Putnam patriot., 1922-10-20
Photo by Towne

elaring 1t to be a character trainer and molder of cd citizens. He affirmed that character training was the most difficult yet the most vital part of the education of good citizens. and he pointed out the great importance of every pupil mastering the fundament- als of the three R's.
 In part supt Jenkins spoke as fol- lows:
 At our first meeting together as a whole. it seems fitting that you should consider with me certain fundamental principles on which We are working, certain articles, as it were. in our teaching creed. These can be stated at this time only in the most general terms, their application in detail must be worked out through many intimate, sympathetic conferences, extending over a period of months.
 Schools Suffer By Changes
 One rule by which We may be guid- ed in the immediate future can be stated in three words Whatever was, 1, is." Whenever business or factory changes its administrative head. par ticularly if those changes are in swift succession. the business suffers. So, when a school system changes superin- tendents, there follows 8 period of re- adjustment with a consequent educa- tional loss. To minimize this loss, t IS incumbent on the incoming superin- tendent to hold as closely as possible at first to things as they were. A live school system is always changing and improving in details. But broad ad- ministrative changes come about only after painstaking research.
 The public schools of Putnam are maintained to guarantee Co this town and to Connecticut. strong, capable, rght-minded citizens Our teaching creed involves then, three articles perfeeting the bodies. quickening the minds, moldinp the characters of our pupils.
 Take Up Physical Education
 We have committed ourselves in Connecticut to a program of physical education more extensive in it's scope than any we have attempted before Ii will neeessitate broadening the scope of our present excellent scheme of or ganized athletics adding formal dis eiplinary gymnastie training in the up per grades. and in the lower grades making wider use of the play instincts of children. IL will take time and pa tience to get this program into opera tion l will ask you then to consider as the first article in our teaching creed something like this: We as teachers pledge ourselves to improve our qualifications for teaching physi- cal education. to the end that every boy and girl who passes through the schools of Putnam shall be physically 1t to carry on in the work of life
 There has never been a time when 1t was more necessary to teach thor oughly in school the three 's, reading, writing and arithmetic, than it day. So many extra subjects have erept into the curriculum, all good tn themselves, that we are apt to lose sight of fundamental necessities. Teachers should have little sympathy with frills and faneies so long as any children pass through our elementary schools without mastering the funda- mentals of reading, writing and arith- metic.
 Pupils Must Master Three Rs
 I propose this then for our second article. By the time our pupils have finished the sixth grade in school. ey- eryone of them shall have mastered thoroughly the fundamental opera tions of arithmetic and applied them to problems that he will meet in his everyday experiences, problems in- volving both fractions and whole num-