Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1920-12-17
"THAT HIGH SCHOOL BLUE SLIP


The old adage that you can lead a
horse to water, but you cannot make
him drink" contains great deal of
esy the 1e6oo Sfrsn Sf than and
not make him think" Stfll. if he has
the right attitude towards his studies
and his coefficient of Intelligence is
by course at high school.
The prime requisite for success in
high school, as in real life, is willing-
ness to apply oneself and to have cour-
must gradually acquire certain set of
habits, whereby he can utilize his time
to the best advantage. He must learn
to systematize his efforts and not think
is progress, even though great deal of
energy is used.
In the fable of the hare and the tor
t9ise to the the tortoise won by systematic
more work than the sluggard, even
though the latter possesses better tools
Given. therefore. a certain minimum
of ability. degree Of industry and the
the student and high school teacher
will surely work things out.
Ihe parent can usually put the boy
or girl in the right frame of mind to-
heavy handicap at the start. The par
ent must also be solely responsible
for the use Of the hours out of school
A certain philosopher once said, Tell
me what you do in your leisure hours
will have in life" We must establish
a. schedule of home work and home
study for the growing boy or girl. 1t is
more dangerous to commence too late
than too early.
With all Willingness on the part Of
the pupil and hearty cooperation on
the part of the parent thus assumed,
the burden of the problem rests with
the teacher and school authority. The
pupl 8 progress must be carefully
watched, his special difficulties cleared
away in sympathetic spirit. and due
encouragement extended to him at
every step. He has no standard guage
OF his own by which to tell whether he
is meeting his requirements or not
The teacher is hired to make expert
diagnosis Of his mental health, to make
daily readings, as it were. of his scho-
lastic temperature. In no other way can
proper remedies be applied. Just as
physician and nurse cooperate in the
care of the body. SO must teacher and
parent do teamwork in the training Of
the mind.
Our local high school gives out six
week reports of each pupils progress.
But where car starts to back down
q grade, the time to apply the brakes
IS at the hrst sign of retrogression, not
when too much momentum in the back
sliding has been gained. So they be-
heve in putting out prompt danger sig
nails at frequent intervals.
Therefore the Little Falls schools
nave 1naugurated system of weekly
notice of failure to pupils in the Junior
and Senior high school departments.
Exact duplicates are sent to parents
through the mails. These weekly no.
Slip" usually issued on Monday. on
the notice, the teacher suggests pos
sible reasons for poor work and gives
apparent remedies. They are not is
ents but in spirit of heipfulness.
This is simply one of many devices that
are being used in united campaign
to raise the standard of scholarship in
our public schools
The high school faculty does not ex-.
pect every student out of over three
hundred to make a brilliant record. but
they do look for honest efforts. Fur
thermore where such honest effort
is lacking, they are not. prepared to
initiate "reformatory" methods.