The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1921-05-26
Fifty-four Days
and Nothing Done
WILL THE PUPILS
MAKE GOOD?

President Upham of the university
said Sunday night that people do not
educate youth in order to enable
them to get thru life easier or to
do better individually, but to enable
them to live better lives and be OF
greater service to society. He said,
too, that on leaving school they
should not expect to go out and take
swivel-chair positions, but should
start in at the bottom and work up,
for that is the way business Is done,
and one must know business from
the bottom up thru all It's details If
he would qualify for managerial
position.
The public are likely to take the
situation just as he gave It, and
begin observations to see II the youth
of our own community make good.
The town needs cleaning up and re-
pairing, and the youth of the town
are looking about to see what they
will do during the summer. The
community has expended its money
on the schools without stint to
qualify the pupils for greater SER
vice to the community. They can
not begin with swivel-chair jobs and
be mayor, or city clerk, or city at
t0rney or city engineer, but they can
begin at the bottom and clean up the
premises Of their parents-and there
are about 500 homes with lots and
adjacant streets and alleys that are
in need of a cleanup. There are
500 homes where there is need of re-
pairing various things about the
place that youth can do. There is
need of paint and the application Of
other materials that cost a little
money-the price of ice creams and
picture shows, and then there Is re-
pairing to do that does not require
new materials, but calls only for the
use Cf shovel and wheelbarrow and
husky youth working with the
handles.
There is great deal of repairing
that merely calls for the use of
nails, and possibly the use of some
waste lumber lying about the place
that counts. against the general ap-
pearance, but which would count in
its favor If rightly coupled up with
nails and hammer.
There is a lot of work inside the
houses which girls can do with or
without money, and nothing will
make mother happier or give dad
more satisfaction over his invest
ments in taxes and school books than
to see daughter showing an interest
in house work done with her own
hands. II she needs some varnish,
dad will probably buy it for her and
be glad to.
If the folks from the schools show
that they are worth more and can
serve better by reason of their
schooling with all the special service
that have been added in recent years,
the voters and tax payers of the COM
munity will appraise them accord
ingly and take that into considera-
tion in deciding whether or not they
will vote the heavy special tax as
heretofore or whether they will cur
tail and take off school wagons and
cut out music, sewing, domestic
science, carpentry, physical culture
and perhaps some other things that
men and women want pupils to
learn. but which they want them to
be able to apply when they get home.
Begin at the bottom and work
up" says the president of the uni
versity. Render a greater service to
the community" and to this the
adults of the community heartily
agree. and will be watching now to
see If the pupils laying off their
school habits take on work habits or
loafing habit, the street habit, the
party habit, the picture show habit
and the caboret habit, along with the
tobacco habit and the powder and
rouge habit.
The school is now under examina-
tion, and 1t will make some difference
what people do with it, when they
see what the school folks do with the
people. Tax payers and all sensible
parents are going to demand that re-
leased school energy shall address it.
self to something useful and do it in
a way that hits the spot. And the
spot most in need of being hit just
now is the town lot and the border
land of the street and alley, and
not much the display of clothes, the
promenade and the fox trot.