Mena. The committee named to ar- 1 range for these events consists of G. M. Woods, l. c. Harris, A. s. Dan- iels, J. M. Tomlin, K. w. Hamby, Mrs. o. B. Bagshaw and Miss Lydia Montgomery.
 Superintendent Wilbanks also an- nounced that he will arrange to grant diplomas to graduates of the eighth grade, and will also work out plans for sectional graduation exercises for i the coming year.
 The sessions of the teachers were 1 held at the auditorium of the First NJ. E. church, South, and the program, i considering that it was arranged in fornight's time, was a creditable one. The attendance was good and the teachers manifested great inter- est in the meetings. Owing to the inability of some of the out-of town speakers to reach Mena on time, the i final program was condensed into one session, that of the morning. 1 One feature of the meeting was the ] presence of W. E. Laseter, of Little i Rock, state supervisor of rural schools. The visitor gave two talks before the association, one Friday evening and the other Saturday morning. His talk at the closing session on System in School Work, 2 was one that was highly commended by the teachers who heard it. Polk county's demonstrators, 0. L. Hender- son, and Miss Anna Wood both gave short talks
 Two subjects were discussed at the closing session by teachers. G. NJ. Woods, Miss Louise Durham and A. S. Daniels led the discussion on Discipline, while the topic of What Can Be Done to Better the Conditions of the Teaching Profession?" was discussed by l. G. Harris and J. NJ. Tomlin.
 Those who attended the opening meeting of the teachers meeting Fri day night were impressed by the ex- cellence of the program, particularly that portion given by the pupils of the different schools. It was a pat rons' program and there was a large audience of parents and friends to hear the young performers. The musical selections were the contri- buttons of Mena peoples and while the literary offerings were by repre- sentatives of out-of-town schools. The program was as follows:
 Piano Solo-Miss Williemina Pip kin. Mena.
 ecitation-Mabel Tomlin, Wander voort
 Reading Stella Letterman, Hat ton.
 Instrumental Duet-J. W. Gardner, IT, and Hubert Smith, Mena.
 Reading Helen Allen, Potter. Defamation - Edgar Hammond, Vandervoort
 Reading -Lillie Mae Watt, Board Camp.
 Reading Ethyl McWilliam, Acorn.
 Vocal Duet--Misses Milree Smith and Iva Bullion, Mena. At the patrons session, Minor Pip kin, president of the Mena board of education, gave the address of well come and the response on behalf of the teachers was given by J. N. Fair. President L B. Jones of the associa- tion presided at the business meeting Saturday morning.
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