The Mena weekly star., 1922-01-19
Scnoo,INorrs
By w. H. MoRDEN.


 Some years ago a man went to the trouble to calculate the money value of education. He took great number of people with no education and call culated the average earnings in mon ey. Then he did the same for a large number who had completed the com mon school, another large number who had completed the high school, and still another large number who had completed college course. He found that the average earnings grad ually increased in the four classes in the order mentioned. Then by calcu- lating the average life of person and finding the earnings in the differ ent classes the problem came out showing that going to school is worth about $10 day. This might be illus trated now in this way: The average man today without an education probably earns $2 day, that is SIP week, 52 weeks in the year would be $624. If he works 20 years he earns $12,480 If the college gradu- ate gets $2,000 a year in 20 years he earns $40,O00. Allowing him 2,600 days to get his education the problem can be solved and will show that off every day he went to school he earned $10 more than the other fellow.
 This is an old story, and of course the money value is not the real value of school work, but it makes the prob lem concrete and easy to understand Now if a child is not getting what he should out of his school work he is going to suffer for it no matter who is to blame, the teacher, the directors, or the parents. We were in a school room recently and it was so cold that it was impossible for children to study to any good advantage 1t was a good house, had plenty of wood, and the only trouble was that there was not enough wood in the stove. This was the teachers fault altogether, she draws her pay, the child loses his time, and gets nothing in return.
 In another school room of 35 chil- dren the ceiling is 8 feet high, and the room 20 by 30 feet This allows 40 cubic feet of air space to the child when there ought to be about 300 cubic feet to the child. The result was that when there was a good fire the air was so stifling that it was un- comfortable and impossible for the children to use their time to the best advantage, and their future health was being jeopardized The fault in this case lies in the construction of the school house, but the child is the one that is the loser.
 Most of the school houses in Polk county have windows on both sides of the children, and in good many cases there are lights in front. The right way is to have all the lights on one side SO that there will not be a crossed light 1t is just as hard for the child sides and in front as it is for a per- on to read that way by lamp light. It should not cost any more to build windows on all sides as it does to put them on two or more sides, and the school room can be arranged much more easily if it is built the latter way.
 In these notes we are trying to call attention of the people and teachers as to how they can have better schools without extra cost. We can say pos itively that if teachers, parents, and directors would all determine to see that every dollar spent for public schools buys the most that could be bought they could double the returns for every dollar as it is now spent. This may not be the case in every in- dividual uis.fict, but taking the coun- ty as a whole if is trre