The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1921-04-28
THE VALUE OF AN EDUCATION
BY Edward y. Chopper

Some time ago, the United States
Bureau OF Education at Washington,
printed a statement which showed the
amount OF money that had been earned
by different groups OF young people
up to the time they were twenty-five
years OF age. Those who had remain
ed in school until they were eighteen
had earned nearly 500 more than
those who had left school at fourteen
and had been working four years
longer.
Such a statement of facts will con-
vince intelligent parents hal they
should keep their children in school
and not yield to the temptation OF per
hitting them to go to work because
the family's expenses are high and
children are paid better wages than
formerly.
Men and women are always CRATE
full for the sacrifices which their par.
ents made in order to give them edu-
cation. They know that in the strug-
gle to make a living, the educated
man or woman has a great advantage
over the ignorant and can reach high
er places and receive better pay. To
day the competition among those who
work, whether they work with hand
or brain, or both, was never so keen,
and the ones who are best equipped
ara tho UinnarS An a1Inafinn iS nnn
of the chief items in the necessary
equipment.
Your state law tells you that you
must send your child to school until
he is Of a certain age and then he may
leave and go to work-if you let him.
And he may want to do so and beg
you to let him lake that job in the
factory where his friend Joe works.
But you are older and know better
than he does what is for his best in
terest. You know that if you let him
you are giving him no better chance
in this world than all children get
for the law requires them all to go
to school that long-and if you yield
to his urging now you will have to
bear his disappointment later when
he finds GU that it was a great mis-
take.
The education which the public
school now gives is better adapted to
the needs of children than the courses
which We're taught a generation ago.
Today the child learns how to make
himself useful and how to do this in
intelligent way.
Every child should begin his educa-
ton in the kindergarten, for in it the
seeds Of good citizenship are sown.
1t is in the kindergarten that honesty,
and consideration for the rights
of others are instilled during the
most impressionable years.
Patriotic songs and stories of our great
heroes implant deep love Of country;
marching and games develop self-con-
troll. team work and a~daptability; hand
work and modelling promote efficiency
and appreciation for labor. Surely the
of the skilled artisan and
the loyal citizen of the future can be
laid in no better place than in a we'll
equipped kindergarten.
After starting in the right way, the
the child stays in school. the
more useful he will become and the
better able to take upon himself the
responsibilities of life. The school of
today aims to make intelligent, eff
citizens, but it will not succeed
If the child is taken out and put to
work at the earliest possible moment.
The people pay for the kindergarten,
grammar and high schools
so that their children may have the
benefit Of them. You are one of the
and you help to support these
schools. They are your schools, built
and kept up for the sake Of your chill
dren as well as for all other children.
Use them, then. Keep your child In
Let him begin in the kinder
garten and graduate from the high
school.
--w.S s.