The Alaska daily empire., 1919-03-14

ity which have not in the past been sufficiently stressed and the i'm portance of which has not fully been appreciated by the public generally Prominent among these is the need for more definite program of Americanization to the end that not past been but poorly assimilated but also Native born Americans may gain real conception of the Ameri- can ideals and of the vital princi ples of Ameriman Government. The Nation seems to have it's face set toward a program of Americaniza' tion, and is expecting the public school to play large part in the realization of this end.
 The time also seems past when mere literacy is to be considered a goal toward which the various States are to work. The person who is merely literate will not or dinarily develop to the point where he is capable of viewing in their proper prospective the complicated National and world problems which he must, as a citizen of this great Republic, face and solve. Compul- sory education laws may we'll be expected to be enforced more rigidly in the future than in the past. Com pulsory education age limits are be- ing raised throughout the United States. Pupils who complete the work of the elementary school will not in the future be considered as having discharged their obligations to society in this respect and on the other hand society will consider that it owes an education to every child whether of rich or poor parent age and will seen to it that econo- mic conditions do not drive so many boys and girls into productive ac- tivities at the age of twelve to four teen years as at present Statistics show that last year one million boys and girls in the United States drop. ped school without having completed the elementary grades.
 More attention to physical edu cation, including medical and den tai examination of school children, occupied a prominent place in the re marks of many of the speakers. The war seems to have awakened the Ma ton to the fact that there is start ifv If ifC tion who are physically unfit. In the great majority of cases these physical inperfections seem traceable to defects which in early childhood are easily remediable. The school which in the future does not provide for physical education of scope in keeping with it's opportunities will fail to discharge the obligation which society can reasonably lay up- on it. Military drill as a physical exercise was generally commended by speakers who touched upon tho subject. The introduction of this exercise into the public schools as a preparedness measure and it's con ducI dlOHe hheS "HiCh VIII hahe soldiers out of mere boys was, on the other hand. generally condemned
 The school of the future will con tain teachers who are better prepared professionally than those in the av- craze school of the present if state legislators throughout the United States yield to the wishes of the teachers themselves. There are far too many children at the present time who are taught by persons who are too youthful and too poorly equipped educationally to be instruc- tors of the boys and girls of the greatest Nation in the world. in the opinion of most educators. The de- mand seems to be far more string