The Bismarck tribune., 1922-05-22
HIGH SCHOOL
CONFERENCE IN
GRAND FORKS
President Kane Followed His
Custom ''ls,! In Giving 2 Key !.
note Address
TEACHERS MADE WELCOME

Grand Forks, May 22.-In extending
the welcome to the, teachers at the
High School Conference, President
Kane followed his custom of the
last. two or three years in giving q
1 keynote address. He made his wei
come on behalf of the University.
The outstanding question before the
school people of today, President
Kane told the heads of schools, is the
question Of financial support. The de-
parture of attitude that he urged upon
the. teachers was from the old idea,
when the financial problem was sim
pie. that the teacher. had no other
work than teaching in the classroom.
A glance at the apportionment OF
taxes convinces one that the financial
question has become exceedingly I'M
IDrtant, and the teacher must help to-
work out the solution
The president urged that the prac-
tical way to "democratize the schools"
which is being urged by an element OF
our teachers, is for the scho0lman to
show that he can give valuable help,
as in this case, for example, toward
the solution of the business questions
connected with the management OF
the schpo!; that he can give help Of
such nature that it will be sought
by the trustees and other officials in
connection with problems for which
they officially. are responsible.
He called attention to the fact that
the chief speaker called in fnom the
ouside each year was invited with a
view to his known ability. to handle
the question foremost at the time be-
fore the schools. The two addresses
by the outside, speaker this year will
be. on, different phases Of school sup
port.
In their capacity as administrators
in the school the problems Of econ
omy comes first of all upon the:
teacher, especially the superintendent
and principal. We have not yet con-
snered economy and efficiency in
the management of our schools In at
all the same degree that it has been
done in other lines of business. That
is the program forced upon us by
present financial conditions and the
inevitable growing expense Of main
tanning our schools. Is E1,
illustrates Economy Methods
President Kane, who has for several
years past urged upon the Association
of State Universities and other edu-
cational BODIES, uniform system Of
cost and credit accounting and the
installation Of business systems In
the universities of the land, illustrat-
ed from university practices some Of
the methods Of economy which might
apply as we'll to the larger high
schools.
Y In the course of his address he re:
ferred to the election on the Mini
mum Wage Law. He urged that the
responsibility rests on the superin
tendent and principal, especially to
show the order of the Importance OF
the different things in school for
which expenditures are incurred. We
should remember, he said, that a
school is an assemblage Of teachers.
Other things in comparison are Incl
dental. even the building and the
equipment. Simply as a matter OF
cold booded efficiency and good busi-
ness, educators must hold out to our
people that we had better have three
good teachers and give the salaries to
get them, than four mediocre teach
ers; that we had better have good
teachers for six months than mediocre
teachers for nine months; that we are
advocating attractive salaries not
alone and not primarily for the sake
of the teacher receiving the salary,
but for the sake of encouraging
teachers to get the preparation that
we need to have in the school room
and hold in North Dakota and to at.
tract to the schools pf North Dakota
as good teachers as can be attracted
to Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and
Michigan.
To get the people to help support US
in this policy, President Kane con-
cluded. we must do everything toward
economy of expenditures in the
schools, and we must do everything
we can to help hold the taxes down to
the lowest terms consistent with CIV
ing our children advantage Of the
kind OF training in the schools that
they ought to have.