Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1921-09-19

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results that are both surprising
and alarming. The theory on
which all property il taxed to sup
port our schools and educate our
children il that it is the duty of
the taxpaying citizen to aid in
making better citizens in the fu-
ture to carry on the republic and
this cannot be done unless the new
generation have a better education
than the old. Education is what q
person knows. That knowledge
may be obtained out Of school as
we'll as in school. But schools
properly equipped are supposed to
furnish the most efficient means
for a young person to gather
knowledge by. That knowledge
should make him better citizen
to justify the expenditure Of pub
lie money on his education.
What, asks Mr.. Barnes, are
college juniors observing in chem
istry experiments who are unable
to identify a cartoon Of Uncle
Sam? .........
What are high school graduates
thinking about the French revolu-
ton who believe that Lloyd George
is king of Ireland, Samuel Com
pers noted American poet,
Henry Cabot Lodge a promoter of
spiritualism, or Sim Fem a law
less mob in Russia?
Are students training for eff
cheney in industry who have no
idea what collective bargaining"
budget" and "sales tax" mean?
How are school and college stu
dents preparing for citizenship who
think the Knox peace resolution
called for indemnity from Ger
many, that peonage means the
murder of employees, or that the
last two constitutional amendments
to our federal constitution brought
us railroads, steamships, paved
streets and less immigration?
Mr.. Barnes has recently issued
a report on how 1880 school and
college students averaged only
44s in answering questions about
frequently mentioned persons,
places and problems of national
concern.
The test was taken by 100000
students in all parts of the country
and was issued by the Review OF
Reviews. The returns from 1880
were given to the Institute for
Public Service for study. Its re-
port gives the averages earned by
different classes, as follows
College juniors and seniors 609o,
college freshmen $3.50, high school
seniors 51ee, high school third year
500, high school second year 429o,
high school first year 35%, gram
mar school seniors 42%o and gram
mar school seventh grade 1870. OF
1850, only 332 earned over 9o9o,
1885 earned over 80%, and 2,70s,
or one in seven, earned over 1870.
Referring to the recent claim OF
the American Federation of Labor
that school textbooks omit or mis-
represent labor's point of view, the
institutes report asks if there is
less danger to society from text
books which omit or misrepresent
anybody's point of view than from
schools which fail to teach current
events.
The practical question is said to
be not whether students should
stop reading and talking about, but
whether they should be taught to
study current events purposefully.
It is suggested that if current
problems are to be used at all,
schools should not trust to infor-
nation sticking to students, but
should carefully test students on
the way they read and on what
they understand and digest.
The institutes summary is in
part as follows:
"The current events questions
were not catch questions calling
for freak memories. Instead they
called for knowledge and under
standing of frequently mentioned
men, places and issues affecting
our national life, like Uncle Sam,
Samuel Gompers, Budget Director
Dawes, Lloyd George, Senator's
Lodge and Borah, home-state gov.
errors and school heads; Coblenz,