The Wrangell sentinel., 1920-05-20
.rangell's First High School
 Commencement
Was Interesting Event-Miss Liberty Juanita Worden Alaska's Youngest
 Graduate


 The first High School Com. mencement in Wrangell was held last Thursday evening in Red mems Hall, Miss Liberty Worden being the graduate.
 The Parent-Teachers' Associa- tion gave unsparingly of their time and labor that Miss Worden should have the incest graduation setting possible for Wrangell to give her. The school boys brought great loads of yellow cedar boughs which were formed into a solid bank at the back and sides of the stage. The class motto was made of red roses on a cedar background. White roses were used at the sides of the stage and in brass bowls, decoratively grouped about the front of the hall. The effect was beautiful beyond description.
 A Scholarly Essay
 Modern Chinese Education' was the subject of Miss Worden's S graduating essay which was a most scholarly paper. Following is'an excerpt from the essay:
 China's non intercourse policy was the root oi all their backward ness. Their reverence for anti quity rendered them intolerant of innovation and changes in educa. tion. The old system was merely memory aud copy work. The most highly prized portion of Chi nese literature was embraced in the Five Classics and the Four Books, including mainly the teach ings of Confucious. Their influ- ence was not wholly good as it en- courage imitation and discouraged originality. The Chinese school today is far from being an ideal one for the pupils all study aloud, but this will not be for long owing to their rapid progress.
 Charles K. Edmunds, President of the Canton Christian College, Canton, China, says that the dis tinction between the oriental and the occidental lies in the technique, not in the intellectual callber. The Chinese have d spirit for in- accuracy-they have become used to thinking Tn tens, as for in- stance,-an old man is thot of as seventy or eighty years of age, when they know tor certainty that he was only seventy last year. A child of ten or eleven is thot of as ten or twenty years old. For greater accurancy than this they do not care except when you are paying them money.
 The number of schools and pu- pills since 1910, has increased three hundred percent. The mis- sionaries deserve the credit for much of their rapid progress. They began with their work in 1897, but now that the government has discouraged them by denying the acknowlement of titles, degrees and credits of those, who have at tended mission institutions, they have gone back into the heart of the country to enlighten the peo- pie. It has been stated that only five percent of the population can read or write, while less than two per cent have mastered the lang uage. The drawback in mastering the language lies in the hiero- glypic alphabet, which consists of over three hundred characters. Their complex language renders it difficult to use modern conveniences, such as a typewriter. Imagine a typewriter with over three hundred characters.
 Physical education is being de- veloped since the people have come to realize that "A sound mind in sound body is a short but full description of a happy state in this world" Vigorous physique was not only undesirable but ob- jectionable. Students and teach Continued or ZaSf Paer