Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1921-02-11
LETTER FROM STATE SUPT.
HARRIS.
State of Louisiana
Department of Education.
Baton Rouge.

DdtOH houSS.
February /, 1921.
NY dear Superintendent:
The minutes of the meeting of the
State Board of Education held yes
terday, January 81, are Of unusual
interest in several respects, and will,
therefore, be published and mailed
to all of the public school officials
throughout the state.
wish to call your attention in this
! letter to a few of the most important
items which will be found in the min
utes mentioned above.
l. The Board approved a plan for
the administration of the Federal Re
Mobilization Act adopted by Congress
IN 1920. This act provides for the
instruction of persons injured in in
Iustry and otherwise mot soldiers),
with the view of fitting them to earn
their livelihood in a suitable trade.
The Federal Board of Vocational Ed
ucation bears one-half of the expense
of instruction lit pays nothing for
such items as clothing, food, equip
ment), and the expense for the other
half of the instruction must be real
ized from donations contributed by
Institutions, public boards, or other
wise. The beneficiaries may be in
;tructed in public schools, state in
,titutions, private institutions, shops,
newspaper plants-in any suitable
place that affords the instruction
needed.
l hope you will have your local
: newspapers call attention to this mat
ter in order that persons injured in in
dustry or otherwise, and in that way
r imparing or destroying their earning
power, may be placed in position to
: communicate with me with the view of
securing proper instruction.
= 2. The Board adopted as a sup
E Elementary reader pamphlet pre-
pared by the Federal Government and
entitled, "The Story of the Cattle
: Fever Tick" This booklet tells the
essential facts of the life history OF
e the cattle tick, and the immense dam.
S age that it does, in very interesting
y manner, and it is splendidly illus.
n trated. 1t can be easily read by child
S rem as low as the third grade, and il
: will be read with interest by the
= teachers and the children in any Of
r the grades above the third. As soOr
as an available supply of this pam
! phlet has been turned over to me
n shall forward a package to YOU
s address, and / hope that you viii
r place the booklets in the Libraries Of
n your country schools with instruction:
t that they be used as supplementary
reading material.
s 3. The Board instructed me, as Su
It perintendent, and beginning with the
+ session of 1921-1922, to issue M
Q more emergency certificates, and b
enforce the college hour regulations
: governing high school teachers, and
C further, to enquire into the status Of
: those high school teachers who wer'
v teaching in high school department.
f in 1916 when the college hour reg
e ulations were adopted, and wer'
J. quieted in their positions, although
1, they did not meet the standards pre-
n scribed, and to eliminate from hig
school work such teachers who hav
: not made reasonable and diligent ef
s. fort to improve their scholarship. Tn
re same ruling applies to high schot
Is teachers not meeting the require
g standards who have been employe
at in high school departments during tn
III time that the regulations referre
fe to have been suspended, namely, tn
er last two sessions. l was also instruc
IL ed, beginning with the session q
1925-1926 to extend first grade ce
ly tificates for five-year periods onl
a. by the application OF certificate
showing as many as three collee
ry hours earned in summer sessions, {
normal schools, or in reading Giro
al courses, and the credits of three co
a lege hours must have been earne
v. during the life of the certificat
he which it is desired to have extende
I'D The purpose of the Board
adopting the resolution referred to
u easily understood. The Board is of Il
ID, opinion that the instruction in Il
n high schools should be in the hands I
college graduates, and that this ide
should be realized at the earliest poss
= BILE date. The Board believes that poo
ly prepared teachers waste pu
Fl lie money and prove an obstacle
nd the advancement of children; that '
% sboulA acsuma that the war and