Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1922-05-12
EVERY NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS., DELAWARE FRIDAY 2


visw." DIR. Cooper's report 10 ap-
pended. From It the following de-
ductions ara drawn:
That, the enrolment In Delaware
schools 10. for the ages OF seven to
thirteen. larger than tho number Of
children Of these ages given In tho
1920 United States census.
That Delaware presents. from the
viewpoint Of attendance. five distinct
types of school: high school. graded
school, two and three-tcacher school.
single teacher school and colored
school; and that any study Of school
attendance and OF school absence. to
be luminous and informing. must dis
tinguish between these types.
That. In general, school attendance
Is much better in high schools than in
graded schools. In graded schools than
In two and thrse-teacher schools, In
two and three teacher schools than
in single-teacher schools, in single
teacher schools than in colored schools.
That the fully graded schools Of
Delaware. enrolling about eight thou
sand pupils. arc the standard schools
OF tho State with an average per pupil
attendance OF 1929 in elementary
grades.
| That non-promotion In clearly re-
lated to poor attendance Mt school.
| That tho five chief causes OF alb
sence, both as regards the number OF
children affected and the number of
days of absence resulting, are: I'LL
ness" agricultural work." 'other
work." weather" parental indiffer-
ence."
| That other causes OF absence are:
"Out OF town." poverty" "quaran-
tine" and "truancy."
THAT the distance pupils live from
school has n relation to school at
tendance and school absence.
That there still exists. among the
people OF Delaware. a widespread feel
ing that the older boys and girls from
thirteen years upward can, without
detriment, stop school for work
either temporarily Or for long seasons
Of the year.
THAT the chief remedy for poor
attendance is an aroused public SEN
timent on the Importance OF educat
ing all children OF school age In Della
ware.
DR.. Cooper reports that "the Service
Citizens of Delaware has been. for tw,
years, assisting in campaign fol
'Bdter Attendance in Dalawah',
Schools Tho campaign has included
tho gathering of statistics on schoo
J attendance and the distribution o
; them to State officials and schoo
teachers; the giving Of prizes to indi
! vidual pupils for perfect attendanc
. and for good attendance. both for eac|
month and for the year; the giving o
, prize to each schoolroom maintain
ing certain average percentage o
attendance for the month, and for flv
: successive months OF the year. Las
= year in eight months, we distribute
) 1902 perfect attendance cards an
= 30.010 good attendance cards. Thi
year, during the first Ave months, W
have distributed 87,516 perfect at
tendance cards and 1880 good at
tendance cards.
4 Parent Teacher or Community Or
- ganizatlon.
obviously" DIR. Odell's report con
q tinues, what has been needed 4
5 Delaware for some years. has been a
( organization which would rally all tn
= intelligent and forward-looking cit
( zens to the support OF higher stand
= ards OF education. Public school
e ought never 20 be the pawns IN tn
e game Of politics. Fortunately, we ha
y the nucleus Of such an organizatio
= In the Parent-Qeacher Associatio,
o But that society needed to be vita
Il lied and expanded until II became
n Statewide community effort TO crea
n the very best type OF American cit