The Hays free press., 1921-06-09
BALLoU SAYS AMERICA FIRST

tum of the high schools of Washing
ton, D. Co. notes the. Republican
Publicity Association, through its
President, Hon. Jonathan Bourne, Jr.
After the beginning of the new
school year IN September, every high
school student will be required to
take courses in American history and
civics. Foreign languages, on the
other hand, will be made elective.
That means that the grant of a high
school diploma will depend not at all
upon proficiency in an alien tongue,
but will demand a familiarity with
our own nations history and form of
government. Superintendent Ballou
says he has taken the action because
he believes that fundamntal knowl-
edge of American history and govern
ment is a prerequisite for good cit
izenship.
''The need of widespread reform
of the kind inaugurated in Washing
ton is attested in a recent report of
an official of the National Association
of Manufacturers. An authoritative
investigation of 5.O54 high Schools
said he, Indicates that only 1000 of
those Investigated profess to teach
civics and only 136 use accredited
texts. In the rest of these 1000 high
schools social studies mean talks on
current events with Indifferent ma
terial as the basis What the invest
igation disclosed regarding the teach
ing of American history is not in
dicated, but there is little doubt that
too many high schools gloss over the
subject, trusting to institutions of
higher education to make up any de-
fciency that may exist along those
Ines.
SIN making appropriations during
the war to pay the salaries of Wash
ington school teachers, Congress stip-
ulated that no part of the money
should he used for the payment of
any teacher to give instruction in the
German language That restriction
does not apply to appropriations since
made. 1t was an extreme provision,
but how much more arbitrary is it to
saw that a pupil shall study German
or any other foreign language, espec-
ially when a similar mandate does
not apply to American history.
After September the situation will
be reversed in the Washington high
schools. Every pupil SHALL study
American history, and MAY study
foreign language.
CDR. Ballou calls attention to fact
that should be more widely recog-
nized when he says that 'as the high
school becomes more cosmopolitan
and more largely than ever before
finishing school rather than prepar-
atory school for college, it becomes
increasingly necessary to modify the
courses of study in accordance with
this change in personnel Had that
truth been permitted earlier to infiu-
ence high school curriculums, the
country would have been saved from
much of the hectic wave of interna-
tionalism that swept over it year or
so ago.
"What high school student, for in
stance, knows anything about the pro-
ceedings of the Constitutional Con-
vention and the debates that preceded
the adoption of each of the provisions
of our fundamental law? What high
schools are teaching today the lessons
of the last three years of our history
and the events in Europe in their re-
Iation thereto? Yet a proper under
standing of the principles upon which
our government was founded in 1887,
and the triumphant emergence OF
those principles in 1920 from the
welter of supreme sacrifices inter
national guarantees and 'supergov-
ernments' that assailed them is
course in itself, a thorough
familiarity with which should be de-
manded of every high school student
before he is handed a diploma.
''High schools throughout the coun-
try may well profit by the example set
in the schools at the National Capitol.
Now is the time to plan the courses
for next year, and the Americanism
that is featuring the present admin
istration of our government at Wash |
ington should also find expression in
an emphasized attention to history
and civics in our institutions of learn !
ing"
WANTED-Lady or gentle
man able to speak, write and
read German, for private secre-