The Seward gateway., 1920-12-09

Seward Daily Gateway. six n@ths.
 Seward Daily Gateway. per year. in
 As . part of the nationwide cam raisn for the improvement of tht schools and other agencies of educa- ,ion U. s. Commissioner of Education Dr. P. P. Claxton. has designated the week of December 5-11, as "school week" and requested the governors and chief school officers of the sev- eral states and territories to talk sch setion as will advance the interests ot es.u.ation throughout the nation.
 Ways and means of improving the educational facilities ir Seward have been under consideration for consid- cr.,ble length cf time. In the first yiace the high-schoool curricuim should he extended to include a full fo1r years course. When this matter was strongly urged year ago the ob- ,ection was raised that the number of rupils entering the high school was Tot sufficient to warrant the expense. The dire efftcts unprepardness for emergencies has been sadly demon strated throughout the nation in the last few years. A lack of preparation to meet an emergency and the detri- meut to educational interests was ob- served in our school last year when pupils arrived from other sections or the Territory and from the States and wished to enter the high school and take up studies in the third and fourth year. There were neither the roomine facilities nor the requisite number oi teachers to meet the demand. The pu- pills dropped out and the school wa criticised for inefficiency in not being prepared to meet an emergency.
 The elementary schools are of ne eessity largely given up to teaching the rudiments of education and this is chiefly the work of the first two years in the high school. Not until the third and fourth years in the high school can the problems that most yitally af- feet us as a nation be successfully taken up and pursued by the pupils. The nation is awakening to the fact that if we are to have in the future a united body of intelligent and loyal citizens we must definitely and and systematically begin to instruct the pupils who enter the high school in those studies which especially bear up on good citizenship. The State legis- lature of New Jersey last year enact. ed a law making it obligatory in the high schools to take up the study of problems in American democracy. The law requires that the study shall be begun not earlier than the thi,d
 of the high-school course and that at least sixty full hours in periods of at least forty minutes shall be given to it.
 A very obvious reason why we should have a standard high school here is that parents may not be'oblig- ed to send their children to the States to secure the advantages of an edu- cation. Parents living in Seward and helping to develop new country have a right to expect the town and the Territory to provide for the education of their children including four year high-schooi course.
 With an extended high course other subjects such as domestic science and manual training can be introduced with advantage to the pupils and com munity. With the proper equipment more attention. can be given to physi- cal culture which is now largely ne glcted.
 To carry on the work of education in Seward as it should be done will